National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-11-05

Ter also proclaimed his disbelief that the
country was so poverty stricken as to be
obliged to ''pinch here and starve there,
close up our factories and workshops in
many places, and run Others upon short
time, thereby producing privation and
want among operatives, instead Of adding
to the wealth of the country by providing
them with labor. But our great leaders,
Messrs. Dawes, Garfield and Foster, in
sisted upon cutting down the appropriations
to the extent of twenty millions, the enor-
nous sum of fifty cents per capita Of our
population per annum. This involved a
stoppage of many of our public works, and
a large reduction of the Government force,
Just at the very moment when the employ
ees were least prepared to submit to it.
The economy thus indicted became infec-
tious. Manufacturers followed suit and re-
duced the number Of their employees.
Hard times stared everybody in the face.
Congress, at the clamor of mendacious
press, spent its time in the investigation of
those engaged in public improvements, in
stead of laboring to provide means for the
employment of those who were threatened
with starvation. The money panic turned
into bread panic, and the bread panic has
now developed into revolution. This is
the way in which history repeats itself
Public men who learn nothing from the
history Of the past are unworthy the name
of statesmen. As the panic of 1887 pro-
duced the.revolution of 1910. and that Of
1867 was followed by the overthrow Of
Buchanan and the Southern oligarchy in
1860, SO now the UNDECIDED cry for labor.
cheap transportation and cheap bread has
been visited upon the heads of the Forty
third Congress. That body convened with
q two-thirds Republican majority in the
House. These Representatives were fresh
from the people, whom they had promised
all sorts of financial relief They had each
plan for bringing something out of moth
ing. They were all introduced and re-
ferred and discussed, and the members then
went home to consult with their constitu-
ents and spend the holidays. They re
turned again fresh from the people, and
said they had promised to give them plenty
of money-paper money and cheap trans
portation. They talked and they talked,
and they talked"-and did nothing else
upon either point but talk. Then they
passed the.appropriations, and went home
to see to their reflections.
We thought at the time that they shirked
many of their responsibilities, and said so
frankly. The people do not like towards.
As we read the results of these elections
they are rebuke to the Representatives of
the people for their shortcomings. 1t is
the Forty third Congress which has been
passing in review before the people. 1t is
not the President at all. The people do
not condemn their representatives for the
faults of the President or the latter for the
Congressional omissions of duty. But in
this instance, as the President and the
Representatives differed upon the vital
questions at issue-those of finance and
appropriations for public improvements
or in other words labor and bread, and the
representatives have been condemned, it is
fair to conclude that the recommendations
of the President are approved by the peo-
pie.