The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-16

ute 10 1ts geVlV0l IL an lIupertlQeuce- 1ue
Southern question has ceased to be
of any Importance, and it IL preposter-
GUS for the administration to ask public
confidence for what it has done in
the South. 1t has done nothing but what
General Grant himself would have done had
he remained in office. President Hayes has
merely put two Of the Southern States in
the position already achieved by the other
thirteen. The change is conducive to order
and tranquility in those two States, but it
will have no perceptible effect on the gen.
eral business Of the country. 1t is q thing
which the New York merchants approve,
but about which, so far as the interests of
trade are concerned, they cannot greatly re-
joice. If South Carolina and Louisiana
were stricken out of the map this would
still be great country, and the question OF
a revival of trade and industry would still
remain as important as it is now. The
restoration Of those two States to their inst
right of selfagovernment makes no percepti-
BILE difference in the general comm ercial
situation. 1t dispenses with no measures
which were otherwise necessary for the re-
Mobilization Of American industry and COM
merce. It is absurd for the administration
to plume itself on the withdrawal Of troops
from two States when all the greater
problems which confront it are as
serious and difficult with thirty eight free
States as they were with thirty-six. The es-
sential features OF the business problem are
not at all changed by the release of two
States from federal domination, because the
measures for restoring prosperity to the
thirty-eight can differ in no respect from
what was necessary for reviving business in
the thirty-six. The really great problem is
untouched by anything President Hayes has
done in the South.
It is equally futile and irrelevant to insist
on what the administration intends to do in
reforming the civil service When these
reforms are perfected to the uttermost the
postmasters will merely receive and deliver
letters, the revenue officers will merely col
lect and deliver our taxes and the govern
ment clerks will merely make copies and
keep accounts These duties may, no
doubt, be better done than they are at
present, but whether well done or i'll done
they do not penetrate to the great sources Of
public prosperity. They tighten no tax;
they relieve trade of no burden; they have
no effect on the currency; they cannot
change the oppressive tariff; they will not
weigh q feather in the great question
Of free trade in ships. What this CONNER
cial community demands of President Hayes
is that he shall grapple with the really
great questions. The Southern question is
dead and Of no further importance, since
he cannot retrace the steps he has taken !;
the civil service reform is matter quite
within his own power, as he is at full lib
erty to manage it as he pleases but the
great questions relating to trade, industry
and finance belong to q higher order
of politics, and these are the essen
tial questions. Nothing the President
has done for the South, nothing he
promises to do for the civil service,
can excuse him from the superior duty Of
reaching a distinct and definite policy on
the questions which are Of deepest interest
to our merchants. They have no taste for
sentimental politics. While they suffer Us
they do now they care little for any specious
measures that do not hold out prospect Of
relief to business, which the recent speeches
Of embers of the Cabinet scarcely
touch.