Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1906 — REPUBLICAN DEPRAVITY. [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICAN DEPRAVITY.

Indicted as JtSxtravacant and Guilty of Shameful Waite. We have the assurance of Representative Landis, chairman of the committee on printing, that “in every department of the government as well as in both houses of congress there is extravagance, reckless and shameful waste, in the matter of public printing.” This indictment of the Republican party management of a simple business undertaking could be said of nearly every other department of the government if the closet was opened and the skeleton exposed. Corruption and graft have run riot under the manipulations of the party which claims all the virtues and a monojfely yf morality. To cleanse these Augean stables of the accumulated tilth amus an impossible task for those who have either participated in the accretion or stood by silently consenting to the plundering of the people. An exposure of one mess is followed, by another until the whole Republican political quarters smell to heaven and honest men hold their noses when passing by. For years, especially since 189(1, the Democrats have shown that corruption «nd graft existed and that official malversation and maladministration were prevalent, and now the exposures bT the corrupt use of vast sums to overcome the honest vote of the country and the Indictment and conviction of Republican senators and representatives by the courts prove the Democratic contention. Yet only a tithe, perhaps, of the evils has really come to light, and other statesmen and politicians held in high esteem by their party are quaking in their boots for fear of publicity. It is encouraging to the Democrats to note that in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Missouri and perhaps other states the honest Republican voters are joining with the Democrats to put down graft and corruption in state affairs, but this sensible action will only have a local effect and must be followed next year by the same course in national matters. The senate and the house of representatives must be cleansed of evil and worthless members so that preventive legislation to protect the people may be enacted.