New-York tribune., 1878-10-01

the spread of the disease, has created a
scarcity which will result in much suffer
ing, if immediate action is not taken. A
committee has been appointed to take
measures for the prompt and economical col
lection of gifts of this sort, and will no doubt
begin work at once. 1t seems safe to say
that nothing in the way of wearing apparel
for either sex can be offered that will not be
useful somewhere, and therefore no one need
feel ashamed TO make modest response to
Mr.. Van Derveer's appeal.
.
There have been good many wicked things
done in politics by Custom Houses, and no
one is likely to deny it at this late day. But
their record in evil works has been exagger-
ated, and it may be well to remind the good
people who will have it that our liberties are
in danger from this source, that the whole
number of persons employed III the Customs
Service, as shown by a table given in our
Washington dispatches. is but 1865. Hardly
an "army of offce-holders this. Also,
that the average cost of collecting customs
revenues is 4l1o per cent or TO of 1
per cent less than the average cost of collec-
ton in Great Britain. If we are not greatly
mistaken, a Civil Service Reform orator re-
Gently made the statement in public address
that it cost us five times as much, proper
tiOnately, to collect our revenues as Great
Britain paid for the same work. 1t is this
lOOseness Of speech that has made many
sO-called Reformers ridiculous, and thus i'm
peded the progress of real reform.
The Civil Service Reformer need not be
wholly cast down when he finds, by the study
of the comparative table of Custom House
receipts and expenses, given elsewhere, that
the Newly Ork Custom House costs less money
than any other in the country in proportion
to the amount of money it collects. This
should be 80, of course, for the amount of
duties received is enormous, and it is not to
be expected that the expenses should increase
in exact ratio with the increase in receipts.
In New-York $40 in duties in round
numbers, is collected at a cost of 81, while
in Boston and Philadelphia 81 collects but
500, in San Francisco but SIS. and in New
Orleans but So. Boston, with considerable less
than double the receipts of Philadelphia spends
almost exactly twice as much; and San Fran
cisco, with almost half a million less in re-
ceIpts than Philadelphia, has expenses between
ten and fifteen per cent greater. Philadel-
phia looks well in this superficial comparison,
and Newly ork much better than Philadelphia
and, Judging from the rate of Collector Mer-
ritt's retrenchments, it is to look much better
still. But let us not forget the Civil Service
RefOrmer. We respectfully direct his attention
to the Custom House at Galena Ill. where it costs
$3.50 a year to collect 81 So in duties, or
that at Dunkirk, in this State, where it costs
S1,536 to collect $71 SO in duties, or Nan
tucket, where for $1,571 expended the Unlted
States Government gets back in Duties only
$75 81. Then there is Machias, Me-, where
it costs nearly $4,000 to collect $40 81 in
duties. Can it be denied that these are the
places where patronage holds hideOus riot
Has not Galena in two successive elections
forced a Presidential candidate upon the Re-
publican party, and were there not delega-
tons from Dunkirk in both of the recent
State Conventional 1t is all too true. But it
is not too late for the Civil Service RefOrmer
to attack the sink of corruption which fes-
ters thirty miles away from the main land, at
Nantucket, and end its nOisome influence in
the politics of Massachusetts.