The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-08-15

1 mer0ant1o uueS9 NOiIectOr Arthur and sever
81 officers before the commission testify that
there can be no extensive reduction of force
/ without crippling the service. The commits
| sion take pen in hand and insist that twenty
per cent, can be counted out. Has their past
experience given them better means than Col
| Ieotor arthur and his officers of knowing how
/ many clerks-the year through. and ali nos.
4 slDle emergencies considered-it ia Economical
1 TO Keep on hand? Because penny wise h
| sometimes pound foolish. Many a private
| nrm conducted on business principles finds IL
| more economical 70 pay superfuous man
| through the dull season than to hire new men
| IN the busy season. l do not know that this
principle has any application to the New York
custom House; but neither do one quarter of
| the reformers who are sounding its censures or
lauding its reforms Until we do know il ia
| impossible to form an intelligent or valuable
| opinion. The committee appointed to carry
out the commissions suggestions reports that
tne reductions must be considerably less than
Mr.. Jays commission recommended, or great
detrlment to the public service and delay to
business will result We see that some re-
forms bave already had that effect Weeks
ago our morning papers heralded s'Reform in
government advertising" by which the rates
to be paid for advertising are to be greatly low
cred. Presently we found the same papers say
ing tnat the newspapers whose circulatons
are OF any value to the Department will de-
cIine 10 publish its advertisements" "the effect
Will De to place the Government advertisements
among the rejected communications in all
l journals OF any consequence" and "the bust.
| ness OF the Government will materially suffer
In consequence" This may be legal and Hec-
essary, but except to the eve of affection IL
hardly wears the livery of Reform. So we
must investigate the investigators before we
can accept their conclusions as ultimate wis.
dom. When the commission says that the
Uustom House appoints too many clerks, and
the committee say that the commission allows
too few. who all the Lords elect condemn.
but which are the Lords elect?
AND already see IN the newspapers the pro-
fame! suggestion that Mr. Arthur's place is
warming for MIR; Jayi A scandal, undoubtedly,
but is Mr.. Jay alone the victim of scandal?
So with the increase of office hours We
farmers should consider 10 or IL o'clock very
late to begin our moving and hoeipg. But the
question is not, what time do the Custom
house clerks get to work in the morning, but
are they on hand as soon as there is anything
for them to do? If the merchants do not come
down till 10, why should the clerks be there at
9I moreover, is not much business done out
OF Ioffice hours, and do not the clerks, II nee
essary, work cheerful1y and strenuously out of
season? Banking business is not confined to
the few hours when the world is admitted, but
goes on Just as steadfastly long after we are
| shut out.
The method of the New York Custom House
investigation is one of the unsearchabe mys-
| teries Of Reform. A commission is appointed
| to investigate national scandal, and the COM
mission Immediately puts the new broom of
Reform into the hands of the man who has
headed and the men who have shouldered the
| the scandal for years What becomes of Min
lister Lowelps new bleaching process, cheap and
brief, to wit, jury chosen by the thief? Does
| it seem to him less Objectionable now that he
| is an office-holder himself? One of two things,
! it would appear, must be true: Either Presi.
dent Hayes and the commission are accom-
plices after the fact or the head-devil is not so
| black as he is painted.
