Year: 1871

appeared IN the editorial columns oil the New
York Times yesterday ..


II the people OF tins city are in earnest in their de-


@ he G Ss
help to the Committee OF Seventy. That committee
sas sss pSSy Sppsa %SSss the leak nSsa ySn
Ss as s'S Jet ds'sss aware Of more from 'sn ae
on their behalf But those citizens cannot be ex.
pected to give up their time to the task and defray
all the expenses OF litigation out OF their own
pockets. Let every body help them-the workman
win MS ten cent STAMP, the merchant with good
we earnestly beg our readers not TO allow the com.


mittee to be hampered for want OF means GIVE
| give 1t without delay.


Nearly five weeks ago the Committee Of
| Seventy commenced as a volunteer its labor of
city reform For more than a month prior TO
that period the New York Times had been de-
| voting itself gallantly to the work of exposing


the corruptions of the city government and of
agitating the overthrow of all the present mu-
ncipal ofice-hoders. Its zeal and energy 10
the cause received, through the aid Of MIR.
Simonton, its employs in control Of the Asso-
ciated Press, q wide recognition throughout
the country, and gained for the paper
the highest eulogiums of Western jour-
nals Its raid upon democratic Off
cials was equal to the dashing victories
of Sheridan in the Valley of the Shenandoah,
or of Grant in the Wilderness. Not the least
singular part of this great journalistic triumph
is the fact that it was secured by the admirable
management of its managing editor, young
Englshman, who had been but short time in
the United States, and necessarily knew but
little if anything of American institutions,
politics and men. Mr.. Jennings, a British
subject, fresh from the attractions of
aristocratic life, seized with vigor and
wonderful ability upon the opportunity
afforded him by the disclosures of a
person who had been dismissed from the
Comptroller's department, and made fight
such as an adroit American politician alone
might have been believed capable of making
against powerful Ring, composed of the
shrewdest political managers in the country.
The reputation of the paper he controls has
risen in consequence to q point from which
it had been steadily declining since the death
of its former editor, Henry J. Raymond, and
the name of it's English conductor, Jennings,
- - g AoA way Va UCVVuAuS 1to
sudden recovery Of a position which it
was fast losing is due solely to the vigor
and point of his editorials; for in its news
department it remains as mediocre as
ever. When the Committee of Seventy was
formed the Times became its organ, or, more
correctly speaking, its champion, and urged it
on daily in its good work. The committee
deserved the support it received, for its men,
bers emulated the disinterested devotion of
the Crusaders of old, and vowed to give not
only their services but their money to the
cause in which they had embarked. We were
assured through the columns of the Times,
again and again, that these seventy citi-
zens of wealth and position, who had


come out from their bank parlors and their
counting houses to fight the battle of reform,


had pledged themselves not only to expose
and punish malfeasance in Office but to patri-
otically supply the funds necessary to carry
on the war and to keep the machinery of the
government in motion. Their vaults, their
safes and their strong boxes were to be opened
was to experience no embarrassments; her
honest debts were to be paid, her public works
to be prosecuted, her credit maintained,
with the means to be supplied by the seventy
patriotic committeeman, who were thence
forth to be supreme in the municipal govern
ment. The HERALD called this communism,
and recorded its belief that the committee was
piece of unwieldy machinery, incapable of
accomplishing any practical results but the
Times, the champion of the movement, took
up the seventy upon its broad shoulders and
carried them to the front of the army of
reform.


We are astounded now to read the an
nouncement that the committee begs for funds
to aid it in its work, aud that the seventy de-
cline to defray the expenses of prosecuting the
war out of their own pockets. To the Times,
! as we have said, belongs the credit of initial
| ing this fight against municipal corruption,


and it must not be left without supplies and


ammunition. The seventy committeeman who


were to have furnished the means to


carry it on, are begging, with hat in hand, for


ten cent stamps and good checks instead Of


standing in the breach themselves, as they are


pledged to do. We are confident that the


Times must condemn this singular action Of


the seventy, and we expect it to denounce


their conduct as vigorously as it has denounced
the rascality Of city contractors. There is no
reason why they should beg for funds
when they and their friends, among
the wealthiest of our citizens, have


voluntarily offered to supply all that


may be needed. Indeed, as the election il 80


close at hand, it may be suspected, by wrong


minded men, that the money is wanted for


electioneering purposes rather than for city


reform. This is unjust TO the good cause-it


is unjust to the Times and to its able editor.
| The cause, the paper and the advocate should