Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1883 — The Rascals that Must Go. [ARTICLE]

The Rascals that Must Go.

The editor who formulated this campaign shibboleth has provoked more intense and general indignation than he could possibly have anticipated. Why it is we do not know, but it seems to be a fact, nevertheless, that almost everybody in office finds marching orders in

the expression, “Turn the rascals out. ” Who are the rascals who are to be turned out, and to insure whose exit the defbat of their party is necessary? There are about 105,000 men in executive offices. That a majority of these are «honest and capable may be fairly assumed. But there are bad men in every department of the public service. There are men in office, not only‘in Washington, but all over the country, who would not lie trusted by their neighbors with half the responsibilities that the Government has placed in their hands. There are some thousands of men who hold offices that were given to them as paym-mt for dirty work. Among these are rascals that will be turned out and kept out, for the era of reform is here, and public offices will not much longer be used as currency to pay political debts. Officeholders who act upon the theory that their first duty is to the party, and who give to the work marked out by the bosses the tipie for which the ] dople pay, are getting money that they do not earn aud never intended to earn. These are dishonest men. They must go. Officials who get or try to get fees for services not rendered—as is the case with some hundreds under the Department of Justice —are among the rascals who are going to be put out. Officials who use public funds to aid their party, whether in Virginia, as exposed by Dezendorf, or in Michigan, as related by Jay Hubbell, or in any State or locality—these are some of the precious rascals who must join the procession; Officials who, on any pretext, use public property for personal pleasure or profit, beleng to the class whose exit is demanded. It is a numerous class, and it has flourished and grown bolder year after year. But —it must go. Officials who conspire with outsiders to defraud the Government in purchasing supplies constitute a dangerous and, we have reason to believe, a numerous class of the rascals that are to be turned out. All officials, of all departments and branches, who are dishonest or unfaithful, who will not give and who do not intend to give fair service to the Government, who look upon office as a personal perquisite rather than a public trust —all such should prepare for the exodus. Washington Post.