The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-08-04

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there show that when Congress meets there
will be great rush for subsidies and ''re-
lief measures of all kinds; or rather, to be
more precise OF any kind which looks to
taking money out of the Treasury. All the
old subsidy, river and harbor and other jobs
difficulty in past years, and particularly in
the last two sessions, will reappear under
the guise of benevolent enterprises, to give
food to the foodless and money to the
moneyless, and every one will be urged as q
measure of relief for the general distress.
But, besides the old ones, we are threat
| ened with great number of new ones.
Pretty much every member who has an eye
| to buncombe or who wants 10 ''make ten
strike with his constituents" is prepar-
ing some project intended to re-
lieve somebody in some way. We con-
graduate Mr.. Hendrick B. Wright,
who is, we believe, a member of Congress
from Pennsylvania, on his success in being
the first to bring his ''little game before
the public We have before us copy of the
bill which Mr. Wright means to intro
duce when Congress meets, and which
ought to have Tor its title, "The Great
Divide" He proposes that the government
lands under the Homestead laws the sum OF
five hundred dollars in cash, in return for
which the actual settler is to give the gov
eminent mortgage on the land which the
government Has just given him. Of course
the actual settler is to repay the money
after seven years, and with three per cent
interest. And he is to receive only hun
dred dollars at time. And the Register of
the Land Office is to receive twenty dollars
for his share. And there are other regula-
tons, among which one that only ten mill
ions are to be given out by the Treasury in
this way.
We object to Mr. Wright's measure on
several grounds. In the first place the sum
of five hundred dollars is too little; an
actual settler deserves ct least a thousand
dollars and pianoforte. 1t is all nonsense
to stick at paltry five hundred dollars.
Then, again, we do not see how an actual
settler, who has one hundred and sixty
acres given to him by the government, is any
better than one who buys his farm. In
this country one farmer is as good as
another, we hope. Hence Mr.. Wright,
who would not, we suppose, wish to
incur the just enmity of his farmer
constituents, ought to amend the great bill
so as to give thousand dollars and piano
to every farmer in the land-every "actual"
farmer we mean, of course. But why, in
the name Of all the saints, does he stop at
ten millions? Such paltry sum as that
will only bring him into contempt as per-
son of narrow, not to say mean views.
What is ridiculous sum like ten millions
in such an emergency. Or, as somewhat
famous Bostonian once asked in an analo-
gous case, ssWhat's q bottle of champagne
amongst one?" Mr.. Wright has done him
self serious injustice, no doubt out
of the most praiseworthy motives, but
still! we beg him to consider the case. Let
him demand thousand millions. Then,
indeed, he may hope to see the wilderness
poisoning like the rose under the stimulus
of his benefcent projection at least six
weeks.
There will be good many sensible men
in the next Congress; we hope they, too,
will hurry forward measures of relief. Not
of the kind which Mr.. Wright proposes, of
course; but the country needs relief, and
Congress can and ought TO provide
it, Let it hasten to strike off the
statute books good many laws which
nd
foreign commerce. Let it repeal the laws
which in effect forbid our people to exchange
their surplus manufactures for the raw
products of other countries. And let it
hasten the day of resumption. Enterprise
is checked and killed because all who have
money prudently wait until we shall come
to specie payments or currency of fixed
value. Sixty millions of greenbacks, the
property Of private persons, lie idle in the
Treasury bringing not q cent of inter-
est When we come to specie pay
ments all this. huge sum will at
once seek investment in new enterprises
and set hundreds Of thousands at work. III
dustry is paralyzed because we make more
than we can use and absurd laws forbid us
to sell our surplus abroad. Repeal those
laws and our factories and workshops will
again be run on full time. These are the
true measures of relief They will not
cost the Treasury cent; but they will set
all industrious men at work on full wages,
and do away with poverty, strikes and COM
plants of low wages. Who will be the first
to bring forward the true measures for the
relief Of the country?
SparrOws.