New-York tribune., 1883-03-15

The bids for the privileges at Castle Garueh
prove conclusively Cf any proof Is neeueu)
that the Emigration Commissioners In per-
forming their duties heretofore have not hau
public interest at heart nearly so much
as the private advantage Of Barney blslih
and other persons dong business there'
Double the amounts now paid by the tehahts
of the Garden were offered Yesterday Dy OUT
siders, andit looks as if presently the work OF re-
ceiving and caring for immigrants would DC
conducted on business principles, and with
some recard for burdened taxpayers. Mean
while the Commissioners themselves keep up
disoraceful wrangling at every meeting. Far
he il from us TO say that the epithets when
they applied to each other yesterday were not
apprcprate The Commissioners know one
another best, and best know how each should
address his fellows. But we heartily second Mr..
Stephenson's amendment that the Legislature
be urged to abolish him and the other Com
missioners completely.
The person who by q false advertisement sent
hundreds of poor women on fools errand 10
Wall-st. Yesterday must be very thoughtiess
OF wicked. Something like the old-fashloned
horsewhipping ia what he deserves. The en-
Oarrassment of the finn whose office was be-
sieged is as nothing compared with the mort
fication and disappointment of the applicants
for work. In some cases the heartless joke
cansed real distress, for number of the
women had spent their last penny In
car-fare to get to Wall-st. Others lost
q DAVIS work or possible chances OF finding
labor elsewhere. Aside from the Immediately
painful features of the affair this sad joke
thrusts an unpleasant fact upon public notice
the weight of which only phlanthropic persons
generally realize~-th is the great number OF
helpless women who at all times III this city
are on the verge of actual want. And IL Is
worthy of note that it is not higher education
or .homilies on true womanliness that these
women need 1t is work to keep them honest
ard from starvation.
In another column of this issue we print
vigorous letter from John Jay in relation to the
freedom of worship BILL" so called, which IS
now pending in the Legislature. Mr. Jay con-
tends that the bill ought not to become law,
and we believe that the arguments he presents
will be generally regarded ty sensible conserv-
alive men, no matter what their church rela-
tions, as unansweTa6le by any person who SUBJ
scribes to our American governmental system.
Mr.. Jay shrewdly points out that the bill, SO far
from providing for freedom of worship" is IN
reality blow at that fundamental right, and is
urged only 10y those who acknowledge an
ecclesiastical authority that denies that right.
To pass it would open the doors of our House
of Refuge to sectarianism at the expense of dis
cipline, and that is all that it would accom-
pish. Under its present management the House
of Refuge is perfectly hospltable to all religious
denominations, all having the free use of its
chapel, bat it is inhosptable to proselytng, as 1t
is to anything else calculated to promote strife
and dissenson and so to impair the efficiency
of the institution. Mr.. Jay presents these and
other points with great force. We commend
what he says to legislators who will be called
upon to vote oh this bill, and to all Others who
feel an interest in the important question which