Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1892 — WITHOUT A SOUL. [ARTICLE]

WITHOUT A SOUL.

Our Glorious Government as a Debtor l» a Scoundrel. J The United States of America as a debtor is the most unconscionable scoundrel on the earth, write* Col. Van Horn, the veteran editor of fee Kansas City Journal, fa a Washington letter. A claim against the government is like an ancient case in chancery, —and much of the importunity of congressmen is from people, poor, in distress, want and poverty, to whom the government has honestly been in debt for a generation. 1 would like to see a president and a congress elected oh the direct issue of paying the honest debts of the nation. Then, how to pay, instead of how not to pay, would become for once the publio policy. I know men in congress who have made a national reputation as economic statesmen, because of their long and pertinacious objecting to the payment of money, hi whose shoes f would not stand in the heteafter for all the honors ever heaped upon them or their kind since the nation was founded—norwould I sleep with the conscience they ought to have for all the honors a generation of kindreds souls could bestow. And nine times in ten this affected zeal for the publio treasury, that sends scores and hundreds to suicide, crime or paupers’ graves, is the merest studied demagogism. I know there are fradulent claims before congress and it goes with proverbial unanimity that they are mom apt to be paid than the hodestonds 4rfov they ean- be prosecuted on contingent fees, while honest debts cannot afford to pay—but even these pretexts ought not to be regarded so as to control the policy of congress. If the people of the United States could for a moment see and realize the terrible wrongs perpetrated by the men they send to congress, they would Vote money enough to pay the claims etc masse, rather than see and know the suffering, the wrong and the in'amous cruelty perpetrated against legitimate creditors of the government I know on® ease of a man who'was an inmate of tho house I make my home here, who litorally starved to death a little more than a year ago, ah accomplished man, a scholar and n gentleman, to whom the government owed an adjudicated claim of $70,000, money advanced on its own authority out of his own pocket because he could not get congress to appropriate the money to pay it And this ease, infamous as it was, is only a sample of scores and hundreds of others. I have said that as a debtor tho United States is the most infamous scoundrel on earth—and don’t such a case as this, as far as it goes, sustain tho allegation? WILL NOT LEAVE) LOUISIANA.

Wbat f*resident Conrad Has to Say About the Big Lottery. New Orleans, Aug. 26. President Paul Cdnrad, of the Louisiana Lottory Company, was interviewed to-day about the dispatch regarding tho company's attempt to purchase a location in the Sandwich Islands. He said: It is a ‘fake’ sensation pure simple, or a malicious concoction, designed, perhaps, to prejudice the company in the minds of the people of the United States by creating the impression that our business is to be removed bythe legal restrictions and accountability it is now under by the virtue of the laws of Louisiana, Wego the Louisiana State Lottery Company to become a Hawaiian instead of a'Louisiana concern, of course it would be practically an impossibility to enforce claims against; whorCas, being a duly chartered corporation of this State, it Is amendable to the Laws. Obligations can be enforced through the courts against it the sames as against any lawful and responsible company. ’ “But what are the company’s plans for the future? Might not their negotiations be carried on without your koowlege?" “Scarcely such vast sums as talked of are not carried in one vest pocket nor expended by one member of a concern without consulting his associates. The owners of the Louisiana Lottery are now scattered over the globe seeking peace or pleasure, according to their condition or taste. Mr Morns, With friends, have been for weeks cruising about on his yaet, and I doubt if any one has communicated on business of any description. Certainly.he is not giving himself any concern about lotttery business, and I repeat there is simply nothing in the alleged San Francisco story except idle gossip, so far aa I know and I think I know all the facte. The Louisiana Lottery Company will live out its allotted time as fixed by its vested rights, say a couple of years longer, doing its business hers as it always has, and abiding by the popular decision in the recent contest.’’— 27 th.