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Show I ! THE POSTM ASTER-G EXE K A L. ; i t I The Tribune undertakes this morning 1.1 , to justify its attack of Wednesday on the f ' j Postmaster-General. It takes exception I to the Democrat's charge that its article ; I on Mr. Vilas was partisan. If it was not 1 , " partisan, pray what was it? In that arti- ; cle it 6iid that Mr. Vilas "determined J that the $40(1,000, ordered by Congress j for that purpose, should not be used, if by any means he could avoid it by em- ; ' ploying ships which, being subsidized by j I ' their own governments, will gladly earn' - the .mails of the United States at a loss, ' "t i if necessary, in order to keep the Ameri-! Lj , can flag from the ocean. So, Mr! Vilas ; f tried, by a miserable trick, to get the ; s I i mails carried down the coast from San ' ; ' Francisco as baggage." Does not' this , j seem partisan, and partisan of the most " t i ' ultra tj-pe? Is not it a just inference to1 - ' i say that Mr. Vilas was determined to j ' "keep the American flag from the ocean."' j I and was not that what was intended i J by the Tribune f Might not j I some other motive have actuated Mr. ' ! Vilas than the one attributed to him by 1 1 . i s the Tribune f Mr. Vilas did withhold the $400,000 appropriated by Congress as a subsidy, but does that fact warrant the assertion that the amount appropriated by Congress for the purpose of subsidiz-; subsidiz-; ing American ships "should Jiot be used, if by any means he" (Mr. Vilas) "could . avoid it by employing ships which, being subsidized by their own governments, govern-ments, will gladly carry the mails of the ; United States at a loss, if necessary, in order to keep the American flag from the ocean ?" May not Mr. -Vilas have had ,: some other object in view than this when ; he refused to pay over the subsidy? j Mr. Vilas believed that he had a discre-i discre-i tion in the matter, and he used his discretion dis-cretion for the best interest of the coun-: coun-: try because hefiftnly believed that this : same $400,000 had been engineered : through as a "job." It would be sheer ; nonsense to assume that Mr. Vilas acted ' captiously in the matter, or that he acted j j without consulting the Attorney-General, j the proper advising officer of the Govern-j Govern-j ment. On the ground of common sense j we deny the charges which the Tribune. ; makes. The Tribune says we did not pretend to ! show that any of its statements regarding the acts of Mr. Vilas are not true. We J did not on Wednesday, because we J thought its article carried its own refutation, refuta-tion, but to-day we deny that any one statement in that article is true. The Tri-j Tri-j hunt said that Mr. Vilas put the mails be-1 be-1 ween Florida and Cuba on fishing smacks. Will the Tribune mention the name of anjr single fishing-smack carrying. U. S. mails between Florida and Cuba, or the company or person to which such fishing-smack fishing-smack belongs? If it will not, can it give the information asked ? If this talk about putting U. S. mails on fishing-smacks fishing-smacks is not partisan spleen, prav what is it? ! The Tribune says we may rest our soul j in peace on the question of Government j recognition, and that it asks nothing for j itself or for its friends. Our soul is at j peace, we assure the Tribune; but our j soul cannot understand what the Tribune j means when it says it asks nothing j for itself or its friends in view of j the solicitations of its business man- ager. Only this week, " a well-j well-j known attorney of this city told us j that the business manager of the Tribune i had said to him that all' Land Office busi- ness should go to the Tribune. Was this asking for something or not? That the gentleman who is business manager for the Tribune is a Democrat we admit, but his Democracy is of that pure, intense type which caused him to support Mr. Blaine in preference to Mr. Cleveland. We believe the Tribune will recognize any good thing that the present Administration Admin-istration or any of its officers may do, and give full credit therefor, but we are strongly of the opinion that theTribune thinks it impossible for a Democratic Administration Ad-ministration to do a good and worthy thing. |