The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-09-11
HAYES AT ST. PAUL.

Hayes speech at st. Paul is represented to
have been entirely free from partisan bias.
The New York Tribune speaking Of it says :
"Carefully regarding the proprieties OF his
position he said not one word in reference to
the merits or demcrits of either political
party, or the claims of either to public conf
dence. His address was one which perfectly
comported with the character of non-polti-
cal assemblage, and with the official station
he fills. It was clear and dispassonate re-
view Of the financial, commercial and indus
trial triumphs Of the nation since the close of
the war"
This paIaver Of the Tribune might go for
something II that paper itself did not pro-
coed Immediately after indulging in it, to
give it the Lie direct by applying the address
to the most radical and malignant of party
purposes. Whatever may have been the tone
of the address, the uses to which it has been
put are the best Indication of the motives that
prompted it, and the Interior objects Hayes
had in view in delivering it. Scarcely had
Hayes made his concluding bow to the "non-
political assemblage' with the character of
which his address 50 perfectly comported"
before we hear that this same address is to be
published and distributed as Republican
campaign document The Tribune announces
this fact and commends the address as zone
of the best campaign documents for the Re-
publican party that could be issued,' in the
very article in which it appla,lds its nom
partisan temper.
1t would be too ungenerOuS to suggest that
Hayes is not In sympathy with the party in
the uses to which it proposes to put his ad-
dress and the sweeping claims set up to all
retrenchment and reform In governmental
expenses he has shown. Yet, in his failing to
attribute any OF them specifically to either
party is rarely suggestive of that ancient
weazel' order of wisdom for which Hayes is
most conspicuous.
The following Washington special to the
New York tSuas, showing where the credit
belongs for the retrenchments Hayes
enumerated in his address at st. Paul, ex-
plains his reticence on that occasion and his
suspicious silence in regard to the "merits or
dement's Of either political party, or the
claims of either to public confidence" which
the Tribune commends as so consistent with
the 'proprieties of his position
In his speech in st. Paul, Hayes shows the
advance OF De0OCrhLlC nOJlOnS OIL reGI6nCn-
ment by paradng reductions in the expendi-
lures of the government largely due TO the
Democratic majority in the House. The an
nual recapitulation Of the net expenditures in
the last fifteen years, and which makes every
possible allowance for the deficiency appro-
priations, shows that the largest annual re-
duction made in the ten years covered by
Hayes figures must be credited to the appro-
priation bills passed at the first session of the
Forty fourth Congress, q reduction twice the
size Of the annual average reduction. Nearly
half the reduction put forward by Hayes
as made in five years was made in single
year by the same House. Had it not been
for these reductions the amount raised
by taxation, an amount which has shrunk
not owing to the repeal of taxes in the past
three years but owing to the reduction of bus
mess, must have failed to meet the expendi-
lures OF the government, and instead Of say
ing from twenty to thirty millions a year,
which the Democratic House made possible,
the national treasury would have run
behind year by year. the contributions
to the sinking fund would have been
suspended, and Instead of the credit of the
government improving until It's demand notes
are worth coin, it's credit must have grown
worse.
From this it would appear that Hayes was
wiser In his silence than even the Tribune has
accounted him, and it would have been we'll
for the Tribune and the Republican party
managers to have followed his shrewd ex-
on rtn