New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-06-17
CONGRESS-.

Congress Will not auJOuIH uhtl VV-hi"AA""'
Nobody can guess what mischief it may do Id
twenty-eight hours, but people who enjoy
self-goyernment must pay the cost. The SEES
sion of Saturday cost the country over elght
millions, unless the President has the good
sense and the courage to veto the River ana
Harbor bill. He tan kill it If he chooses more
shameless robbery of public funds can hardly
be imagined; the bill was outrageous as It
passed the House, and the Senate added about
81 100000 to the amount appropriated.
Possibly the bill might have been de-
feated, had not all exposure of its character
been prevented by the gag-law. MIR. Conkling
protested against the bill in valnj showed
that it was unconstitutional, and appealed
to the honesty of the Senate. MIR. Whyte
gracefully mentioned the honorable refusal
of President Grant TO expend the sums
improperly appropriated, and Republican Sen
ators should have remembered that his
example would be quoted against them the more
surely because the present Administration has
not seen fit to adhere to bis views in that
respect. Nevertheless, the bill passed the
Senate as it came from the Conference Com
mittee, by vote of 80 to %, and we shall
now be told, no doubt, that all the unpardon-
able Hnaveries of the measure were tolerated
only because its defeat would have left some
important public works without provision.
The President and his Cabinet have promised
reform very stOutly, but the precise value OF
those promises Will be the better appreciated
if. having the absolute power TO stop this
wholesale plumber of the public, he permits
this bill to become a law.
Another desperate effort was made by the
tobacco-jobbers on Saturday. 1t is rather
strange that the reported bill, which reduces
the tax at time when the Treasury has to
meet an ugly deficiency, did not finally pass
Preliminary votes indicated that the majority
for 1t was large, but there is some reason to
hope that intelligent and resOlute men may
now prevent its passage in the Senate.
The Treasury reports, no doubt with truth,
that the great decrease of revenue has been
mainly due TO the constant agitation
for change of duties and taxes.
How members who do not wish to
see the Treasury crippled and resumption de-
feated, can vote for such measure as this,
we cannot see; but tobacco growers manu-
facturers and dealers have compact organic
alton. q clear and fixed purpose, and efficient
representatives, and they secure greater con-
sideratiOn from members of Congress, who
ought to represent the public, than the mill
lions of taxpayers who have made no COM
plant because of the taxes on tobacco, and
would gladly continue to pay them rather
than see the Treasury embarrassed or the
country dishonored. On the whole, this is n
Congress of jobbers. and perhaps it is as well
that the fact should be made clear to the
duest voter.
There is reason to believe that the latest
currency bill may fall between the two houses.
General Ewing failed to get majority to
sustain him in rejecting the amendment
adopted by the Senate, and the vote in the
House was quite full. The defeat of his mo-
ton seems to Indicate that the bill to repeal
| the Resumption Act, originally passed by the
| House. is not by any means as strong in that
| body as it was some months ago, but it does
not necessarily follow that the Senate bill can
pass That will be strongly opposed by some of
the best defenders Of the public faith as well as
by some OF the worst regulators. General
Ewing, for example, sees that the bill means
contraction, and will defeat it if he can. But
! Senators Morrill, and Eaton, who arc in favor
of contraction, voted against the bill because
| it seems 10 them TO violate the pledge that,
ms protection TO creditors, duties on imports
should be payable only in coin, which should
be applied first to the payment of interest.
There are others who oppose the bill
| because it Is mandatory In its terms.
They are willing that the Secretary Of
the Treasury shall accumulate legal-tcnder
notes as fast as no may think necessary, but
not willing to deprive him of all discretion in
the matter. The regulators, on the other
hand, insist upon the repeal of the Resumption
! Act, and with reason regard the Senate bill rs
calculated to bring about resumption months
before the date fixed by the Act of 1875. 1t
will not be very strange if this conflict of opin-
ion end in the defeat of the bill.