Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1884 — THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OUGHT TO GO. [ARTICLE]

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OUGHT TO GO.

A Republican Journal Give* Reasons That Are Conclusive. Take the star-route frauds as an example. The vast majority of the people of the United States are convinced that many millions of dollars were stolen by a combination of mail contractors and public officials. They witnessed an attempt to bring the guilty parties to justice. The exposition of the frauds made it clear beyond the possibility of a doubt that there were'groups of contractors, numbering in all more than a baker’s dozen of individuals. After a year’s preparation, with all the resources of the Government supposed to be at the command of the officers of justice, only one of the smallest of these different groups was brought to the criminal bar More than a year consumed in (he tr al of this group, ■during ’’which the Government disbursed in lawyers’ fees alone more than Eo-thirds as much as the conspirators jre alleged to have stolen. Long here the'trials were concluded it was to every intelligent man. woman and child in the country that the so-called prosecution was farcical, and the acquittal of the accused was not unexpected. In a public address the Attorney General declared that during two years more than $4,000,000 had been stolen from the. public treasury by these bands of plunderers, and two years have since elapsed without a •dollar of the money being recovered or a single thief being punished. Has there been any public outcry at this miscarriage of justice? Have there been any evidences of popular discontent at the manifest incompetency, to use no harsher term, of the public prosecutors? How is this supineness of the people to be accounted for ? Only upon the theory—the all-pervading conviction—that the Government is the legitimate prey of all who can successfully rob it of millions. The Government is an abstraction to the people in times of peace and general prosperity. They vaguely recognize the fact that they are the Government, and that they have been robbed—but in the abstract of an infinitesimal sum. A series of wholesale robberies, by highwaymen or burglars, in a community, would cause intense local excitement, and rouse every man to desperation, and if the public authorities failed to do their duty a vigilance committee would speedily set Judge Lynch at work. — New York Times. 9

A Government of Monopolies. A bill is before the United States Senate the object of which is to secure the debt owed to the Government by the subsidized Pacific railroads. The accounts prepared in the office of the Commissioner of Railroads, in the Department of the Interior, show that on the 30th of last June the total indebtedness of those corporations to the United States was $102,376,000. Under the loose policy pursued by Congress in all matters involving the"interests of railroad corporations, the Government has yielded little by little the security it ought to have held for this large debt, until it finds itself with nothing more than the general lien created by the terms of the charters. When the subsidy bonds were authorized they were to be the first lien on the roads. But the corporations subsequently obtained legislation authorizing the issue of mortgage bonds to an amount equal to the subsidy bonds and to take the place of the latter as first mortgage bonds. When the subsidies were voted it was argued that the charges for Government transportation would speedily diminish the indebtedness of the roads to the United States, and it was supposed as a matter of course that the total transportation expense would become a set-off against the debt due the Government. But the lobbies and the sharp, thrifty Republican Congressmen took care that the law should be so drawn as to be susceptible of a different construction. The railroad corporations soon began to demand payment of heavy bills for Government transportation, and a Republican Court of Claims decided that* the Government could not -withhold from the roads their earnings, except for transportation over the subsidized portion of tbeir lines. The interpretation of the law has compelled the United States for years to pay to the corporations large sums of money, although the latter are indebted to the Government in an enormous amount, the eventual recovery of which is very doubtful. In one instance the thoughtful Republican Congress so framed a bill as to enable the Republican courts to uphold the construction placed upon it by the corporations, that it did not oblige them to pay the interest until the principal becomes due! While Allen G. Thurman was in the Senate he procured tne passage of an act requiring 25 per cent, of the net earnings of the subsidized roads to be applied to the payment of the debt. But the constitutionality of this law is contested by the companies, although it is now in operation. Besides, the corporations forbid the investment of the amount in United States bonds, as the Thurman 1 act provides, on the plea that they lose the premiums which the bonds may command at the time of purchase. Thus over SBOO,OOO of the Union Pacific’s money and as much of the Central Pacific’s, deducted under the Thurman act, remains in the treasury uninvested. When the proper time comes the Supreme Court, with its packed and purchased Judgeships, will doubtless be prepared to pronounce the Thurman act unconstitutional and to refund the accumulations under it to the corporations. In plain language, the venal Republican Congresses and administrations of twenty years past have given the people over to the railroad corporations, bound hand and foot When the subsidized companies choose to go into bankruptcy the Government will be forced to become a purchaser under foreclosure, subject io the first mortgage bonds, or wiß see the property pass into the j hands of the Huntingtons, Dillons, and Goulds, with the whole debt due to the United States wiped out.

