Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-08-28
The Cry of Corruption-A Big Bug.
bear.

If there is one thing in which the NOV
ers OF this third party" delight, as did
those of the Liberal party before them, it
is in the iteration and reiteration of their
war-cry, corruption" We have no par
ticular fault to find with it On the ground
that the speakers are not clean enough to
throw stones. 1t would certainly present
more consistent spectacle if the reform
ers were themselves reformed but we are
not Of those who insist that one must
preach only what he practices. 1t would
close the mouths of the vast majority Of
our orators, ministers, teachers, journal
lists of all, in fact, who deal with ideas
for the instruction or amusement of
others.
What we do complain of, however, is
the folly of these corruption-crying gen
tlemen in suppOsing there is anything
new in their ceaseless alarm. 1t has been
the shout OF the outs against the ms ever
since parties were first formed and poll
ties became national game. 1t has Just
as much truth now, we suppose, as 1t had
then. There are corrupt men in all
ages and in all parties, but we are
not peSsimist enough to believe that
there IS any more of it in America now,
in proportion to the population and
wealth concerned, than there was amid
the speculation fever that followed the
war OF the Revolution, or during the de-
cade following the war Of 1912, or at any
other like era of this or any other Govern
ment. Men are tried and fall, and the
greater the trust the greater the noise
thereat. We forget the past in the present,
and overlook the thousand honest in the
on, II, IL. d. II ~, Il
are as sound, and the great mass Of the
people as honest as ever.
Something of irregularity necessarily
follows upon our constant struggle for
national preservation since the Democrat
ic attack against the Missouri Comprom-
Use in 1850. Since then up to the close of
our late war it has been one intense strug
gle for life, with hardly chance for
breath between times. In such whirl-
winds there is no time for setting ones
house in order. 1t is enough if the roof
can be kept on and the walls standing.
But the war ended, the subsequent tur-
MOL somewhat cooled down, and ewes
and hands that have lost their occupation
are once more turned toward our domes
TIC concerns 1t is perhaps true that men
chosen in our time of trial, for strength
rather than for wisdom or economy, have
not managed the kitchen as shrewdly as
might have been. 1t is very likely that
thieves have crept in at the back window
while we were fighting the storm. But it
Is no more so now than ever, and the noise
OF the performers " is but a trick of the
trade. 1t needs but slight search into
our history to find the same condition of
affairs after the Revolution, and the same
cutlery against the Administration. In
the last half Of his second term, while
saving the country from a threatening for
eign war, while restoring quiet and peace
to Il vast unsettled frontier, while calling
up, as by creation, every branch of indus
try, and leading the nation into prosperity
uncXampled and unexpected, ii was never
theless the misfortune of President WASH
tNGToN to find his popularity seriously
impaired throughout the country at LARGE.
and most of all in his own State.
So this stale old cry of corruption has
nothing Of novelty and little of truth.
Able once more to turn careful eve to
our internal management, many things
are found which might have been better;
some which could not well have been
worse. But it is the Republican party
which, has sought them out, and that par
ty which is determined to cure them As
to action in reform, the past history of
the gentlemen who lead the new parties
IS not encouraging; rs to profession they
90 not half so near the point as the plat
forms Of the Republican party itself And,
in the meantime, while the air is full of
their Wordy din, the country runs along
fairly, and gets no nearer the dogs than
ever; individual prosperity and national
industry increase apace; we feed more
countries with grain than ever; England
commences to turn to us for iron, instead
OF us to her; our cotton has nearly re-
gained the supremacy in foreign markets
which it lost through the war; and Amer
lean machinery, implements, axes, and
tools begin TO outrank the world. In fact,
the United States was never farther ahead
IN the race OF nations, and the cry OF rot
tenness never less generally deserved
Cincinnati IElRes