Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-02-21
The Leadership of the House.

From the Cleveland Leader.
Mr., Dawes on Friday of last week
delivered his annual sermon to the
House on the sin of official eXtrava-
gance, accompanied as usual with
very elaborate and comprehensive
recommendations as to how certain
expenditures might be reduced.
Among these recommendations were
lst. that thirty-four of the present
customs collection districts be abOl-
ished; I'd. that all the navy yards on
the Atlantic coast be consolidated
into two; Sd. the abolition of all pen
sion agencies, and the payment of
pensions direct from Washington
through the machinery of the post
office. With the general tone of MIR.
Dawes speech no one outside of Con-
gress will find cause to complain.
In his anxiety to make his argument
as strong as possible, however, MIR.
Dawes was led into some errors
which left him open to sharp re-
proof by Mr.. Garfield, which that
gentleman proceeded to administer in
a far more cautious and conciliatory
spirit than many leading Republicans
of the House had expected or desired.
In the course of his speech Mr..
Dawes, "after showing that for the
last four years previous to 1878, the
public expenditures had ranged from
$500, ,OOO,0 900 to S27O,OOO,OOO, endeav-
ored to make his strong point by
stating that last year 1919, 100000
were expended. This, as well as the
general drift of the entire speech, was
a formal arraignment of the Republi-
can majority in Congress, and par
ticularly the Committee on Appro-
priations, by which the estimates for
appropriations are to so large an -ex-
tent governed The majority of Re
publicans IN the House hoped, there
fore, that Mr.. Garfield would make
the most of his opportunity to take
up and analyze the carpings of Mr..
Dawes, and call upon the House to
stand by the Appropriation Commit
tee in holding Mr.. Dawes responsible
for the adoption and working of all
reforms suggested in his scolding
address. Instead of this, however,
Mr.. Garfield contented himself with
simply setting Mr.. Dawes right on
certain questions of fact. Taking
up the finance report itself, he show
ed that the general expenditures for
last year, exclusive of payments on
the public debt, were only S29O,OOO,-
900 instead of $3I9,OeO,OOO as Mr..
Dawes had stated. Mr.. Garfield
confirmed the statement of Mr..
Dawes that the annual expenditures
for the past four years had ranged
from $27O,OOO,OOO to $3OO,OOO,O 700,
thereby proving out of his own
mouth, that the charge of annual ex-
travagance in 1873 was totally un-
founded. Mr.. Garfield completed
his work by asserting that the ap-
preparations of the present year will
be kept considerably within the fig
ures of last year. The feeling at
Washington is that NJ. Dawes has
tried to ride the economical hobby
in loose way, and for his own spe-
cial advantage and at the expense of
the party. His stunning defeat on
the question of his early adjourn
ment bill showed that his popularity
was greatly on the wane, and this
speech on the finances has still un-
derminded his position as the leader
of the majority IN the House. The
correspondents of the Chicago TTj-
6aene and New York Herald say that
unless Mr.. Dawes can fully sustain
the position taken in his Tuesdays
speech his influence in Congress will
be practically at an end, and General
Garfield will become in name and
recognition what he is already in
fact, the leading Republican of the
House.