River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-01-08
National Politics.

National Politics.
We are cursed with personal politics.
Men, and not measures, have been up
permost in the political discussions of
the past season. Whether Gen. Grant
is to have a third term Of office,
whether this man is to go to the Sen.
ate, and that man TO the House,
whether "rings" shall rule, whether
cliqGes Of office-holdcrs, or outside in
triguers, who seek their places, shall
prevail; whether "Butlerism or "anti.
Butlerism" shall dominate--these have
oeen the questions above all others
questions of not the faintest vital sig
nificance, except to the men whose per-
sonal and political fortunes are bound
up in them. In these questions of per-
sonal politics, the great masses of the
people have no. the slightest interest.
They do not care whether Gen. Grant
has third term or thirty-third term.
They do not care whether this or that
man represents them, or whether one
set Of men or another live upon the SAL
aries and spoils Of public office, so long
as their work is well done, and the great
political, industrial and financial inter-
ests Of the country are fairly ard pros.
perously managed.
We have to-day, in this country. all
the ordinary conditions of prosperity
and wealth. The grararies Of the land
are filled to overlooking. The earth
has yielded bountifuilly her products;
the means of REORGANIZATION by
rivers and railways are all that can be
desired; We are at peace with other
nations; we have unparalleled mineral
resources; we grow among ourselves
the products Of all climes; and, in
financial circles, there is little debt and
no undue stretch of the credit system;
yet we are not prosperous. The farmer
gets no adequate return for his labor
while wheat sells at Western centers
for eighty cents bushel; manufacture
ers are shut out, or working on half
time; building has been greatly check
ed or almost entirely stopped in the
cities; laborers by the thousands are out
of work and living idle; the goods Of
the merchants lie unmoved upon their
shelves, and the business" Of the
country is stagnant. What does this
meant 1t means simply that
the legislation of the
past has been unwIse. 1t
means, simply that the men who have
managed our national affairs have not
understood their business. 1t means
that the affairs of the nation are in the
hands Of small men who are not up to
the emergency. In short, TO come at
once at the root of the matter, it means
that the richest nation. will, in time,
starve to death on diet of paper lies.
This is the long and the short of it.
Our financial system is rotten at the
core. We can sometimes cross gulf
by suspension" or temporary repu-
diation, but we cannot circumnayigate
the globe with it. This latter we have
undertaken to do, and the craft is go.
ing to pieces. Wo believe that all
sensible men, who have no personal
politics to push, have arrived at the
conclusion that there is to be no per.
manent revival Of business until our
monetary system has been placed upon
the gold basis. Ii Gen. Grant, stand
by his declared policy of a speedy re.
turn to specie payments, can rally in
auence enough to carry this policy into
enactment, then the people want him
for third term, otherwise they want
somebody else who can do what he has
failed to do.
"lf one member suffers, all the other
members suffer with it," This declara-
ton Of the Bible was never better illus
trated than in the result TO the condi.
ton Of things at the South. The civil
war has retired into history, but through
all the weary years that have followed
il, the South has failed TO get upon its
legs again. II has been cursed by car.
pet-baggers, who, yOked to the negro
element, have ptted themselves against
the resident intelligence, and kept those
States in a constant broil. Taxation
has been murderous, and corruption
the rule; and no matter how sound our
financial policy may become, il will not
cure all our ills until the South is at
peace. her industry thoroughly and
benehcently reorgaSized, the mercenary
scoundrels, who have iattened on her
troubles, expelled by force Of public
opinion, and the political elements
Of the section reconeiled TO each other
SO long as there exists in the South a
well.recognized and powerful class Of
men, whose interest il is to keep up
the dissensions between the two races,
there can be no peace. The President
that the people want is ono who can
devise and execute a policy that will
harmonic the South, and restore TO
hetlth and soundness that vast section
Of our common country which is how
diseased. aud which seriously affects