The New York Herald Newspaper, June 1, 1874, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, pudiished every day tn the year, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Henatp. Letters and packages should be prop- erly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. seereeesNO. 153 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING WOOD's MUSEUM, Broad .. comer of Thirtieth street.—CHRIS AND LENA, at 2 P. M.: closes at ¢:50P. M. Same ats P.M; closes at 10:30 P.M. Baker and Farron. DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway.—LOV k’S LABOR’S: LOST, wt GT. M.. closes at 1030 P.M, Miss Ada Dyas, ‘Mias Fanny Davenport, Mr. Harkins, Mr. George Clark. NIBLO’S THEATRE, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets. —THE LADY OF THE LAKE, at St. M.; closes at lu: P. M. Mr. Joseph Wheelock and Miss lone Burke, THEATRE COMIQUE, No. 514 Broadway.—ON HAND, and VARIETY ENTER- TAINMENT, at 5 P.M ; closes at 10:30 P. M. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street—FATR, at 8 P. M.; closes at LL P.M. Miss Carlotta Le Clercq. OLYMPIC THEATRE, roadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets. — AUDEVILLE and NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT, at 45 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P, M. NEW PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN, Fulton street, opposite the City Hall.—Transatiantic Novelty Company, at § P. M.; closes at 10 :30 P. M. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third street. near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO MIN- STRELBY, &c., at 8 P. ‘loses at 10 1, M. CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, Fifty-ninth street and Sixth avenue.—IHOMAS’ CON- CERT», at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10:30 P. M. COLOSSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirty-fifth ‘street.—LONDON BY NIGAT, at'l0 A.M. Same at 1P. M.; closes at 5 P.M. Same at7P. M.; closes at 10 P. M. ROMAN HIPPODROME, Madison avenue and Twenty-sixth ‘street.—GRAND Foon fonaEnas OF NATIONS, at 1:30 P. M. and TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Monday, June 1, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabili- ties are that the weather to-day will be rainy, clearing in the afternoon. Avgam or THE Press.—The Spanish gov- ernment has forbidden the press to attack its financial measures, All the world knows that the finances of Spain are in a desperate @ondition, and it is not the least surprising that they cannot bear the light of discussion. But what a mockery of a republic is that awhich cannot permit even the financial affairs ot the country or financial schemes of the government to be spoken of by the press! And re the men who rule Spain so insane as to wuppose the credit of the nation can be im- proved by secrecy? Tr Is New announced that Mr. Bristow, the Solicitor General, will be made Secretary of the Treasury. There is, perhaps, no better man inthe country for this office. General Grant certainly has that opinion or he would mot appoint him. Still, the country does not think so. If Mr. Bristow makes a first class Secretary we shall all be surprised and gratified. But we do not think he will inspire any confi- dence in the country, and we do not see very well how the President could make a weaker appointment. Tax TrovBLEs AND Conprtion or Manrrona Exrtamep.—Our reporter's interview with Mr. Cunningham, a member of the Dominion Parliament from Manitoba, published in another part of the paper, will prove interest- ‘ing. The cause of the trouble in the Red River territory is explained in a frank and Jucid manner. In fact, it isa history com- prised in the briefest space. Mr. Cunning- ham sums up his remarks with a compliment- ary reference to the United States, and says that our government would have disposed of the Red River trouble ina better and more ‘prompt way had the territory belonged to this country. He does not spare the Canadian suthorities in his review of their dealing with Manitoba. Carrma, rx tHe Sovra.—The Charleston ‘News and Courier, copying from the Hzratp fn article on the manufacturing industries of the South, which recommended as a means to induce capital to seek invest- ment the exemption of such property from taxation, says that there is no doubt that the exemption of manufacturers from taxation for a term of years will be a benefit to any community, and in South Carolina, as well as Georgia, that exemption has been granted by anact of the Legislature. For ten years all the new manufacturing undertakings are ex- empted from State and county taxation, so that capital can be invested in this one way in South Carolina and be free from the excessive taxation to which otherwise it would be liable po long as ring rule lasts. ‘Taenx Has Bren so much said about the case of Mr. Jay, our Minister to Vienna—so many absurd and mischievous stories have been printed to that gentlemen's detriment—that the letter we publish elsewhere will be read with interest by his friends and by all who love justice. Mr. Jay isa man of honor, cul- tare and courage, o gentleman of the best the descendant of one of the honored names in our history, a man whose efforts in behalf of freedom showed a conspicuous cour- age of conviction which his whole life has vin- dicated. The only.thing we have ever heard NEW YORK Congress and the Currency—Unfortu- mate Position of the Republican Party. It is sound and accepted rule in the pol- ities