The times., 1897-12-17

that theiI moral and religious nature was
iInperilled, and the practical power of
money lenders 10 abse.b the capital of
the nation temporarily was destroyed
He begged for the reform Of contraction,
that this prosperity. wit Ii its incident
independence OF the middle and laboring
classes' might be wiped oIt, and the
normal conditions of national subseryiency
TO the phrtacraey OF gold and bonds re
stored
Mr MCCulloCh was wise in his GENERA
ton; but Che genius Of his day had not
mounted 70 Fin De steele heights. He
was not ip To the mark OF the retroactive
policy which distinguishes his worthy and
astute successor ia this year OF grace. IL
he had been proha bly, he would 6ave ad-
vised that the meney made by the people
in war times should he taken from them
and disuihIted among the poor ,apital-
lists. We only resurreot him by way OF
showing, by antthesis, " hat a grand
figure our own and only 'retrua tive
Secretary OF the Treasury is, to he sure.
As = minister of finance the Hon. Lyman
J. Gage is the 'chiefeSt Among ten thou
sand" rne merest glance at his record
during the months in which he has con
tributed TO the mirth OF nations, at the head
Of d great department, viii serve to show
this At the outset Of his official areer he
concluded that q tariff bin which suited
him wasoperauve before anybody else was
al all sure that it would ever he enacted
into law Next he decided that it applied
nearly a whole day before, legally, il
became operative. In this brilliant and
statesmanlike way Mr.. Gage succeeded in
imposing his radical retroactive ideas upon
his subordmatJs sufficiently TO involve 5nc
Government il: a legion OF lawsuits, ana 30
daze civilization with wonder at the non
bankruptcy ofhis old bank in Chicago, under
the same pdretic influence.
Bat oUr friend, the Secretary, Is moth
ing IL not sensational He always has some.
thing new and strange 10 spring upon tue
public. II Is fortunate that we are getting
so used To il that If he were to stand on
the stepscf the Treasury, aud pun a clockor
rabbits ont Of his hat in alienation vita
Spanish hondsand goldeagIes, nobody would
be much surprised, and almost everybody
would be pleased, because that would Be
an innocent advertisement compared with
his latest scheme to strew tie bicycle path
Of his chief in the White House with tie
tacks Of eccentromania.
In other words. Mr.. Cages proposition
practically to establish civil service pen
sion list, at time when ,uere is not tae
least excuse for such a thing, Is evidence
either OF mental aiienatlo. or of de-
hberate purpose TO hamper the A du.inistr4 A..
tion by Injecting into the politics Of the
day question Of executive organiza ton
and policy which would ba highly in
convenient TO the President in view or
his record ana his pledges and entirely lis
tasteful q the nation. We are aware that
wild and blUodthirsty partlsans may
answer that. since the scheme primarily
is designed Tie reduce the pay Of DEM
cratic employees of tie Government and.
thereby, 20 mrke room for the promotion or
appointmentof many Republican henchmen
in the national service, therefore II is not
TO De cnucised from the point Of view
Of morals or OF ethics. We do not doubt
that such is exactly the view Of Mr. Gage.
considered in the Eight Of his retroactive
tariff vaEary. But il is hard on Nj. NJ
KiHley, who believes in lie merit systeu.
and supposedly, does not Ike to see it
murdered in the house or his friends.