New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-23
POLITICAL SUBSCRIPTIONS.

free institutions and the purity OF pOlltlcal
management has lately been discovered by
our Democratic friends. They have been III
ouite a worry over it for several days. With
a little encouragement, in the shape OF some
slight manifestation of public interest, they
would be very likely to make a leading issue
of il in the Fall campaigns. The present
trouble is one, of course, that grows out OF
the demoralized condition OF poltlcs under
Republican administration and the con-
stantly pressing necessity for such change
and such reform as the advent OF the
Democracy to full control would give u.s. 1t
has been discovered within the past two or
three weeks that the officials and clerks In
tbe various departments at Washington are
subscribing such sums as they please to the
RepubIcan campaign fund. The Democratic
newspaper in which the discovery was first
announced could hardly have been more ex-
cited if it had found pound of dynamite
in Speaker Randall's chair. or new letter
from John T. Mines in its mornings
mall First, there was a great thlll OF
horror because 1t was supposed that the
Republican Congressional Committee had
gone through the department with drawn
swords and assessment lists, and inundated
the whole Civil Service with the threat that
every clerk who did not subscribe at once
should be put to flight or fired out from the
muzzles of cannon. And this, they said, was
in violation of the order concerning the Civil
Service issued at the beginning of the Adj
ninistration which the Democratic party have
ALWAYS admired and nobly sustained as the
finest niece of craftsmanship they have known
since the Buchanan Administration refused to
make the attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter
and appointed day of fasting and PRAYER.
To assess Government officials for election
expenses, they said, was to put on the Con
stitution one of the hardest strains to which
il could be subjected, besides making 1t
harder for Mr. Ben Hill and Mr.. VOORHEES,
and other patriots who are persplring pro-
fuselv in the Struggle for Human Liberty.
But it turned out .ater that it was not quite
so bad as this bad enough, to be sure, but
NOT so dreadful as had been feared. 1t was
not an assessment at all, but subscription
The feelings of the country had been so
wroughs up by the narrowing descriptions OF
the ballot-box surrounded by bayOnets that
we never could have borne the heightened hOr-
ror of cOntribuuOn-b similarly surrounded
presented to the department official with
tine deadly summons, Subscribe or resign )"
Ii remains for our consolation as patriots that
uubljc officials have not been compelled against
their will and inclination to the commission
of this great crime of contributing to the pay
ment of election expenses. 1t Is bad enough
that they do it willingly. The ground taken
by Democratic puTists and their sympathIzers
of the Deputy press is that it Is an offence
against pure politics and public morals for
these gentlemen to subscribe or contribute, or
take any part, or interest even, in current pol
tics. If it has been SAID once it has a hundred
thousand times during the past year or two, that
the practice of taking subscriptions for political
purposes from Government officers is per-
nicious and demoralizing, and that 10 Govern
mqnt could stand it. One of the chief aims
of the Democratic party-a principal Objec-
tive point of the great Reform movement
headed by Mr.. Tilden in 1S76-was to do
away with and put down this practice. His
tory will record, as one of the striking features
of the politics of the present period, the zeal
and energy Of the Democratic crusade against
the practice of many Government officers of
subscribing and paying money for political
purposes The Democratic party has spared
no effort in this direction. There is
probably not a single Democrat holding
| Office in this country, in any State or city, or
under appointment from the present Demo-
cratic Senate and House, whose feelings have
not been so thoroughly enlisted in this cause
! that he has paid, almost without complaining,
tbe assessment of the Democratic National
Committee toward the fund for its extirpa-
| ton.
A single purpose animates the whole party
| in this regard. And no class of citizens feel
more deeply the dangers to which the country
| is exposed by the corrupt and couupting
practice of Republican officials paying money
| for carrying on Republican campaigns,
than the newly-appointed subordinate Of
fcials of the Senate and House. They do not
| view it as an assessment at all when the Con-
| pressional Committee of their party comes TO
| them with the precise sum named which they
are willing to give in fuTtherance of the cause.
They do it cheerfuly as patriotic duty. II
| is The same with the Democratic Oflice-h0lders
| in this city, all of whom contribute literally
| and cheerfuly to the same good object. The
| preiudiced and uncharitabe will say, OF course,
| that the object is not to put down the pTac-
| tice but to bring about change so that
Democrats shall have an opportunity TO in
dulge in it. But how can that be : No one
who sincerely believes in the Tilden and Reform
movement of 1876 will attribute selfish mo-
tiyes to persons who discoursed 80 feellngly