of free countries to hold the party in power responsible for the public weal and prosperity, so far as they are dependent on governmental action. Even if the republican party were disposed to shrink from this re- sponsibility it could not escape it, It has a President of its own choice; it has so large a majority of both houses of Congress as to give it irresistible control of federal legisla- tion. When it asked the people to confer upon it the great trust with which it is clothed the republican party entered into an obligation to meet every great emergency in public af- fairs with a sound policy and wise measures. It is most unfortunate for the credit and prospects of the party that, on the first great occasion which has arisen since the success of its reconstruction measures, it has disap- pointed the expectations and just demands of the country. Conflicting views and divided counsels, first among its Senators and Rep- resentatives in Congress and then between Congress and the President, have resulted in such a spectacle of abortive efforts and party imbecility as was never before witnessed in the legislative history of the country, except in the memorable instance of the baffled whig party after the death of General Harrison, when the favorite whig measures were vetoed by his accidental suc- cessor. But there is no close parallel between these remarkable legislative miscarriages. The whig party, after Tyler became Presi- dent, was substantially united on the fiscal measures he vetoed, and nobody could justly accuse it ot forfeiting the pledges it had made to the country. If the President it had elected had not been taken away by death the whig party would have redeemed every prom- ise made to the people in the election by which it was brought into power. But the republican party cannot excuse its failure by the death of its elected President and the op- Position of a renegade successor. The repub- licans cannot show, as the whigs could in 1841, a united party, thwarted by the death of one man and the treachery—as they deemed it—of another. The republican party is found to have no policy on the most important and engrossing question of the time; and unless, within the brief three weeks that remain be- fore the close of the session, it can unite on some adequate measure of relief many of its former supporters will be likely to think that it has forfeited public confidence. It is futile and irrelevant to say, as some of its apologizing organs have said, that this di- vision of the party on the currency question does not impair its essential unity, because the party was formed and has been maintained on other issues, and a difference on this ques- tion is extraneous to the declared sims of the republican organization. To this excuse there are two replies, either of which is sufficient. In the first place, a political party which as- sumes control of the government is bound to prove itself equal to all emerging public need, as much so as the captain and crew of a ship are bound to navigate her safely in unex- pected storms and accidents. Unless the party in control of the government is responsible for the public welfare there is no real ac- countability at all, and the ship of State may drift upon the breakers and nobody be held blamable for the incapacity by which it was wrecked. The second answer to this lame apology rests upon the public declarations with which the republican party won the con- fidence of the country. It is not true that the republican party, as a political organization, has not promulgated any policy on the great question which has agitated the country since the beginning of the present session. The republican party has, for more than six years, held itself up to view and courted public support as the great champion of a gold policy, as opposed to a greenback or paper policy. It was on this issue that General Grant was first elected in 1868. The contest in that campaign turned on the meaning of the word ‘‘dollar.’’ A ma- jority of the Western democrats, led by Pen- dieton, contended that the promise to pay dollars to the holders of the government bonds would be satisfied by paying them the nominal paper dollars called greenbacks. The republican party, with a manly honesty which the country indorsed, declared in its national platform that this would be repudia- tion and national dishonor. It correctly held that the only honest meaning of the word ‘dollar’ was the weight of gold stamped with that name by public authority ; that the green- backs, like the United States bonds, were gov- ernment promises to pay so many dollars to the creditors holding them, and there would be equal dishonesty and bad faith in repudiat- ing either promise. The republican party solemnly bound itself to this interpretation of the promise to pay dollars in the flush of victory immediately after the first inauguration of President Grant. It could not then be charged with any decep- tive electioneering motive, for a great triumph had just been achieved, and the party was of power for the ensuing four years. It will be recollected that the new Congress elected with President Grant assembled on the 4th of March, 1869. To attest its sincerity in the then recent election, and as a proof of the supreme importance it attached to the financial issue, the most prominent act passed by Congress at that session was one relating to the public credit, That act was a pledge by the government to discard every mean- ing of the word dollar