The daily Argus., 1876-09-02
Change of the Party in Power the only
Popular Reform.

Dy COmmOn COnSeuJ, VIII IHe eACopIiOu
Of those who run the Republican
machine" the present canvass proceeds
upon the idea that something at least in
our national politics absolutely needs to be
changed. And this common consent,
irrespective Of party associations outside
the Republican machine" is the result
of the universally admitted condition OF
the nation in those points which it is be-
lieved the federal government can remedy
and improve. What that condition is we
do not need to describe and rehearse.
Thoughtful men and thoughtful women,
too, see aud feel it but too well. As Mr..
Belmont so aptly puts it: Labor begs in
in vain for employment, and capital hides
in distrust." Values are shrinking: in
comes are diminishing; money brings,
when placed in sale trust companies. only
two per centum per anDum; nearly every
kind of Investment Is looked on with
suspicion; no individual promise to pay
is accepted without adequate collateral;
wives suddenly find their husbands without
money; and even children discover that
the source of innocent pleasure and
necessary instruction Is drying up Ma
tional honor seems departing with indI-
vidual substance. Fidelity to public trusts
and fidelity to personal obligations are dis
appearing together. Prosecution, impeach-
ment, indictment and punishment we
hear nothing but these doleful sounds on
every side. The president is we'll nigh
overwhelmed in the obloquy and reproach
Of his party friends, with none so poor to
do him reverence; the senate is openly
arraigned by its own party (outside of the
machine as insOlently and corruptly
debating to the president; and u national
convention of the Republican party boldly
commeuds and indorses the doings of the
same president! G
Obviously, indeed, something needs to
be changed but what2 and how shall it be
changed? How vain is it to answer: Not
parties, but simply an individual in one
party; only Hayes needs to be substituted
for Grant,
The pages OF every far-seeing Repubh-
can journal in the land make such an
answer ridiculous. Here is an illustration.
taken at random from last Saturday
issue of the Tribune. The first sentence
declares:
Every party should be judged not only by it,
professions and pledges, made when it is trying tC
ensnare voters, but by its record. Its constituent
elements, and It's established tendencies
The second sentence says:
THAT the Republican party has been derelict in
duty and has suffered the country To lapse into
condition OF misrule calculated TO Ill the mind o.
the patriotic citizen with apprehension and alarm
II only too true
Here is the political situation in u nut
she'll What, then, is to be reformed
Clearly the federal administration How
is it to be reformed? As clearly by O
change Of the political party which at first
created and now controls that admins
tratlOn.
Messrs. Bristow, Jewell, Schurz, Curtis
and Woolsey cry 'Reforml' Reform
OF what Of the administration which
Bristow and Jewell have just left, is tol
them the only possible answer which cal
save Hayes, and the administration really
embraces the whole official part of the Re
publican party whether in congress or il
the executive department How reform
the administration Oh! Only put Hayes
in the place Of Grant, these wise men re
ply, and everything else will follow Could
anything be more absurd and trihing
One of two thingsl Either this demand
for change in the federal government il
born of tremendous popular passion. o.
it has no existence whatever as q poitica
force worthy of moments thought. Tn
are utterly Indifferent to-day as to VIII,
shall occupy the seats OF federal power il
this land next March, or bad government
and the hard times have made them al
terribly in earnest. Either there is a
this moment tame and patient spiri
abroad 10 the masses. concerning our pub
lie affairs, or there is IA very ugly impa
tient temper stirring in the people. AM
il feeling is really abroad that our pub
lie and pecuniary affairs cannot be worse
and that rpdical change of rulers mus
be made, be must be little less than a foe
who thinks such feeling will be conten
with the substitution OF Hayes for Gran
as fguro.head Ut the ship of state, leay
ing officers. crew and sailing directions jus
as they were before
The Cincinnati convention must be take
as u fair aud true expression of the ell,
ments in the Republican party which wi
control the administration il Hayes coul
be permitted to torm one. The canvas
inside that organization over the II cesslt
OF reform had been long and severe beioI
the convention mel, and what were the r,
suits? At the final vote, which nonlin
ted Hayes, there we're 35l ballots throw
for Blaine, to 3Sl for the nominee No
Blaine. as every one knows, was the oi
conspicuous unreformed and unreformin
the antireforming and the irreformab
nan among all the candidates. Only Il
accident of a suu-stroke in Washingt'
and some trifing mismanagement by
chief henchman, Hale,lat Cincinnati, pr
vented his overwhelming triumph, As
was, the change of about a dozen vot
would have nominated himl Compa
this honestly with the result at st. Lou
where, after single complin.e .entary vo
the moral force of the American peor