The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-12

II the clerks in the Washington depart
ments go on with their ''fooling" there will
be serious trouble in tho republican camp.
The "Union Republican Congressional
Executive Committee" which has been ac-
customed to take tithes Of their salaries, ran
into debt during the winter, it seems and
now the clerks "don't pay worth cent" as
the street boys say, and the committee is
getting dunned and there is the mischief to
pay generally. What with Packard harrow
ing Mr.. Blaine's feelings by telegraphic ac-
counts of the gratitude Of the Louisiana
people at being rid of him, and the commits
sion investigating the Custom House and
finding out that from fifteen to thirty per
cent of the force appointed "for politics" can
be spared, and all this "moral buncombe"
about civil service reform, it is monstrous
to suppose that the party can be happy.
There are people senseless enough to sgrin"
at all this but we are glad to see that all
sense of propriety and decency has not gone
out of the land. The Commercial Advertiser
'scomes up to the scratch" and frankly
demands that the ofice-holders shall pay
up. It says:-"There is too much Of this
moral buncombe. People who receive
benefits ought to be made to pay for them,
and no man contributes to political fund
without expecting compensation in return
by Office or recognition in some way. We
have had enough of this sham. The Repub-
ican National Committee should pay its
debts, and the men who have been placed
in position through the organization of that
committee, if they are honorable men, will
make up the deficit and not have the party
disgraced."
If any one should ask who are ''the men
who have been placed in position" the Com
mercial does not ''give it up" as a conun-
drum, but replies manfully and at once:-
sThe question now before the American peo-
pie is, who will pay the debts incurred to
provide places Of honor and profit for Schurz
and the other civil service reformers in the
Cabinet? Zach Chandler will no longer pay
the fiddler and allow Schurz to do all the
dancing. That would be asking too much"
We agree with the Commercial. Mr.. Chand-
Ter, who is not dancing much just now, but
has suddenly become a decorous wall
flower, cannot be expected to ''pay the
fiddler" There was story in Washington
that poor Mr. Chandler was twenty-nine
thousand dollars out of pocket last
February for money expended for
the party in Louisiana and if this
is true, SO far from paying any more,
he ought, we think, to be appointed receiver
for little while. We suspect, however,
that "the question now before the American
people" will not be settled by ''Schurz
and the other civil service reformers in the
Cabinet" paying for their places. 1t seems
too bad, but they are liketheir clerks-they
"do not pay worth cent"
Our advice, under the circumstances, is to
carry on the next campaign on o strictly
cash basis, and meantime to let the Union
Republican Congressional Executive Com
mittee print an exact and detailed statement
of their expenditures from the LIST Of last
July to and including the 4th Of March, and
sell the copies to curious public. We
believe such business venture would
enable them to pay all their debts, and we
do not believe the heartless clerks will ever
pay five cents in the dollar.