Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1908 — THE DEVIL AND THE MONK. [ARTICLE]

THE DEVIL AND THE MONK.

The Republican party has been in absolute control in the state for twelve years. Up to the present year the leaders of that party felt that their hold was unshakable. They believed that the people would overlook or condone any extravagance of which Republican legislatures and Republican officials might be guilty. No effort was made to reduce expenses or to cut down the tax burdens of the people. Everything went, and nothing so rapidly as the public funds. Needless offices were created at every session of the legislature. Extraordinary commissions were provided for. Official salaries of all kinds were made higher and higher. Armies of “inspectors,” “examiners,” “experts,” and so on and so forth were marshalled before the door of the treasury. “All sorts” of public jobs for "all sorts” of party favorites and disappointed office-seekers were manufactured. The people would “stand for it,” and that was enough for the Republican managers. It was only a part of the “business administration” that the party orators talked about and the party editors, wrote about.

But now, in 1908, with the political skies darkened and defeat staring them In the face, the Republican leaders bring a platform Into their state convention in which they say that they are “opposed to the creation of unnecessary public offices” and are “opposed to the increase of the salary of any public officer in the state for the term fdr which he has been nominated or elected," Just think of the nerve of it!

The devil wanted to be a monk when he got sick, but he was a devil of a monk when his liver went to work on schedule time. Feeling politically sick just now, the Republican managers are willing to promise to be good. But they don’t mean it. Two years ago the Democrats denounced them for the reckless waste of the public revenues for unnecessary offices and higher salaries, but when the legislature met it immediately made a lot of new jobs and raised salaries calling for an additional expenditure of >320,000. A change of parties is the only remedy for these evils.