except that which makes it consist of the established mint weight of gold, and an equally solemn pledge of the public faith to pay the greenback in that medium. We quote its precise, explicit lan- guage:—‘In order to strengthen the public credit the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to.the payment in coin or its equiva- lent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest known as United States notes, and of all the interest bearing | obligations of the United States, ex- | cept in cases where the law authorizing the | issue of any of such obligation has expressly | | against Mr. Jay is that he is disposed to be | provided that the same may be paid in law- an aristocrat. This means that he is a gen- | ful money or other currency than gold and tleman, os it generally means when com- | silver, and also to make provision at the earli- plaining Americans return from Europe | est practicable period for the redemption of angry because the Ministers did not act as | the United States notes in coin.” couriers and look after their baggage. One thing is certain about Mr. Jay, that in every- thing he has done abroad he has tried to act io hoaor and @ patriotic | than that made by the republican Congress in as became a man of American citizen Never in the history of legislation has a government or a political party bound itself by a more-public, formal and solemn pledge the act here cited. which was officially signed by President Grant on the fourteenth day after his first inauguration. Such of the republican organs, therefore, as say that the party is not answerable for the failures of this Congress have fallen into a great oversight. If the re- publican party, as a coherent political organ- ization, ever pledged itself to anything, it is bound by a promise of the most formal pub- licity to make gold the only standard of value in the United States and to take efficient measures for bringing the legal tender notes to par with coin. President Grant, not only in all his annual messages, but nobly and con- honest fulfilment of that solemn pledge ; but, most unfortunately, he is supported only by a minority of his party in Congress, The party has still about three weeks of grace for setting itself right with the country, and it will find itself at a great disadvantage in | the ensuing elections if it leaves itself exposed to the damaging accusations which its oppo- nents can bring against it on this subject. The veto cannot shield the party from con- demnation unless Congress takes wise action in the brief space that is left, The veto has merely saved the party from a deeper plunge into the abyss ofdishonor; butthe country de- manded and had a right to expect positive measures of relief. After the panic last fall all eyes were turned to Congress, and the people impatiently awaited its assembling in the hope that its guiding prudence would promptly bring the business of the country into a sounder condition and establish it on a more stable basis. Six wearisome months have been wasted in fruitless discussions, and there is danger that that body will adjourn leaving things precisely as they were when it assembled. Can the republican party afford to go before the country with such a record of impotence and imbeoility on the most im- portant question of the session? If it leaves the financial question in the same state in which it found it, and utterly dis- appoints public expectation after confessing the importance of the subject by devoting to it so much time and debate, will not the country be likely to condemn and repudiate the party as incapable of dealing with great public necessities? To borrow one of Mr. Lincoln’s apt phrases, the people will regard arepublican Congress as “an auger that won't bore.’’ We would fain hope that the party in power may yet, though late, take a realizing sense of the disadvantages under which it is likely to go into this year’s elec- tions, and do something to retrieve its credit while the lamp of the present session, in the language of the good Dr. Watts, holds out to burn. The Vacancy in the Park Commission. In selecting a successor to Mr. Wales in the Park Commission it is possible that the Mayor may so far disregard public opinion as to appoint an agent of Comptroller Green or & person probably respectable enough in character, but known only as a political wire- puller. Mr. Havemeyer's appointments have not heretofore been such as to inspire confi- dence in his choice on the present important occasion. But he is ambitious for a third term in the City Hall, so that before his offi- cial life closes he may be tolerably certain of burying the veteran Matsell with police honors, and of securing a number of other vacancies in the public departments through the natural workings of time. Under these circumstances, much as it gratifies him to astonish the community by his official vaga- ries, ordinary prudence should suggest the HERALD, MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1874.