New-York tribune., 1874-12-10
A HALF MILLION STEAL.

The first of the jobs makes it appearance at
the Capital early, and, we regret to say, In one
of Gen. Gartield's surprisingly prompt appro-
priatiOn bills. We beg the General to relieve
himself and his Committee from responsibility
for it at once. The wrangles of the stock job
bers over the cOrruptiOns of the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company are Of small concern to us
or to tho public; but we protest against the
waste of another dollar of the Governments
money on unearned subsidies; and we beg
Congressman to understand at the outset that
the effolt to smuggle another half million from
tho Treasury into the hands of this prOfigate
Company will be as rotten job as this ses-
sion of jobs can possibly present. A corre-
spondent thoroughly we'll Informed traces in
detail, in another column, the various steps
of the robbery. Let us here reprOduco.the out
line.
The Pacific Mail was in the enjoyment of
subsidy of 100000 per annum. Mr.. Stock
WELL one of its numerous retiring Presidents,
succeeded in getting law authorizing S500,000
more, on condition that enough new first-class
iron steamers should be placed on the line
to do the mail service by the 1st Of October,
1873. The Company failed to get them on
by that time, has not yet got them on, and
has only two Of them, the Toxic and City
of Peking, even built. The Postmaster
General reported this failure to Congress in
December, 1873. Congress thereupOn made no
appropriation for the subsidy, and the bill
itself only escaped repeal because of the view
generally expressed, that the Company's fail
ure to comply with its terms made it
null. Congress being out of the way,
Attorney General Williams was appealed
to for one of his opinions. He con-
veniently decided that the failure of year
or two, more or less, made no difference.
Postmaster General Jewell, new to the duties
of his Office, and easily imposed on in matters
of routine, has been induced to estimate for
the extra S5OO,O0O subsidy, as if it had been
earned, and Gen. Garfield has promptly re-
ported t to Congress in the Postal Appropri-
alton bill.
We call upon every friend of honesty in the
public service to watch this job, and to resist
it from the outset We are unwilling to be-
leve that either Gov. Jewell or Gen. Garfield
could have been aware of its nature out, af-
ter this exposure. there can be no decent pre-
text for continuing the claim. 1t is bad enough
to have to pay any subsidy to company that
openly uses oil. and more than all, it
gets from the Government in corrupting
Congress to procure votes for yet more
money wherewith to bull the stock in
Wall Street. We insist that the Treasury shall
not pay more than it is bound to, and that no
legal sanction shall be given to this monstrous
claim for the new half f-million subsidy, which
the Pacific Mail has never earned Postmaster
General Creswell distinctly gave notice, after
the Attorney Generals opinion, that even then
it would be impossible to pay the subsidy
without legal warrant from Congress. Why,
then, quietly insert it again in items OF ordi-
nary estimate by the Department.
The public will be interested to learn that
Mr. Solicitor Banlleld, late of the firm of Ban
field, SanbOrn, Jayne & Co., has recently be-
come o heavily paid attorney of the Pacific
Mail. We should have guessed as much from
the skilful manner in which this job has been
manipulated. With Attorney General Williams
to furnish opinions, and Solicitor Banfield to
suggest the way of carrying Congress, the
matter was certainly in st.Ong hands. 1t
would crafty curiosity to know if Mr.. Roach's
contract for two new iron steamships yet to
be built for the Pacific Mail, is contingent on
the value of the aid he is to render to this
hopeful firm in getting the new subsidy
through again.