Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1874-07-02
Helena, Montana, Thursday, July Z, 1874.

! ESPECIAL NOTICE.
TO THE VOTERS OF LEWIS AND
CLARKE COUNTY.
The following is the Address presented to
the Peoples Meeting by Colonel Alex. NJ.
Voolfolk, Chairman of the Committee on
Address, ON the evening of the 23d instant,
and unanimously adopted.
| /. +. EVANS Secy.
| TIE ADDRESS,
| FeUor- -CItisenx:-The issues that have di-
vided parties in the past have ended. When
in the last Presidential campaign the great
Democratic party nominated Horace Greeley,
o lifelong Republicans nomination eSpecl-
ally urged by the Southern wing of the DEM
ocrscy-and the Republican party nominated
l.. s. Grant, who had been pr0-slavery
Democrat and slave-owner, it was con-
cession upon both sides that the issues of the
war had been settled, and even its embitler
ments forgotten.
| AS is usual when no vital issues divide par
ties, the contest has ceased to be one of prin-
cplc, and has become simply scramble for
office Earnest and trHe men retire in disgust
from the arena of politics and their places are
| filled by lot of hungry cormOrants, who
| jostle each other in the struggle for power
and pelf.
Each party exposes the depravity Of the
other, and furnishes indubitable proof that
corruption is spreading into almost every
department Of the government and every
avenue of public life. Our leading Repre-
| sentatives in Congress suddenly grow to be
worth their millions. Public life is becoming
! highway to fortune, instead of necessitating
! = career of honorable poverty, as in former
| days. Everywhere corrupt rings and monop-
| Olies prey upon the industrial interests OF the
country. Clayton s. Co., in Arkansas; Moses
s. Co.. in South Carolina; Sanborn & Co., in
New York; and Shepherd s. Co., in Wash
ington, have in turn startled the country by
their bold and unscrupulous disregard of
every principle Of honesty and decency. The
careers of such men are without u parallel in
the better days of the Republic, and only find
their counterpart in the shameless rObberies of
Tweed s. Co., in the Democratic city of New
York.
The good men of the country are every
where clamOrous for reform, but no reform
is possible while undertaken through the
agency Of present political organizations.
Party lines only serve to divide good and true
men upon dead issues; while lemagOgues
! and ofiice-seekers use them as means to
worm themselves into positions of honor and
profit.
In our own Territory there is an attempt to
array our fellow citizens against each other,
through the agency Of Democratic and Re-
| publican Conventions Both Conventions will
doubtless pass string of glittering generali-
| ties-fxvoring retrenchment and reform, anal
processing NIL the virtues of the DecxlOgue.
| Rrf aha11 tho rOo6 nd tr,,o nfM
| suffer themselves to be longer arraycd against
| each other by mere party lines, when there
| are SO many vital issues to be met? Shall we
remain the plant tools of scheming politi-
| clans, blindly voting the tickets prepared for
| us, or shall we assert our right to elevate
principle above party, and sacrifice prejudice
! upon the altar of true reform? Blind, indeed,
are the vOtarics of party who continue to
worship amid the ruins of it's temple, even
after the altar has been OVerthrOWN and the
god has departed!
1t is idle to vote resolutions in favor of re-
trenchment and reform, unless We take the
necessary steps to accomplish such result
The Democracy controlled for years the
! county of Lewis and Clarke, and involved it
heavily in debt. Although burdensome taxa
ton was imposed upon the people, yet, the
revenues were dissipated with but few benef-
NaoA ASOuAs's "AN - A0A SO RuOAAC UCOC Wd6 8lSO
created against the county, The Republican
party came to the rescue, pledged to retrench
ment, and profuse in its professions and
promises. They have proved, however,
simply new swarm of hungry flies, equally
as had as the first, and on the first day of
September last had swelled our county debt to
S148, $50 80. The debt now amounts to over
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
With taxes growing heavier every year,
and our county Indebtedness daily increasing,
with interest alone accumulating upon US at
the rate of more than twenty thousand dollars
per annum, there is nothing ahead of us but
Insolcency or Reform.
1t is idle to look to either of the political
parties, with their swarms of hungry politi-
clans, for any substantial reform. True re-
form can only come from the people. To
accomplish 1t the people must act through
some new political organization, springing
directly from Themselves But before enter
ing upon system of retrenchment and re-
form, We must first ascertain the cause Of our
increasing indebtedness. We must first find
The leaks before we can stop them.
Our criminal docket is one of the great
sources of expense to us. The EXPENSE
caused by our Probate and Justices Courts.
alone from September /, A. D. 1871. to Sen;
tember /, 1878, was about $19.5OO This
does no: include the cost of our criminal
docket in the District Court. Every criminal
sent to Jail costs the county 81 SO per day
for board, besides incidentals, fees of officers,
etc. Besides this the cost of supporting the
paupers and vagrants in our midst has been
about $4,000 in the two years ending Sep
tember l, A. d. 1873. 1t is estimated that ct
least one-half Of these paupers and vagrants
ar. the victims Of in.enper1.ce.
we ksve Territorial! population not cx-
cee ing 'ESsesi:y thousand, sht yet VI have As