New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-01
The seeds Of the present conflict have been ger
minating since Sedan.
"DINTNG At CAFE.S.n

1t is charged by Mr.. Samuel Cox that OuI
foreign Ministers are in the habit of dining al
cafes and listening to the gossip of men who
ARE not in sympathy with republican institu-
tons" This is what the constituents of Mr..
Cox would call "rather rough on the American
"peoplc." 1t depletcs the Treasury, enriches
foreign cafes, and encourages the effete des-
pOtisms Mr. Cox does we'll to dcnounce it,.
If ever this glorious fabric Of popular govern
ment shall crumble and decay, it will owe Its
ruin to the corroding influence of dining Mt
cafes. Mr.. Cox's constituents feel deeply on
this subject In their minds, to arrest this de-
pletiOn of the Treasury for the enrichment of
cafes, is next in Importance to making provi-
sion from the same source for their relations in
Ireland And now that the subject has been
broached;. 1t is to be hoped that Mr.. Cox will
not let it rest where it is, but push it. A Com
mlttee of Investigation should be appointed
without delay-there is considerable Investigate
ing talent lying idle in the HOuse-to make
thorough and searching inquiry as to the habits
of our foreign Ministers. And if it be found
that they are in the habit as Mr.. Cox alleges,
of dining at cafes and listening to the gossip
Of men who are not in sympathy with republic
can institutions, then nothing remains but to
wipe out the system. In the present temper of
the American people they will not stand din
ing at cafes.
We could have wished that for this purpose
the entcrprising Glover might have been pre-
served to us. Sympathizing with Samuel Cox
in his hostility to cafes, he would have gone
through Europe with drag net, striking
terror to the souls of dcsrots and making wall
ing in palaces. II would have been singularly
entertaining to see him plunging into cafes,
hooking on to the collars of distinguished Ameri-
cans suspected of being foreign Ministers, and
haling them away from the gossip of dukes,
only to find when he had got them face to
face that they were such private citizens, say, as
Samuel j. Tilden, Thomas A. Hendricks or
Thomas A. Bayard, all of whom have been in
Europe within year or two, and may have
dined In cafes. This wond have been just
GlOver's luck, and the exhibition would have
impaired an element of grotesque fun to the
of the serious duty laid upon him of |
catching foreign Ministers dining Mt cafes. But |
even though the investigating Glover is lost to
rs the inquiry should be entered upon. If not |
by the House, then by the Senate. There is |
Davis. of West Virginia, who has got pretty |
much through his search for fraud in the
Treasury or NOor -, who might add this to
his great Exodus Investigation and there are
others equally capable. But let it not he neg
cctcd or delayed. Aud if worse comes to
worst let Mr.. Samuel Cox incorporate into the
Diplomatic Appropriation bill a provision that
my foreign Minister who dimes at cafe shall
uricit his salary-onc-ha to go to the IN
omcr. That, too. involves somewhat the prin-
iPc Of riders on appropriations, which is
issue with This Congress.