—TRIPL spicuously in his veto, has insisted on the | | foreign vessels, at least, should be required to take our pilots to bring them into port. There may be a question as to whether const- ing vessels, or a certain class of coasting vessels, might be exempted or not from come pulsory pilotage ; but there is none, we be- lieve, as to the class of larger vessels in the foreign trade. If pilotage were abolished we should have, in the course of a few years, probably, the outer channel blocked by wrecks ; ond if one skilful captain acquainted with the harbor would bring his ship in safely, and should be permitted to do so, how many not as capable, or may be not capable at all, woald venture to do the same thing, in order to avoid expense, and so meet with disaster? Rochefort. The extraordinary interest inspired by the letter of M. Rochefort to the Hzratp, which we printed yesterday, leads us to announce its republication in the Wezxiy Hxraup, with some corrections in the translation, made necessary by the extreme haste in which our work was done. Nothing has been written for a long time on French politics that will make the impression of this manifesto. It is the awakening of a voice, at one time the most powerful in France, from the silence of exile and imprisonment. We have read nothing on French politics since Victor Hugo’s ‘‘Napo- leon the Little’ so masterly, so subtle and so severe, The writing of the Lanterne was a wonder in its way, but nothing in the Lanterne will compare with this letter for brilliancy and force. We can well understand why M. Rochefort has been so great a man in France, why he may again be as powerful. But the very qualities in this letter which captivate our sense of humor and taste are the qualities which make us fear that his counsels are not always the counsels of safety. M. Rochefort seems to have the genius of destruction. He understands annihilation. He can tear down. But what France needs isa man who will build up. Republicanism never took healthy root except ay conservatism. The greatness of Washington was that he insisted upon @ conservative republic, although men as attractive and brilliant as M. Rochefort, ambassadors from France, coming as the en- yoys of a friendly Power, insisted that he should make a republic on the model of that of Robespierre. If MacMahon will do as much he will inspire a confidence in France and in the constancy of its republicanism which all the genius of M. Rochefort cannot destroy. While, therefore, we are far from agreeing with M. Rochefort, we gladly print the mani- festo which he addresses through our columns, A great newspaper is a lyceum, and all opin- ions are entitled to a hearing. Contending governors in Arkansas threatening civil war, Livingstone in Africa striving to suppress the slave trade, Brigham Young in Utah anxious to defend his empire, Bismarck solicitous to have the good opinions of mankind—all seek the Henaip as the rostrum which addresses the world. It is natural that M. Rochefort, looming up from the sepulchre of exile, should desire to be heard on the same ros- trum. He has said many things, wise and unwise, which will be read with interest throughout the world. Cheap Transportation. New York may well be proud of and have confidence in its commanding commercial position. There is, too, great power in its capital to draw and control trade. But it may lose relatively, or even positively, in amount of business through the natural ad- danger of bringing upon the Park Department similar scandals to those which now blacken the reputation of the departments of Police and Charities aud Correction, It will scarcely be safe for Mr. Havemeyer to outrage public decency much longer, and after the exposure made by Mr. Wales any questionable appoint- ment to fill the vacancy caused by that gentle- man’s resignation would be regarded as suffi- cient ground for the removal of the Mayor. Central Park has heretofore been the pride of the city, and all that has been objec- tionable in its management has been traced to Mr. Green. While active Commissioner he con- trived to draw more than ten thousand dollars a year out of the Treasury for his personal services, although filling what was supposed to be an unsalaried office. No other Commis- sioner since the Park was first pro- jected has displayed such a wmer- cenary spirit. Since Mr. Green has been unable to draw money directly from the parks he has sought to control the patronage and the action of the Department, and, according to the showing of Mr. Wales, has fastened upon its funds an army of in- competent and unnecessary employés. The very fact that the Comptroller interferes in any manner with the appointments and ex- penditures of an independent department, whose requisitions and bills he audits and allows, is itself an evidence of venality and corruption. Colonel Stebbins, the present President of the Park Commission, may ae- suredly be trusted to put a stop to this scandal and to protect the interests of the people. But he cannot do so single-handed, and it rests with the Mayor to decide whether, by the appointment of such a citizen as Leonard W. Jerome to the vacant commissionership, he will secure the reforms so much needed or make the Park Department as no- torious as the Police or Charities and Cor- rection and drive every honorable citizen out of the Commission. Colonel Stebbins and Mr. Jerome are gentlemen of high social position, of wealth, taste, leisure and energy. They are familiar with European parks and know well how to make our own popular and enjoyable with comparatively insignificant expenditure. They have no political ambi- tion to subserve, no incompetent friends to provide for and no interests save those of the people to study. The Mayor has tho sole re- sponsibility in the matter. He can appoint Mr. Jerome, he can place the Commission in the hands of Mr. Green, or he can inject some political wirepuller for purposes of his own. But consequences of a more serious character than he may imagine may result from another abuse of his power. Tue Prot Laws.