l Is he? We glance at the testimony as il fl
| ters here and there through the papers. One
| man complained of the hardsh;ps he had suf-
fered in importing thread and machines. COL
Arthur afterward appeared, and explained the
legality of his decision, and that it was sas-
tanned by the Treasury Department 1t was
alleged that an inspector had been removed on
| charges, and afterward reappointed. True,
l said Mr.. Arthur, but not till the charges had
been proved false. Another complained that
he was compelled to employ two government
| store-keepers. True, said Mr. Arthur. but he
kept two stores, and the case, referred to the
| Treasury Department, had been decided
| against him. Another inveighed vehemently
before the commission about abuses which he
had never mentioned to the collector. Other
| suggestions Col. Arthur had himself made to
the Treasury department in vain, though the
Treasury Department during a considerable
part of his own official life was under the con-
troll of the most typical of reformers. Most of
the ex parte testimony against him, he alleged,
related to cases occurring from six to ten years
| ago-before his time-and he believed that most
l of the abuses had been remedied. "Oh, hoP'
says the Nation, "but it cannot be said that
during all these many years those who have
been laboring for their abolition, and seeking
to call public attention to them . d. have
ever received from him one word of encourage
ment or support, or the system one word of
opposition or exposure" All then the trouble
is lack of words, not deedsl 1t is that Mr.. Ar
thur has not been Reform politician of the
Nation stripe! He simply went quietly about
his business, finding out what the law said
about matters, referring disputed points to his
superiors, rectifying wrongs, insisting on rights
botherlng about wine-casks and brokerages and
spool thread, instead of standing on the cupola
offthesCusto House and Tapping his wings
and splitting his throat and Weakening the
neighbors with the cock-a-doodls- -d-o-o-o Of Re-
form, according to the statute for such case
made and provided, and practised by Reform
ersi
see again, that the Committee appointed
by the arch -Corruptionist Arthur and Mr.. Sam
uel g. Ogden, who has been thirty-fve years
stepping in the moral slime of the Custom
House; Mr.. VIM. I'll. McMahon, who is "also q
man of long experience in Revenue AFFAIRS
and must therefore be hardened in sin; and
oh! sweetest Shakespeare Fancy's child,
your native wood-notes wild, but warbliDg
them in vain above that cesspool of crime,
where Richard Grant White wallows foaming
and has wallowed, says the cold-blooded re-
porter, 'for number of years'-Richard
Grant White!l L respectfully call upon the
President in the name of humanity and Civil
Service Reform, to take him outl to take him
out or douse him in deeper to take him out or
cut him off from shore! Unquestonably Mr..
Richard Grant White spends as much time in
writing good English as other ofice-holders
spend in organizing bad politics; and if they
are to be kept away from caucuses to give the
Reformers chance, by the same token Mr.
Richard Grant White ought to be kept away
from the publishers and give us journeymen
our turn.
But anything that at all answers our;expecta-
tions of discovery and exposure have we not
yet found. On the other hand, thousands of
US whose eyes were blinded and whose ears
were deafened by the dust and the noise of the
Reformers have come to suspect that though
Collector Arthur may not have succeeded in
suppressing indirect bribery among his hun
dreds of clerks and thousands of merchants or
in accomplishing what society in this country
has hitherto failed to accomplish, in establish
Ing salaries on just basis, he is yet not only
man of stainless character and integrity, but
also an officer of great intelligence, thoroughly
conversant with his duties and punctually dig
charging them with modesty and fidelity.
We judge the New York Custom House TO be
an enormous business machine, capable of
enormous frauds in fraudulent hands, never
entirely free from fraud in any hands, much
numbered by the supposed exgencies of poIiti-
cal partisanship, much hampered by the inev-
liable tendencies of human nature but with
the mighty power of the Government behind
IL, capable OF and actually organized on sys-
tenn of checks and balances unattainable by
private firm, and therefore on the whole far
more honestly conducted than would be pri-
vate firm of equal extent and similar character.
That we judge not only in spite of. but in con-
sequence of, the report of, the Commission.
The summary of the report is, that they have
found ignorance and a strong suspicion of dis
honesty prevailing in almost every department
ment." But as much as this could be said of
nearly every Reform newspaper in the country,
as have shown by some undisputed and indis-
putable examples. The Commission them
selves, by retaining and employing Collector
Arthur and other officers, who from their posi-
ton must be the head ana front of offence, ex-
press in the most emphatic manner their opin-
ion that this is no Tweed and Sweeny and Gar
vey and Connolly affair, but matter for the
comparison of views, the improvement of
methods, the conjunction of forces.
This is a rather lame and impotent conclu-
sion, but see no other and | assure the Re-
formers that we country folk are very much
disappointed. We could get up as good show
as this ourselves over the towns poori
The Philadelphia Custom House is nothing
bettered, but rather grows worse the more
closely you look into it. June q the Commits
sion held an open meeting "for the purpose Of
hearing any persons having suggestions charges