New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-06-27

L. Il
The President deserves credit for having
carried out with firm hand practical Worh
of retrenchment, which will save several hun
dred thousand dollars annually to the Treasury.
He has done this in spite Of inertia In the In
teInal Revenue Bureau, whose sympathy was
doubtless strong with the men who must lose
their places. The estimate OF the Deputy
Commissioner several months ago was that
nine teen districts might be dispensed with !;
the President has cut down The number from
1913 to SPA reduction of 44-a little more
than one-third. The President has carried it
ont in spite, slso Of the frantic appeals OF Con-
gressmen, who are always able to demonstrate
that the pablo service will be endangered by
AN attack on one of their appointments. a
person not entirely familiar with our instltoo-
tons might suppose that, when the House OF
REPRESENTATIVES. had voted i'll favor of rcduc-
ton of almost the exact number decided npon
by the President, it meant that the President
would have the support of the members of the
House in executing the policy they thus in
formally approved. But many of the Con-
gressmen move in mysterious way. They
vote for bill in Congress they do not believe
in. and then take the first hack to the White
House to beg the President to veto it. In Con-
gress they are in favor of retrenchment anu
reform in the corridors and private whisper
ing-rooms of the Executive Mansion, they
| are in favor of patronage-and more patronage.
| The President seems to have shown firmness
fol- the most part, in dealing with politicians of
| this sordid class The reduction goes as far as
anyone had ever dared to PROPOSE going. 1t is
| another proof that the Republican party recog-
| nizes the public needs, and not the party s
| desires, as the law of its action. No reason
able man, familiar with the history OF the
Democratic party, will pretend to believe that
! q Democratic Administration would have thus
voluntarily diminished its own power to save
| public money.
| This is what may be called the public aspect
| of the consolidation. There is another with
which the public has little to dO-tbe party
| aspect. 1t makes no difference to the average
| citizen whether President Arthur keeps and
nuts his friends in Office to the exclusion OF
other Republicans, so long as the work is
properly and economically done But 1t Is q
| question Of some interest to Republicans as
| such. 1t is to be hoped that the comment
throughout the country upon.the details of the
reduction plan will show that there has been
no design to muster out of Office the representa-
tiyes of one school of Republicans while leav-
| ing secure in their places the representatives OF
the other The roll of changes in New-York
and Pennsylvania seems on the surface to
give some color to such suspicion. The not
| able Stalwart Collectors in this State among
the districts outside of New-York and Brook
lyn-there being no change in the two great
cities-are conspicuous as the survivors OF the
reduction. The same appears to be true in
PENNSYLVANIA, where the names OF the men
whose appointments last year were largely in
strumental in dividing the party for time
loom up among those who have been spared
the axe. 1t is to he hoped that these will prove
to be condolences rather than the fruit OF a
rule of selection adverse TO any class of Repub-
licans Much of the lll-feeling existing in the
two States last year was because of the evident
discrimination against majority OF the party
| in appointments to positions of trust-a feeling
which was not lessened by the fact that most OF
the appointments were to FIJI vacancies occur
ring naturally, and not arbitrarily made.
time of comparative peace within the party has
followed that stormy period. and we trust
President Arthur has done nothing to disturb