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Show Mr. Yilas and the Subsidy Men. Postmaster-General "Vilas could not ask anything better for his fame than the execution of the threat of the subsidy-mongers subsidy-mongers to introduce a resolution in Congress Con-gress censoring him for not paying over to the steamship companies the $800,000 grab which they got through the last Congress in its closing and half-drunken hours. Such a proposition would attract the attention of the country to an outrageous out-rageous abuse of legislative power and win for him the praise of most honest men for defeating an utterly indefensible gift of public money to private corporations. corpora-tions. Men in office, who value the esteem of the' people, cannot ask for a better issue on which to be assailed than that. The subsidy gang would fail in passing their resolution, but they would score a brilliant success in making the Postmaster-General one of the most popular men in America. The assertion that in refusing to give the steamship companies this subsidy Mr .'Vilas is setting himself above. Congress Con-gress or violating a law is grotesque nonsense. non-sense. The men who engineered that grab had no idea at the t ime it was passed that anybody would lose an opportunity to give away almost a million of dollars. If they had they would have made the grant obligatory instead of optional. In times past Cabinet officers who have been given the power to use money for private purposes have needed no second invitation. Mr. Vilas has different ideas of duty. He found that Congress . had empowered him to make various steamship steam-ship companies a present of $800,-000, $800,-000, but inquiry convinced him that the money was not necessary. The mails were already being carried at high rates, 'and when the companies which expected the subsidy refused to transport them he made other arrangements at more economical .figures. In this way he saved money on transportation, as well as the entire subsidy. To have given away the subsidy under such circumstances circum-stances would have been wasteful and dishonest, and no man in America is better qualified to see that point than Mr. Vilas himself. t While he would probably welcome an open fight with the subsidy gang in Congress, Con-gress, it is not likely that any will occur. The members who voted for that steal are not anxious to avow themselves. A few of them might be willing to do so, but now that they have been caught at their trick, the majority of them will prefer to let the matter drop. In the meantime, Mr. Vilas' action will serve as a warning to the subsidy seekers that whatever they get under this Administration will have to be in obedience to a Congressional mandate. Leaving a subsidy optional with the Postmaster-General means that there will be no subsidy. Chicago Her' aid, Nov. IS. |