The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-03-24
THE PALLADIUM.


RICHMOND. IND, MARCH "a. 1874.
The cid 0ane TO be Played over.
We have proved from time to time,
as occasion demanded, that Democra
cy as typiied during the administra-
ton of Buchanan and continued up
to this good hour, was the same de-
moralizing, hypocritical, and devilish
thing-always presenting . fair out
side appearance. likeunto a whited
sepulchre, but within containing moth
ing but corruption. Nationally this
) conclusion il true, and, in proportion
j to the opportunities within reach, our
! Democratic municipal authorities are
not far behind in practicing the same
! role. Coming into power. on the
Y strength Of professions Of economy"
and "retrenchment," the very first act
done by the Democratic Committee on
Finance Of our city, was to propose
carrying out their professions of re-
form. by cutting down the salaries of
all the city officials; but the moment
it was presented, the hypocrirical
character of the leaders 'sstuck OUT
they had gained their object in get
ting position by yelling economy and
retrenchment, and what cared they
for consistency or principle? The
Democratic Mayor objected to the re-
duction of his salary from 81 200 to
81 900 per year, and Democratic coun-
cilmen didn't like to be cut down
from 500 to SIS; so, instead of pre-
senting the salary bill, as agreed on
by the Committee on Finance, the
Democratic Mayor re.wrote the bill,
! taking especial care to save to himself
and his Democratic yoke-fellows of
the Council their full pay; but econo-
MIXING and retrenching on the Repub-
lican officials, by clipping their wages
slightly! The mask was, however,
completely torn away from the Mayors
countenance. by the motion OF Mr..
Dulin (and that's the reason why the
Mayor don't express himself favorable
to him in his editorials,) that the
Mayors salary be reduced to 81 900,
and Mayor Elder gave the casting
vote--thus PRACTICING economy by
putting $500 into his own pocket!-the
Democratic members of the Council
sustaining him unanimously in that
grab
'Tis easy enough for Democratic
councIlmen to preach reduction Of
public expenditures; but when cases,
personal to themselves loom up, self
interest is the only consideration left
them-they prove themselves arrant
hypocrites, as they did in the Mayors
grab case, and as they also did in
their action on bids for the City Print
ing. In the latter case, Mayor Elder
and three members of the Council,
were stockholders in the concern
making the HIGHEST bid for printing;
yet every Democrat in the Council,
(including those three stockholders
voted to lay the LOWEST bid on tie
table, and that vote being a tie, Mayor
Elder-(the only other official stock
holder. and acting as President of the
CouncilD gave the casting vote!! DEM
ocratic hypocrisy on the subject of
economy, vas again unmasked, and
self-interest predominated!
The question of selecting City
Printer is to be decided next Tuesday
night, and the contest this time, is be
tween the Telegram and Elders Dem
ocratic sheet The Ordinance gives
the Council the privilege of dividing
the printing-the advertising to one
office, and the job-work to another, if
the Council should think it for the
best interest of the city to do so. On
job-work, the Telegram is just ONE
CENT lower than Elders paper, and
the latter is just TWO cents lower than
the former on bid for advertising.
To avoid the charter and ordinance
provisions, against contracts where
city officials are either directly or in
directly interested, and also to aid
him in securing the Democratic can
didacy for Mayor, the friends of stock
holder Elder are circulating a report
that he has withdrawn-surrende
his stock; but we take this report
with several grains of allowance. For,
in the first place. Mayor Elder is not
going to give up certainty for an uu
certainty-surrender his stock in that
PAYING institution, and also fail to be
reelected. He knows "a bird in hand
is worth two in the bush" Besides
it isn't the way he did business once
before when he was in tight place
Here's the story, which we can't for
get. aud the Douglas Democrats
ought not to forget it either.
Mayor Elder, at that time, was p
M.-''wich is postmaster he
was also the editor of the Jefersonian
At that day, the Democratic party
was divided into two factions, each
one having candidate for the Presi-
dency, Breckenridge and Douglas
the then administration favored the
former. and Senators Bright and
Fitch. who were Breckenridgers held
the patronage OF the Federal Offices in
their hands in this State. They de-
manded Of Elder to either put up
Breckenridge for President at the