The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1875-09-03

idlu tllhts ~ lOt ul dppailVioH' no P'N
dictcd when the Jay Cooke failure occurred,
that was but the beginning of an end, how
ever slow the approach might be. From
that time to the present, hard times have to II
greater or less extent affected every body and
the bottom is even now so far from being reach
ell that the surface is yet scarcely penetrated.
Bad and ertrdrogdpi government is at the bot
tenn Of Hc whole Of il, and until there is q
change in that there wW be no releC High
salaries must be cut down, all manner of gov
.ernment thieves must be choked off, the ter
rible consuming indirect taxes must be de-
stroyed, before there can be relief, and these
reforms cannot be accomplished until there
is an entire and complete change in govern
mcnt, State and Federal.
Recently Duncan, Sherman & Co., of New
York. failed for millions, and will settle with
their creditors for few cents on the dollar.
More recently the bank of California failed
for fourteen millions, with assets stated at
seven millions. Plain inexorable facts will
increase the liabilities to perhaps twenty
millions and reduce the assets to few thous-
ands Many other California banks, of less
cr note, stock companies and manufactures,
have followed. In all the cases noted, the
head of each firm had built n private resi-
dcnce costing q million or more, furnished
at an expense of half million, and was
maintained at similar annual sum-an eX-
travagance that seemed necessary to main-
tain the kind of credit upon which the busi-
ness of the firms was founded. These mag
nilicent gentlemen despised the simple unos-
tentation of Grard and Astor and ascribed
it to penuriousness But common sense is
always frugal, and common sense alone can
maintain and retain colossal wealth
The breaking of these millionaire firms
Of itself deserves no sympathy, but it is like
toppling over huge pile of bricks-huge
walls of bricks, with thousands, myriads of
people, great and small, of all ages, sexes and
conditions standing under theml Itisnot the
owners of the walls that suffer most materially
the poor creatures under them are the true
subjects of pity, the humble and the helpless,
they who lose all their means and all their
prospects, their bread.
Look at your local newspapers Every
where literally filled with Sheritf's sales =
From one column to twenty! There is real
distress And in nine cases out of ten this is
to be traced to the Internal indirect taxation
and extravaganza of government, inducin 6
all otlfer extravaganza, perhaps necessitating
it, And yet men will blindly go to the polls
and vote to keep the very men in power who
produce this state of affairs.
Here, in Columbia county, with people
distinguished for frugality, industry, common
sense, carcfulncss and honesty, these times
are not felt as we see them around us; yet
even here, where SheriF's sales usually occu
pied very few inches of space in the local
newspapers they now rise to the dignity of n
column or morc In ordinary times such
sales mean nothing more than that some bo-
dy has been imprudent or exceptionally un-
fortunate. Nov It means simply a game Of
confscation! A game of your blood, in which
heartless creditor and shrewd attorney are
sure to be the winners.
But, the public Importance the whole dis
tressing matter assumes is to ascertain the
cause and what the remedy. Fortunately
both are palpable. Look at your President,
with his salary doubled-FIFTY THOUS-
AND A YEAR! Your Governor, his sala-
ry doubled-TEN THOUSAND A YEAR!
Your Congressman, more than doubled, from
two To three thousand year to seven thous-
and Your Cabinet officers, and Judges,
numbers increased under specious names as
twenty to one! Your legislators, from about
three hundred to one and two thousand each,
and contingencies so aptly denominated
Stealiagsl Look at the numbers of your Of
ce-holders-wherc used to be one are hordes
now! In any necessary legal business you
are required to do look at the enormity of
fees you pay Your tariffs steal perhaps
more than all, your Congresses squander
your money and give away your public lands
by millions of acres and your Legislatures
tax your farms, your products, all that you
sell or buy the Federal government doubles
upon the Legislature, both tax your fuel,
light, the very grounds and collins in which
you are buried-in fact every thing tangible,
and would tax your very soul if they could
reach it or prove that you are possessed of
one that could be sold at tax collectors or
sherifl's sales, and plumbers you besides with
its multilarious corporations and chartered
monopolies
But, "you pays your money and you takes
your choice" You (some of YOU go to the
elections annually and vote to sustain these
expressions and outrages. If men did that
with their eyes open they would deserve no
better fate But why will they not open
their eyes to the facts that surround them?