National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-09

meas relations with the paper VIII call. Due
notice will be given Of the removal-ef the
business department to the new REPUBLICAN
building. G..
WEEKLY PAYMENTS BY COZ
ERNAENT
1t is great mistake in the Government
to pay its employees monthly, instead OF
weekly. The increased trouble and ex-
pense would be trihing compared with the
benefits that would accrue to all parties
concerned. The advantages to be derived
from general reform in this respect are so
numerous and various that slight elabora-
ton of them may be pardonable. 'The
laborer is worthy of his hire" After he
has earned it there is no good reason why
his employer should continue to use the
money three weeks before paying it over to
the rightful owner. The benefit which the
employer derives from this use is in no
sense commensurate with the loss sustained
by the employee from its deprivation. The
custom of monthly payments may have
obtained in public offices and upon public
works because such is the army system.
But the army is an establishment Of an en-
tirely different character from the machine
shop and the Department. the mine, the
mandatory and the multifarious other
branches of industry. In the former SUBJ
sistence is furnished to the men in addition
to their pay proper, and the officers are
allowed to purchase their family supplies
from the Government commissary stores at
net cost But the civilian employee must
furnish his own subsistence, and if q COM
parison be instituted between the price lists
of Colonel Bell and those of our most en-
terprising civil commissariats - Burchell,
Cornwell, Hall & Hume, Elphonzo Youngs
and others-the result will show that diff
ference of twenty to thirty per cent. is
charged by the latter for profit and loss, in
terest and trouble Of keeping monthly ac
counts, collecting, &c.
In order that no mistake may be made or
injustice be done to anybody we give the
prices of few staple articles from the list
of Colonel Bell for June last, which hap
pens to be the latest at hand, and will, with
the exception of few items be found to
be nearly correct for the present date. Each
reader may for himself compare these with
the prices he finds entered upon his pass
book, with his own grocer or butcher, and
he will know how much he is paying for
the shortcomings of his neighbor, who fails
to pay at all, and for the trouble of collect
ing from slack customers, who have to be
dunned extensively. Bacon, eleven cents;
corned beef ten; fresh beef, fifteen; smoked
beef. fourteen; butter, thirty -one; candles,
twenty; cheese, eighteen; chocolate, thirty
nine; Java coffee, roasted, thirty five
green. thirty; Rio coffee, green, twenty
two; soda crackers, eight; family flour,
eleven dollars per barrel; Baltimore hams, |
fifteen cents; Louisville, fourteen; hominy, |
three: lard, ten; headless mackerel, six
teen: syrup, .sixty-two cents; mutton, fif-
teen: brown sugar, ten; crushed, twelve
and a half; tea, Japan, ninety-one; best
green one dollar and fifteen; tobacco, fifty
to sixty; cider vinegar. twenty-seven.
1t is proper to say that these goods are of
the first quality, the meats of the best cuts,
and the sugars, teas and coffees all of supc- |
rior grades. They are purchased by con-
tract, from the lowest bidders and resold
to officers, under the law providing for
"officers' sales" at cost and expenses. |
But they are sold for cash or, in other |
words. The officers take them in lieu Of or
On account of. their pay. At the date of
this list, store and market prices were |
twenty to twenty five cents for the same |
quality of beef and mutton, thirteen and |
fourteen for sugar, one and a half to two |
dollars for tea. and many other things in |
quoted by way of illustration Of the enor-
NOUS prices the purchaser must pay for
thirty days credit
Il may be said that he is not obliged to |
buy on credit. This is no doubt true, but |
how rapidly does little hoard melt away |
when one has a family of eight or ten to |
feed upon the one, two or three dollars per |
day he has left after paying his rent, even
whca, if ever, he is so fortunate as to get
81 II TO be one month ahead The first i'll. |
ness in the family makes an inroad upon |
the sayidgs, and then credit has to be re-
sorted to again. If the payments were made |
weekly the salary could be the more easily |
apportioncd to the many necessities and as
the aggregate would appear so much less |
many extravagances that now seem possible |
would never be dreamed Of, much less in |
dulged. Weekly payments would enable |
all. by close economy for few months, to
buy exclusively for cash, and this system |
would in turn, reduce prices by enabling |
small traders to compete with those capital |
lists who have hitherto taken the most of
the trade because of their ability to give
monthly credits. .fs. -r-- u H.H |
The Merrimac river Is enabled to run
thousands of spindles because its power is |
well distributed for utilization, while the |
world renowned Niagara scarcely moves
single wheel with all its monstrous power,
because it is concentrated at . single point
and beyond control. The James river
from Richmond, Virginia, to the foot Of the |
mountains, distance oftwo hundred miles, 1
presents more than fifty, sites with water |
power-equivalent to that exerted 1t Low
ell, Lawrence and Manchester-soa duirs.t
bly, IS il distributed at intervals Of i've to
ten miles This happy distribution Of Gall
permits the same volume of water to be |
utilized for the propulsion of machinery |
fifty times over before 1t reaches tide at
Richmond. a.H --.ua
Let this illustration be applied to, our
currency through the avenue of frequent |
and prompt payment of the labor of the |
country, and then, and not till then, shall l
we see the proper utilization of its full
volume. Our Treasury ard bank accumu.
lations are only so many Nhgaras in the
way Of q continuous and uniform flow of |
the currency in the channels Of trade. The
adoption of cash payments would remove
the necessity for such large accumulations.
Let the Government set the example and
corporations and contractors will follow II. |
Capital could then be turned over daily at 8 |
small profit instead of monthly st . lArge4
profit, II the merchant can turn his capt
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