The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1883-05-05


letter sent recently by Secretary Teller
TO Sidney Dillon, Esq, president, making
an urgent demand for the immediate
payment Of the unoontested sum Of
81 ,036, 624.88. No part Of this debt is
disputed. not even the 8S cents; neither
is any part of it paid or rendered for
payment; but it is now hoped that Pres
ident Sidney Dillon will either renew
the old excuse or put up better one. A
discouraged claimant once said the plan
Of the government was to assume that
every bill it is asked to pay is fraudulent
and then wear out the claimant in max
ing him prove it few times in the de-
partments and before congressional
committees. This statement came, of
course, from the infamed imagination of
an enraged claimant, and it is only of
use in passing a suggestion that, if it
were true, il may be said that the govern
ment has made a match in this railway,
so long and 80 wide. 1t is the only &C r
poration in the world with more assur-
snce than the Washington gas company,
and runs its trains as placidly while ov-
ing millions to the government as though
IL held surplus invested in gas stock.
Mr.. Secretary Teller reminds Mr. Pres :
dent Sidney Dillon that by the act of
1878 he is enjoined from paying, making
or voting any dividends to stockholders
of the company until the five per eentum
of net earnings and other money due the
government has been paid; and after
calling attention to this law, the Score
tary of tho Interior says to the road in
effect that it will do we'll to pay what is
incontestible due, and go into the law of
the disputed parts of the debt afterward,
the payment of the requirement for the
year ending, December, 1882, not to pre-
judice any sums in dispute. If Mr..
President Dillon takes q free and easy
stand in the matter maintained by him
toward the government directors of the
road, he will probably put the letter
away in the pigeon-hole with the other
government duns, and tell his secretary
to wake him up when it comes time for
another dividend. 1t will be interesting
10 watch the case and learn by the issue
which is the greater, the government or
a subsidized railway running through the
middle of its territorv
Chalmers, of Mississippi. came on
here to make himself solid in the matter
of patronage, to secure absolute control
of all appointments in his State, after the
manner of Malone in Virginia, and went
home with his tall feathers considerably
curled. His business was chiefly with
the. Post Office Department, and the new
Postmaster General had views of his own
touching the matter. So Chalmers got
left. 1t is even hinted that if Judge
Gresham had his own way, without in.
reference from higher authority, Mr..
Malone won't be as potent in that de-
partment hereafter as be has been here
tofore. The fact is, the new cabinet
officer is disposed to administer to his
department on business principles. H
has stopped the practice of allowing ap.
plicants for clerkships from States whose
quotas are full to credit themselves to
other States. The other day hungry
office seeker applied for a certain place
on the ground that the incumbent had it
long enough. The Postmaster General
told him it would take him five or six
months to decide that question, and ad-
vised the applicant meanwhile to look
out for some other employment. Ap-
parently, everything is lovely between
the new head of the Post Office depart
ment and his subordinates, and if he
fulfls the policy he has Swallowed forth
of requiring nothing of any of the people
under him, whether high or low, but to
attend faithfully to their business it is
likely things will go on very hnrmoni.
ously. AUGUST.