—We do not think the abolishment of pilot laws and allowing every captain to pilot his own vessel into port would detract from the commercial supremacy of this city or cause one ship less to come here, and therefore do not support our system of pilotage on that ground. We maintain that it is in the interest of commerce, for the benefit of the vantages or enterprise of other places unless means be taken to head off rivals and to im- prove the channels of- commerce. Over confidence is sometimes dangerous or fatal. The greatest commercial cities of former times have lost their trade by self- satisfied security and by closing their eyes to the march of events. The monetary power and benefits of a favorable exchange were transferred from Amsterdam to London, and, as a consequence, the commerce of the world to England, bya little adroit financial manage- ment. Our capitalists and merchants should not feel too secure or despise the efforts made to create a diversion of trade. A bill has just been read a third time in the Canadian Parliament to incorporate the International Transportation Company, with @ capital of five millions of dollars. The object is to draw a large portion of the trade with our Western States down the St. Law- rence or by the Dominion railroads to Port- land. It is estimated that the cost will be twenty-five to thirty per cent less for freight by this route than by the way of New York. Thon the Pennsylvania railroads are building large steam vessels for transporting coal to every part of the United States to be used in place of the schooners and coal boats that have deposited their cargoes at New York. Baltimore and other Southern ports are striv- ing for more direct trade with foreign coun- tries. The object should be, therefore, to control all these efforts and make New York the cheapest as well as the best point for collecting and shipping the produce of the country. In connection with this subject we may ad- vert to the remarks of President Grant in his message to Congress on the value of improved water communication both with the West and along theinterior waters of the Atlantic sea- board, such communication being much cheaper than by railroad. Our canal system could be made much more useful in this respect than at present; and the cost of handling and shipping grain and other pro- ducts at this port ought to be greatly re- duced. In connection with General Grant's idea of utilizing the seaboard interior waters by canals we may notice that Senator Cam- eron brought this matter before the Senate a few days ago, with a view to have surveys made by government engineers for a ship canal between the Chesapeake Bay and Dela- ware Bay, by the way of the Sassafras River, and also for making the waters of the Susque- hanna navigable. This project of a ship eanal from the Chesapeake to the Delaware by the route Mr. Cameron referred to is about to be carried out, charters having been ob- tained from both the States of Mary- land and Delaware. This canal will shorten the distance from Baltimore to New York two hundred and twenty-five miles, and then the coal of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad region can be brought at a dollar less cost a ton to the people and shipping of this port. This line of communication will make Baltimore an entrepot of New York for the vast trade of the South and Southwest. shipping merchants generally, as well as a necessarv nrotection to the harbor. that Such entervrises aa this one will go far not E SHEET. only to preserve the commerce of New York, but to keep enlarging it .with the growth and development of the country. If the ship canal system were extended through the sounds of North Carolina to tap the cotton, tobacco and turpentine regions, Norfolk would soon become also an important entrepot of this city. With cheaper, safer and more rapid transportation, production would be greatly stimulated and New York, as well as the South, would reap the benefit. Only enterprise and the use of capital are wanted. Our merchants and rich men ought to direct their attention to all these and to every avenue of commerce with the interior that can be opened, so as to check rivalry and to maintain the commercial supremacy of this great metropolis, The Pulpit Yesterday. The pastor of Plymouth Church preached yesterday on a theme well adapted for setting forth his broad and liberal views. He quoted as his text the philosophical and broadly Christian words of Paul to the Romans:— “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not.” The first Christians, like those of the present day, were apt to quarrel over forms and ceremonies, and the question of eating meats was a cause of dissension. Paul, who was Obristian philosopher, chided them for this narrowness of mind, and inculcated a more liberal view of Christianity. Still he would eat or abstain from eating meats if he could win souls and bring harmony among the followers of Christ. Mr. Beecher enlarged upon the text, to inculcate the largest charity and forbearance toward those who differed in unimportant matters, Whatever may be said of this gentleman's orthodoxy his discourse yesterday was in the true spirit of Christianity. Mr. Frothingham, in something of the same spirit, attacked sectarianism and quoted largely from the great and ancient founders of religion, and particularly from the remarks of Jesus, to sustain