The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-10-09
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.

pOSltlOu StItilStu, OF ienueT.f DIS present.
views palatable to the people,"
The Green County Republican observes /:
'Doolittle is peregrinating the State, seek
ing for consolation and support, but unable
to arouse the least enthusiasm amongst the
Democrats. They evidently don't like him,
and the less they see or hear of him the
better they can swallow the pill on election
day."
The Grant County Herald gives well-ad-
yised caution: " The Democrats tell us
that Mr.. Doolittle is in favor of the Fox
river improvement. As that gentleman
has changed his opinion every eight or ten
years since he became voter, it is little
risky to make any such assertion. 1t is
about time for one of this periodical changes,
even on this subject"
The Philadelphia Press thinks this the
Democratic situation: "The leaders NAV
change the official platforms, or stultify
themselves as often as they please, but the
Democratic masses are immovable. They
still stick to the theory Of white mans
j government and are resolved that it shall
not perish. The politicians and the dema-
gogues may make as many departures as
they please, bnt they do not constitute the
party
puts in the following: Zone of the most
common folies in which Democratic editors
indulge is that of comparing the expenses
of the government now with what they
were when the country was under Demo-
cratic rule. They forget to mention that
the business of the government, at the time
TO which they refer, no more equals its pre-
sent business than the trade of country
st0re-keeper equals that of city whole
sale establishment, or the business of
one-horse ferry compares with Davidson's
steamboat line. When o couple first marry
and begin housekeeping in modest man
ner, their expenses are considerably less
than when house full of boys and girls
call for clothing and subsistence. Laying
aside the war debt, the expenses of the
government were never so small, per capita,
or per centum on the property, as they are
now"
MAKE THE RING DISGORGE.-Some
additional deductions which we print this
morning from the fragments of accounts
extrlcated from the wreck of complicated
books, burned vouchers and stolen bills of
the controllers office, reveal, in stronger
colors than they have yet been painted in,
the enormous frauds of the Tammany
King, There certainly never were more
'bareiaced or holder robberies perpetrated
under any government than have been COM
united under "Ring" rule in this city,
Over sixteen millions of dollars have been
paid in tTo years and half on city and
county accounts to seven firms. Two of
these, lngersol q Co., and A. j. Garvey,
who have least work to show for what
money they got, received nearly two-thirds
of this extravagant expenditure. ingersoll
4 Co. alone obtained fully one-third of the
whole for furniture and decorations, which,
to-day, cannot be found-at least not in the
public Offices.
Over ten millions OF dollars has been paid
in two years and half simply in decord-
ting and furnishing the county courthouse,
VIM. M. Twecd's new Office on Broadway,
and the Mayors office. There is not in
cluded in this vast sum the cost of the gram
lite and marble buildings themselvesIthe
items are those Of the painter and glazier,
the upholsterer, plasterer, and carpenter
even the candlestick makers bill for chan
tdelicrs and gas-brackets is omitted from
this total. Other figures reveal the cost of
maintaining few public Offices at something
enormous, and still others convey the as
founding information that the cleaning of
the streets for year and a half past has
cost 81 800, 000-or double what the people
have been accustomed to believe and to de-
nounce as UNANIMOUSLY extravagant. And
this estimate is too low. Not less than a
million of dollars annually is expended in
this city for STRENGTHENING, and how inef-
fectually few New York residents need be
told.-N. 7. Tribune.
THE Chicago Times looks squarely at
the Democratic situation, and counses thus
wisely: "One Of the many phases of
the Tammany villainy in New York pre-
scents this question is the Democratic
party in New York owned by that obese
mountain of corruption, William M.
Tweed +" The appearances are that the
man Tweed imagines himself to be tho
owner of it, and that he will make such eff
forts in the assertion of his title as may
lead to violence. Very good. 1t only
remains, then, for the honest men who hold
that Democratic principles are worth strug-
Cling for to accept the issue which the
obese villain offers, on his own terms, and
trust consequences to God Almighty.
Either Tweed must die, politically, or the
party upon whose neck he has fastened as
the Old Man of the Sea must die originally.
There is no middle ground. Tweed must
die 'peaceablyif he will, forcibly if he
nust.' But let honest New York Democ-
racy see to it on the day when the man
Tweed attempts to assert an assured own
ership of the Democratic party by the invo-
cation of violence, both he and his myrmi-
dons shall meet doom from which there
will be no future awakening.
OF Mr.. Tilden's movement, Mayor Hall
says: "We beg to concede at the outset
that no consideration of selfshness, or of
vanity, or Of resentment, enter into his
proposed action. He will perform it from
a high and holy patriotic purpose, even
though he sacrifice any aspirations which
ihe may have in the future" The threat
which peers through that mask is plain.
Again Mayor Hall says that the Tammany
machine has fifty thousand votes behind il.
The ntimation is, "Will you take them or
defy thela so The convention has di-
iiccnima before it. If it rejects Tammany,
it throws out all that has given it victory.
If it admits Tammany, it approves its
crimes. Truly may we say to our Demo-
cratic friends:
You'll be damned if You do
And you'll be damned if you don't.
SAYS the Boston Adoatise,' !. I" We
hear that when Tweed is told that his move
ments are Napoleonic, a gratified smile
L. Il.