The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-02-13
THE MISSION OF REAL STATESMAN
SHIP.

Fabian policy of mastery inactiv
ity. For the purpose of hinder
ing Congress from entertaining
the great question OF the day, and
for the sake of employing the
public mind which scandal and
small things, a formal onslaught
has been inaugureted upon the
contingent expenditures of the
executive and legislative branch
es of our Government.
One Journal insists upon count
ing the cakes of soap that are
used, another cries out against the
cost of towels, third insists that
there are too many scrub women,
as if scrub women were employed
either on account of beauty or the
advantages of patronage; others
again recommend that the sheets
of paper which are issued to the
clerks should be duly counted,
and that there is a great waste in
street-car fares, which is likely to
bring this nation to grief and
bankruptcy. Even the use of a
carriage for official duty by each
Department, which has come down
from times antecedent TO Jackson,
has been complained of. And in
this manner, by the Inauguration
of a tedious and acrimonious de-
bate, all great measures are to be
INSTRUCTED and postponed, and the
people, whose intelligence is vast
~ underatcd, are to be fed on
scandals. This little game would
work very well if the Republican
party could be induced to join,
but we have every evidence that
the present Congress, composed as
it is very largely of men of high
intelligence and noble purpose,
will, as soon as the committees
have perfected the proper meas
ures, put an end to these COM
plants by giving the public some
real measures of vital Importance
to discuss.
The scrutiny of public expendi-
lures is very well in its place, and
we have no doubt the appropriate
committees will do their duty in
preventing extravaganza and
waste, but they will not permit
themselves to become parties to
the magnificatlon of infinitely
small things to the detriment of
the great public measures now
pending. And it is the height of
imbecility on the part of the OPP
position to endeavor to tear down
a great political organization and
to build up another upon the sta
tionary, soap, Irvine, and towel
question.
The great deeds of history,
which have made nations illustri-
GUS and which have woven chap
let's of fame upon the brews of
men, would never have been ac-
complished had their authors ex-
pended their mental resources up
on trivial domestic affairs.
The money crisis is passed.
The late panic which was only
real among stock jobbers and a
matter of feeling and imagination
on the part of other classes, has
become a chapter in history.
Several hundred millions OF
bushels of grain are stored in our
Western granaries awaiting the
opening Of navigation; and in the
far interior of Iowa the bushel of
wheat brings upwards of q dollar
IN the home market. Our coun-
try, with it's unlimited resources
and its teeming population of en-
ergetic working men, is entering
into q new era of prosperity, and
the Opposition, whose bankruptcy
in craftsmanship is by far more
complete than Jay Cooke & Co. s
financial failure, will speedily be
taught the lesson that, when the
people are prospecting and doing
well, their pitiful stories about. ex-
travagant expenditures in ice and
brooms will fall upon unsympa-
thizing ears.
The Republicans in Congress
know quite well that when they
shall meet their constituents face
to face next tall the question will
be asked, what have you doneT''
And that if Congress-, for whose
action they are held responsible,
should fritter away it's time upon
the questions of the contingent
fund and the diminution of clerk,
ships, they will present but ga
beggarly account of empty boxes.
The attempt to stop the fault
finding of the Opposition by en-.
tering Il defense for every detail
would be as futile as the endeavoI
to stop up every moucehole in s
mouse-eaten meadow. The only
remedy is to drive them out by in
undation, and thus all these pitt
full stories can be squelched by su
perior and courageous statesman
ship.
Since the people of all section!
of the country desire cheap trans
portation, they doubtless expec
to secure it by the needful expen
ditures of means. The people, il
their individual and personal ca
pacities, have already expended
more than two thousand millions
of dollars to secure cheap carriag
OF freight, by building sevent,
thousand miles of railways, which
represent sum equal to our pres
enL public debt. If, then, the pee
pie are DESTROYS of permanen
channels of water communication
always open to competition, an,
free from the deleterious influence
of combinations and mnnopolie:
they must consent to expen
money upon the enlargement c
canals and the improvement of GU
rivers and harbors.
The expenditure of three hur
, dred million dollars, though intel
nal improvement bonds should b
issued and added to our publ
debt, would still be an enormou
saving TO the entire nation,
thereby the price of transports
z ton for heavy freight could be r
: duced so per cent.
e A ship canal around Niagal
: Falls, the enlargement of the Err
- canal, the Improvement of the FC
!. and Wisconsin rivers, and of Il
n Mississippi and its chief tribut
ries, are all essential for the 8
n curement of cheap transportatio
1t should be remembered tn
Is our nation is only in its infancy
m that, for instance, the State
Iowa alone is capable of supper
p ing a population of ten MILL,
g people, and that at no distant da
W unless some revulsion of natu
q should intervene, this magnifice
a continent will have three hundr'
IS millions of inhabitants; thereto
in the Inauguration of a syst'