the ground he took. He also dwelt upon the comprehensive liberality and charity of Paul. Though Mr. Frothing- ham is a free thinker and lays his axe at the root of what orthodox Christians believe to be the foundation of their religion—-the miracles of the New Testament—his just attacks upon the contracted sectarianism of the day must prove useful. The Rev. Dr. Porter maintained that Christ taught not dogmas valuable only as opinions, but principles of vital and unchanging efli- cacy, and that He illustrated these in His life. While he held that the Gospel admitted of no improvement he does not hesitate to say that the professed followers of Jesus generally have not realized the principles set forth. Dr. Chapin spoke eloquently of the Transfig- uration, and made special reference in connec- tion with that subject to Decoration Day. He showed his tact in seizing a current event to popularize a Gospel theme. “Those memorial flowers,’’ he said, ‘with which they are strewing the soldiers’ graves, are themselves most fitting types of trans- figuration. Flowers are the symbols of pity, tenderness and love. The North and tho South do not look like enemies now—they sleep side by side. The nation scatters gar- lands not only upon the Northern dead, but upon the nation’s dead. They transfigure the nation’s thought.” Mr. Hepworth preached in the morning on ‘Death and the Victory of Immortal Life.’’ He made special reference to a departed friend, and alluded to his secession from the “old Church.” This part of his discourse was touching, as it referred to his personal experi- ence and relations with the deceased. Dr. Lyman, at the South Congregational church, Brooklyn, spoke of the inscrutable ways of God and justified them. He took for his text the language in Job, ‘In @ moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at mid- night and pass away.’ We publish a report also of the proceedings at the annual ordina- tion of the Diocese of Long Island and of the annual meeting of the Methodist Extension Society and of the missionary work in this city. American Securitics and German Bank- ers—Effect of the President’s Veto. Our Frankfort correspondence, published to-day, will prove unusually interesting just now, as it gives the views of the leading Ger- man bankers on the currency question in this country, the President’s veto of the Currency bill, and the status of railroad and other secu- rities abroad. The impression made upon the Frankfort bankers by the veto was good. The telegram announcing the fact arrived on the Bourse at midday, and it had the effect of re- storing confidence in American securities Mr. Seligmann said to our correspondent, “the impression produced was very good,” and Baron Erlanger said it ‘produced an ex- cellent impression,”’ and that the President's act “would prove of vast importance to the country.” Other prominent bankers expressed themselves in the same way. It appears, how- ever, that there has been a good deal of dis- trust of American railroad bonds and that they have been quoted very low. The idea is that the bonds of worthless railroads or of railroads that cannot pay have been forced upon the German market. While there is no doubt that we have been making railroads faster than they were needed or where they would not pay, there may be some misapprehension as to these works of improvement. Many would pay ona bond fide capital invested and when properly managed, but will not pay on a fictitious capital or in- flated stock and securities. Foreign invest- ors should look into this matter. Then the railroads that do not pay at present will in the course of a few years—that is, provided they are properly managed, for the rapid in- crease of population and development of the country will bring increased business. There are many good railroad and other enter- prises in the United States, and foreign capitalists must blame themselves if they do not select these for investment. However, it is gratifying to know that the President's veto, with its tendency towards a stable cur- rency, has in some measure restored confi- dencein American honesty among the German bankers and capitalists. Cannot Stanp Any More Tatx.—The House Committee on Appropriations, having charge of the postal telegraph question, has notified the counsel of the Western Union Telegraph Company that it can receive no more argu- ments or communications orally, and that if the company has anything more to submit it muat, be submitted in writing. Of course the committee politely Informs the company that any representation made in that way will be carefully considered, but, in truth, we imagine the committee is tired of the reiterated argu- ments and endless palaver of the Western Union Company's agents. However, the com- pany may find consolation in the report that there is not likely to be any action on the gub- ject this session of Congress, The Embarrassments of the Reform City Government, The reform city government is full of en» barrassments. The machinery refuses to work smoothly, and every effort to put it ip good running order only seems to create new entanglements. The Police Department, which is supposed to watch over the lives and property of the citizens and to guard the morals of the community, is involved in difi- culties, first of one character and then of another, until the puzzled looker on is induced to believe that the department is one com- posed of criminals instead of one established for the prevention, detection