The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-13

that wuen the time tor redemption comes
Congress will be in session" Who can say
what little bills may not be passed then, to
make things easy for the friends of the major
ity which may at that time happen to be in
power?
This last thought must also be kept in view
when we consider the relations of redemption
and resumption. 1t is part of the practical
experience of those portions of our people who
have endeavored to do away with capital pun
ishment that we cannot count upon the per-
sistent severty-the sustained virtue-that
seems necessary. If a man is hanged for muir
der We know he is done with; but il he is i'm
prisoned for lite the next Governor may yield
to the pressure of his friends and pardon him,
or he may get away through one of the many
loopholes made by the cupidity of prison
officials. And similarly we must not
count upon resumption in virtue Of
any law that is passed until we have
got the fact SO close that another law
cannot snatch it from our grasp. Just now it
seems to be the current theory Of Congressman
that bill providing for the retirement of green
backs will make them equal in value to gold;
ana then the national banks, forced to redeem
their notes in the legal tender, which is us good
as gold will in virtue of such redemption stand
on specie basis-all Of which is very pretty
on paper; but we shall have more faith in it
when we see it in operation. For we know
that the national bank influence, which secures
this present legislation, and which, in spite of
the phrase ''free banking" will be just as po-
tent a monopoly when banking is ''free'' as it
is now--we know that that influence com
paths in the law-making world, and that it
will, at the moment this law may become
burdensome, secure the passage of some other
new law to save it from the pressure imposed
by this one. If the retirement Of legal tenders
down to the value of three hundred millions
brings those promises to pay up to the value
of gold and we seem to have within reach
the goal Of specie payment, because the ma
ional bankers must redeem in legal tender,
we may be sure that the additions which will
by that time have been made to the general
paper circulation will have put gold SO very
far out of our way that clamor will arise to
relieve the bankers from the dreadful neces-
sity thus placed upon them, and society will
be appealed to to save the organization and
machinsry by which general credits are car
ried on, and, partly by clamor and partly by
jobbery, this appeal will prevail
Altogether, therefore, We see no hope in the
results of the Conference bill and we trust
that the impression that the President will
veto it, which seems to be founded on some
deductions from the Presidents declared
views, may prove true. bill which pretends
to deal with the necessity of specie payment,
and only changes the burden from the shout
ders that now bear it to shoulders that we
know will be relieved from it the moment
their owners cry out against the weight,
makes no sure step forward and only trifes
with popular faith.
The Board OF Apportionment meets to-day
to consider the revised estimates of the de-
partments. We have already pointed out the
necessity for decrease of the appropriation
to the Department of Public Parks There
can be no good reason why the care and
maintenance alone of the parks independent
of the heavy construction account, for which
bonds are constantly issued by the Comptrol-
Ter, should cost one-half as much as the care
and maintenance of the whole city outside the
parks, including the water supply, the gas
supply, the charge Of the public buildings and
all the salaries and labor attendant on the
public works. The parks are a great public
blessing and should be literally maintained;
but the people can enjoy them sufficiently
without the expenditure Of vast sums of
money on unsightly buildings, out-of-the-way
roads and bridges, walks which no person
wants to use and tunnels which are simply q
barbarity and an absurdity in . park.
Central Park to-day is all that the people
ask for or require for the next ten years, pro-
vided they are given fine road for carriage
driving in connection with grand prone
made for pedestrians and q bride path for
horsemen. Let them have a counterpart of
and they will be better satisfied than with all
the expensive shanties and tunnels that can
be devised to swallow up the public money.
The improvement the people desire can be
secured at trifling cost and by days labor,
without keeping on the pay roll an army of
architectural aliases and a strong force of en-
gineers Messrs. Vance and Wheeler should
insist upon being furnished with the full sala-
ries paid to all the employees of the Park De-
partment, whether out of the construction
funds or the money raised by taxation, since
it is impossible for them to form an opinion
of the propriety of the partial salary list which
is placed before them by the department.
The list Of salaries in the Finance Depart
ment should be carefully revised. Larger
salaries are paid by Comptroller Green than
by any other public officer in the city, and