The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-15

ing that they lacked courage. But OF whom
were they afraid
When the fifteenth amendment shall have
been eatihed and proclaimed part of the
Federal Constitution, we hope that the great
body of Northern Democrats and Southern
ex-Rebels will cry, enough and let the negro
get out of politics. We shall insist that he
be treated exactly like any one else. If he
is honest industrious, frugal, and tempe
rate, he will get on; if he is vicious,
indolent, prodigal, and drunken, he will
90 astern, Just as that sort of white
men do. If he receives a majority of votes
for any Office, he will of course take
the office, though we don't approve of elect
ing men to Office on account of their color
no matter what that color may be. If the
blacks Justify by their conduct the predic-
tions of their enemies, they will rapidly die
out, and SO amount to very little anyhow
after few years. We insist that thew shall
have q fair chance under just and equal laws,
but we protest against any coddling or pettine
them. "Root hog, or die!" is natures stern
requisition, and man cannot improve it,
If the blacks should dream that they are to
be somehow taken care of, their ruin is in
evitable.
If, therefore, the Democrats will consent
that they be simply let alone, to fight the
battle of life Just like the rest of us, there
need be no more political contention about
party to stop the quarrel about negroes, which
has no longer any rational pretext, we pre-
sumo that strife is near its close.
Does any one doubt that protection against
free trade is the issue next in order? Could
all the politicians in the land avert it if they
weuld
Ah but, says the San, some Republicans
are not protectionists. Very WE'LL if they
leave the party on that account, we will
fhair ,,lo will
Don't you see that this thing is as broad as it
is long?
We have recently had a Tobacconists' Con-
vention in this city, fierce for more protec-
ton on cigars than the 50 per pound
| and % per cent. ad valorem allowed by Gene
raj Schenck's BILL Nine-tenths of the tobac-
conists are Democrats; yet they tell us that
their trade couldn't live under free trade Do
| you fancy that they stand alone?
Here are thousands of tailors working for
our city bosses, and earning much larger
wages than are paid for just such work in
| Europe. Our representatives vote for Mar
| shalls principle-that the duty on ready
made clothing shall be fixed at that point
| which will yield most revenue. That prin-
| ciple would throw ten thousand tailors out
of work here in two months, and reduce by
one-half the wages of those that could still
| find employment. Can you imagine that the
1
| five to seven thousand Democratic mai jority,
| if Democracy were understood to mean
| twenty instead of fifty per cent. duty
on imported clothing? We shall be most
happy to ''divide the house" on that question.
Messieurs of the Sun your talk of ''high
protective tariff only serves to darken coun-
sell Just let the free-traders embody their
principle in a bill, and (whatever the imme-
| diate result in Congress) we will go to the
country, not on ''glittering generalities," but
on General Schenck's bill pitted against
theirs We challenge them tc produce their
bill, framed in consistency with their prin-
| ciple, and appeal to the people thereon. We
assert that they dare not commit their fate to
the voting millions on any bill not spiced
with protection. Watch them and see
THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
MYSTERY.
From the N Y Sun.
The more we ponder over and compare the
majority and minority reports of the Methodist
Book Committee, respecting the frauds
alleged to have been committed in the Book
Concern in this city, the more mysterious
does the affair become. Charges of mis-
management and peculation against certain
employees of the Concern have been pending
before the public for some months past.
They have been once examined into by the
Book Committee, and declared to be in part
we'll founded. But on q second investigation
the majority of the same committee have re-
ported that ''the careful sitting of the evil
dence revealed not only the perfect innocence
of the accused, but showed that the manage
ment of the Concern had been most praise
worthy" This is as complete an acquittal as
any man could desire; but unfortunately a
minority of the committee make report of q
very different character, and one which in.
wolves the subject in maze of contradictions
difficult if not impossible to unravel.
For example, while the majority say that
the 'perfect innocence" of the accused agents
has been established, the minority produce
documentary evidence to the effect that bott
Goodenough and Porter, the men who were
intrusted with the duty of purchasing paper
for the concern, made very considerabl,
profit by charging the concern higher price
than they paid. In the binding department
500 900 worth of leather was paid for, bu
not accounted for, in the shart space o.
twenty one months, while $500 worth of glu,
shared the same fate within nine months
, These statements are certainly inconaisten
, with ''the perfect innocence of the accused.
Again, the majority report that the testi
mony mot only failed to establish the exist
{ | ence of fraud, defalcation, or corruption, bu
{ | likewise failed to sustain the allegation o
+ losses" The minority, on the other hand
3 say that nothing has come before us durinl
1 our present session to relieve our conviction
: of losses and mismanagement in the BoOl
5 Concern" This assertion they back up b,
0 the facts already mentioned, proving that tn
Q Concern has been defrauded during the pas
Q few years of many thousands of dollars whic
n | are certainly losses and by the further fac