and punishment of crime. Now it is charged with being in league with gamblers, policy dealers, banco men and other enterprising individuals in search of a living. Now it is im trusted with the supervision of street cleaning, in addition to its other duties, and becomes the subject of investigation for alleged mal- practices in the contract and dumping line. A vacancy occurs in the Commission which rules over the department, and the Mayor and Aldermen get at loggerheads over the appoint ment and fail to supply a Commissioner. In accordance with a bargain between the repub- lican leaders and the Mayor the latter is endowed by the republican Legislature with the power of filling vacancies without the confirmation of the Aldermen, and straight- way the venerable aspirant for a third term appoints a commissioner of his own selec- tion, whose cue appears to be to settle up all outstanding difficulties and make straight sailing for his patron, But the astonishing appointee is scarcely warm in his seat when he commences a rattling of the dry bones of the old Board, which bids fair to prove more damaging than a dozen investiga- tions. The Department of Charities and Cor- rection is no better off than the Police De- partment. Placed in the hands of new com~» missioners, with the calcium light of ree form shining brightly at its head, the Charities and Correction business is sup- posed to be above suspicion at last. Bat Grand Juries are inquisitive bodies, and one of these inquests chooses to inquire into cer tain purchases made by the reform depart- ment and to present them as being of a very questionable character, illegal and tending directly to corruption. The chivalrous Mayor rushes to the rescue of his Commissioners, alumbers sweetly ovor a pretended investiga- tion and dreams that the trouble is over. But the newspapers persist in discussing the sub- ject, and desire to know whether it is honest reform to buy supplies for the city of a middle- man and to pay from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent more than the articles cost. The in- quiry widens until it promises to embrace the purchase of flour, meat and horses as well as dry goods, and to involve the point whether the location of the whole Commission ought not to be changed from Eleventh street to Blackwell's Island. While Commissioner Stern’s dry goods will not be forgotten, and while Commissioner Laimbeer’s flour may require sifting, the ques tion of the meat supply for the paupers and criminals promises to come up as & new em barrassment in this particular department A glance at the warrants drawn by the Comp- troller from April 9 to July 26, 1873, a period of little more than five months, shows thata fortunate butcher has received from the Charities and Correction Department in that time for meat eighty-two thousand five hun- dred and ninety dollars, At six cents per pound, which, we understand, is the average price under the contract, this sum pays for more than one million three hundred and seventy thousand pounds of fresh meat in less than six months, or over two hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds per month. As the inmates of the institutions are only allowed fresh meat four days in the week, this, allowing eighteen days in the month for the luxury, would make the con-. sumption about fourteen thousand pounds per day. Itappears that meat and poultry are supplied for the officers by other contrac- tors, Now that these figures are likely to come up again in the Grand Jury room, despite the searching investigation made by the Mayor’s high and somnolent court, the embarrass- ment of the reform government can be readily understood. In view of these facts the will- ingness of our venerable Mayor to accept again the cares of office must be regarded as an act of devotion to the public interests worthy of the days of Curtius, The Mill River Dam, The evidence brought out by the Coroner’ inquest into the Mill River disaster tends to show that it was wholly due to the careleas way in which the*dam had been constructed. Want of solidity rendered it from the first dangerous, and although the contractors and the mill owners charge upon each other the responsibility publie opinion will hold both parties guilty of crim- inal indifference to the lives of the people. It is no excuse for the contractors that the selfish cupidity of the mill owners had caused them to erect a structure which was certain to be source of danger. There was nothing to com- pel the contractors to accept the responsi- bility of building a dam which they knew would be unsound and dangerous. It was their duty to refuse to erect such a structure. On the other hand, the mill owners’ excuse is equally unworthy of serious attention. Business people, they trusted in the good faith of the contractors to erect a proper structure. If this excuse was seriously made it would show those who ad- vance it to be very silly people; but in fact it is only put forth asan attempt to cover up the selfish greediness which caused them ta put up an insecure dam at the risk of bring- ing disaster and death to tho inhabitants of the valley. STATE TREASURER RAINES! CONDITION. Unica, N. Y., May 81, 1874. State Treasurer Raines does not improve very much, mentally or physically, He is still very feeble and unable to leave nis bed. Under the most favor~ able circumstances he will not ve able (o resume active duties for two or three months. Dr. Gray has [oformed Governar Dix of this [act