Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-08-30
FRIDAY EVENING. AUG. 80. 1876.
TN numerous statements respect.

ing the unsettled accounts OF
Spoford it is charged on the authority
treasury officers, we believe, that he has
not rendered any account of fees re-
ceiyed by him in copyright matters for
several years past. If this be SO. Mr..
spoford is undoubtedly much to blame.
His failure to render his accounts can
not be defended, but it is palliated by
the fact of the enormous burdens put
upon him by Congress. The mere care
of a great library amounting to over
100000 volumes, with a space not suf-
icient for q half or q third of them, SO
that the books have been piled all on
top of one another, and yet bound on
the shortest notice to furnish any book
called for, is enough to set any corn.
mon man crazy. This crowding has
been going on for a number of years
is spite of MI. %Spofford'a appeal and
protest, and relief will only come with
the completion of the new Library build
ing. But there is a feature of this
library, crowded as it is, which multi
plies the burden. The library is open
by law to the general public, who may
call for any book, examine it at q desk,
or take it out on depositing the value
of the book. In addition to these du-
ties, Mr.. Spoford, not by law, but
bv a common usage, founded on
his wonderful memory and acquire
N ,nts, has became q living book of
reference for some four hundred mem
bers of Congress, for officers of the gov
eminent generally, and for members of
the press of an enquiring turn of mind,
all them anxious for q short cut to the
temple of knowledge. If Spofford had
a dollar for every question of this sort
he has answered in the past thirty
years he could go to Newport and hold
his W with the assembled %plutocrats
in that lovely spot. The wonder is
how q man so frail in health has been
able to do all this work and yet con-
tinue his daily grind in and out Of sea-
son. To say that he has been inval-
liable to Congressman of all parties in
their researches is no oyerstatement Of
a we'll known fact. He is q literary
man rather than q man of business, and
ought never to have been burdened
with the copyright business in addl-
ton to his other work. He ought not
to have assumed this work. His fail
ure to render his accounts regularly is
only an exempli6cation of the old
adage, that "a man cannot do every
thing and 60 to mill besides" But,
derelict as he may have been, there is
one feature in this matter that the
treasury officers do not seem to consid.
or worthy of notice. If it was Mr..
Spoford's business to render his &C.
counts regularly, it was also somebody
else's business to require him to do it.
If the collector ct Boston, or New
York, or the postmaster at Wash
ington, or any other official, were
to fail to send in his regular
accounts per month or quarterly, we
apprehend that it would be the duty of
some ~postofice or treasury official to
call him to book forthwith and
report him for Noncompliance. Yet
here we are told that no &C.
counts have been rendered for
years and years. What have these treas
ury officials been doing all this time?
Have they, these watch dogs, been
asleep Oh their watch since the 4th of
March, 1898? If Mr. Spofford is to
blame, are they not much more to
blame? He has the excuse of being
worked to death, of being q literary
man, knowing more of history and
science than of bookkeeping and &C
counting; but these excuses they can
never make. They are not literary nor
ornamental in any sense, and if they
fail in the ordinary simplest routine of
their official duty, there are no mitiga-
ting circumstances. They may make
out a bad case of neglect for MI. Spot
ford huf the preatar their SUCCESS the
worse appears the case for themselves.
There is a story told by the celebrated
John Phenixof lieutenant who in the
early days had sole charge of the gov
eminent fort at Monterey, California.
He had little to do, and slept most of
his time. Once q month perhaps a U.
S. vessel would come into port. He
would jump from his couch, rush to q
gun, fire it of, and then hasten back to
bed again. This was q noble official
zeal but was spasmodic, and is hardly
fit for modern imitation.
POSTMASTER GENERAL WILSON f..
vors the removal Of the tariff on all
raw materials of manufacture. And he
is Eight, for if Northern manufacturers
are TO have a foreign market for their
surplus, they must be allowed equal ia.
cilities with those of their foreign rivals.
But Mr.. Wilson does not go far enough.