Even if the Thurman act should be enforced, the accumulations under it, together with all sums in the sinking fund and a credit of the whole Government transportation service, would still leave $75,000,000 due to the United States when the subsidy bonds fall due. No wonder the Commissioner of Railroads says that the Government is at the mercy of the roads. This Paa been the mission of the Republican party since its old issues died out, when the patriotism of the whole people had crushed rebellion and rebellion had killed slavery. In place of a government of the people, bv the people, and for the people, they have built up a government of monopolies, by monopolies, and for monopolies! The bill now proposed in the Senate would secure the payment of the large amount due from the subsidized roads to the Government, and would prevent the corporations from stealing the public moneys in addition to grabbing the public lands. With a Republican Senate and President it is n.Qt likely to become a law.— New York World.

A Shameful Record. The history of the United States Navy department for the last twenty years is one of jobs, steals and criminal wastefulness. After annual appropriations, ranging from $13,000,000 to $13,000,000 for two decades, the United States, which, with the proper disbursement of this vast sum of money, ought to have had one of the best and most extensive navies in the world, possesses a socalled navy unworthy to be compared with those of several insignificant South American Governments. The records of the Navy depaitment of England, whose navy is, perhaps, the most costly and formidable in the universe, reveal no such'liberal appropriations as these, yet the United States navy is the laughing stock of every naval power in the world. In spite of expenditures of an even $100,010,000 by bureaus of construction during a period of eighteen years, the only vessels built within the last dozen years were eight wooden ships built under the act of 1873; two torpedo vessels, the Intrepid and Alarm, of which the former is a confessed failure, and the latter by no means a success; the five unfinished monitors and the four steel ships begun last summer. Concerning the thirty-seven unarmored vessels afloat, Secretary Chandler a year ago reported: “They are'of low speed, their engines are not modern, only fourteen being compound, and their steam maneuvering and destructive powers are inferior to those of the present war ships of other nations.” Of these thirty-seVen ships, one, the Ashueiot, was sunk in February; two, the Alaska and Tuscarora, were sold for junk a few weeks ago at Mare island navy-yard and brought $25,000 and $12,000 respectively. The following is a list of vessels built since the war: Tons displacement. Alarm, iron 1,750 Adams, wood 1,376 Alaska (sold), wood 2,400 Alert, iron . 1,020 Alliance, wood 1,375 Amphitrite (unfinished monitor), iron 3,815 Antietam (stricken from list), wood 4,000 Benicia (offered for sale—no bid), wood 2,400 Enterprise, wood 1,375 Essex, wood 1,375 -GaiVna, wood 1,900 Intrepid, iron 800 Mariop, woo l 1,900 Miantonomah (unfinished monitor), fron.. .3,815 Monadnock (unfinished monitor) iron 3,815 Nipsic, wood 1,375 Puritan tuntthished monitor), iron 6,000 Quinnebauu. w00d..; 1,900 Ranger, iron 1.-020 Swatara, wood 1,900 Tallapoosa, wood 1,270 Trenton, wood 3.9c0 Terror (unfiuisaed monitor), iron 3,815 Vandalia, Wood 2,200 Some of the figures showing the expenses of the navy-yards, the cost of repairs, wages and salaries of seamen and officers, may perhaps interest the American patriot who, seeing no navy, wonders where his mon,ey has gone to. The whole cost of the nine navy-yards up to June 30,1882, was $54,227,722.67. The expenditure of yards and docks for fifteen years ending June 30, 1882, was $23,945,176.80, and for the five years, 1877-81, there was expended at all the navy-yards, except Mare island, for support of yards, $10,714,702.55; labor, $5,463,054.77; material, $6,525,919.38. At the navy-yards Nov. 16, 1882, there were 326 commissioned and warrant officers, 2,501 enlisted men and marines, and 4,464 employes, whose wages that day were $11,319.37. The only work going on was the manufacture of stores and the repairs on seven naval vessels. The bureaus of construction and repairs, steam engineering, equipment and recruiting, and ordnance spent during Robeson’s eight years at the head of the Navy department $74,399,153.98.— Washington cor. Chicago Times.

A Republican Disgrace. The examination of ex-Speaker Keifer by a sub-committee of the House Committee on Accounts ought to bring a glow of honest pride to the Republican members who did not see anything to prevent them from casting complimentary votes for Mr. Keifer for Speaker. The sub-committee has examined Mr. Keifer, and will report that he insisted upon discharging an accomplished stenographer on the last day of the session, in order to give the stenographer’s place to his own nephew, of whom there is no evidence that he is a stenographer at all, and to secure his nephew the stenographer’s pay during the recess. That is to say, Mr. Keifer used his position as Speaker to put his hand into the public treasury and transfer therefrom $3,850 to the pocket of his nephew in exchange fo* no service whatever. These facts were known before. They are now to be officially reported to the House for its action. In a House where public spirit and a delicate sense of honor prevailed, such a showing would secure the expulsion of the offender.— New York Times, Rep. Looking the field over it is not hard to answer the query as to where we are to find those who will take the place of the protectionists who may leave us. If there are some Democrats who do not yet understand this, the Republicans do, as is proven by their frantic efforts to divert the contest from practical to sectional and sentimental grounds.— Louisville Courier-Jour-nal.