The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-08-23
THE GREAT POLITICAL STANDING ARMY,

Possession of the administration is worth
million Of votes" was a remark attributed to
o. p. Morton, we believe, IN canvassing the
chances of the last presidential contest; and
there is no doubt, under the Grant regime, the
administration was equal to million Of votes
in helping to elect Hayes, That the same
power will be welded with even less scruple
to elect the successor TO Hayes, no intelligent
observer of the signs OF the times has parti-
Gle of doubt That this estimate of admins
tralion force is not too high, and that the dem
ocrats 90 into the contest therefore handicapp-
ed by full a million of votes, let any one con
slider the elecuoneerlng means really in the
hands of the administration as Indicated in the
article below, which we copy from the New
York Sun:
An imperfect idea exists of the immense
amount of money that may be raised for cleo
toneering purposes by assessing Otiiceholdcrs,
and by drawing upon other resources always
at the command of an Administration disposed
to use them. The Blue Book gives only the
names and pay of persons regularly employed
in the public service, and specifically author
lied by law. There are thousands on the tenn
porary lists, that do net appear at all IN this
Official register paid from conditional appro-
priatOns, or from some specific fund voted tor
a special object.
1t is by no means unusual to allow a large
number of clerks for temporary duty to bring
up arrears in some department as IN the Pen.
sion and the Land Offices, who might all go
out inside the two years which elapse between
the biennial publications of the Blue Book. In
that case none of the names would be entered
IN the regular register, and the actual number
of employees would not appear. According to
the best data there are over one hundred thous-
and Federal officeholders, exclusive of mechan-
les and laborers In the navy yards and upon
the public building.
The annual compensation of this host of tax
eaters is about thlrty.one and a quarter mil
lions of dollars, The usual assessment tor the
ordinary run of clerks, who are paid from
5000 to 81, 200 year, is one per cent on the
salary, and above that two per cent, with a
still greater levy on the heads of bureaus chiefs
OF divisions, and the like, who are mostly will
ling to pay for the privilege of retaining their
places, and who do not require to be pressed.
Heretofore the deputy marshals have been
paid five dollars day for partisan service, and
the law allows them to be employed ten days
before a Presidential or Congressional cleo
ton. An active and influential politician
might therefore get My collars lor attending
The polls. But the usual custom has been to
hire the greatest number practicable on the eve
of an election, to swell the vote In any partcu-
lar locality. Nearly third of million has
been confessedly expended for this object every
second year, and perhaps much more. The
supervisors were struggled into the permanent
appropriations by trick in the Revised Stat
utts, but they will be taken care OF at the APP
preaching session of Congress.
Next as an unfailing resource, the pet banks
nav be counted certain for almost any demand
a Secretary like John Sherman would make.
He has given few of them enormous advan-
tages, both in taking the recent loans, and as
public repositories with nearly two hundred
millIons of money in their vaults not drawing
a cent of interest, and not liable TO be drawn
out without full and friendly notice from the
Treasury. One of these favored corporations
must have cleared several millions in the last
two years by good understanding a, Wash