The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-11-02

A SPEECH BY
HENRY B. PAYNE,
At Cleveland Sep. 2S
A Corrupt Public Service
RINGS RULE THE R00ST

Well they say there is no corruption in
the public service; that there is no occa-
sion for retrenchment Senator Morton
says it is as good public service as there
isin the world, no occasion for reform.
Now, my friends, am not going into de-
tail. for you understand this question of
a necessity of reform as we'll as l; it is an
insult to any man of ordinary apprehen-
sion to say to him that this is pure
civil service of ours. that the men holding
Office are honest men; that the heads of
the departments look to retrenchment
and integrity in those under their employ.
I'll were to name the rings that have
been connected with every branch ofthe
public service il l were to give yon a
whole volume of details in regard to it.
I could not sum it lupin more emphat-
ic language than Carl Schurz did in his
speeches this year, that corruption domi-
mated in the public service the judiciary,
the executive, and under the officials of
the different departments. (Applause.)
Iagree with Judge Black, who says that
on this side of Constantinople there is
not So rotten public service as that of
the United States. Applause 1t is
everywhere. Itdoes seem as though, for
some reason that / cannot understand,
speculation and dishonesty and rascallty
could 90 at any time into the Executive
chamber and stand unabashed and un-
rebuked before the President Of the Uni
ted States. [Applause] | ask you what
has that President done by way of direc-
ton, by way of request to reform the alb
uses in the public service? When has
he called upon the head Of department
under him TO investigate acharge offrOud
or rascality2 When has any head of a
department ordered an investigation
All when has Congress. when twothirds
of its members belonged tothe Republi-
can party, instituted an investigation ex-
ceptto whitewash and cover mp the ras
cality in the party2 Applause ~
Mr.. Blaine said the other day at War
rem, as the papers report him, that H. B.
Payne says he is delighted with Southern
gentlemen. For six years James G.
Blaine was Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives and appointed all its com
mittees, and during all those six wears
not committee appointed by him ever
made an honest investigation of the |
charges of abuses of the public service.
GApplause Not one We have had |
committees on the different departments |
the War Department, State Depart
ment, Navy Department-and not in
these six years has one of those Commit
tees ever made investigation or ever
made report that does credit to them or
the party or the country neither one.
Organized to whiewashl They had one
when driven into it by the independent
press of this country, which has been
more powerful agent for the investigation
of abuses and corruption than any other,
and has forced at times this majority in
the House to make investigations and
one man after another has been com
PEELED to resign. Landaulet Williams and
Columbus Delano are instances. When
the public mind became so thoroughly
convinced of their rascality, their vena-
lity and their corruption that they could
no longer stave it off then they have
been withdrawn from the public service,
but they retain the confidence and affec-
ton and regard of the President of the
United States They have never been
handed over to the Marshal or sent to the
pententiary; or fby chance some un-
lucky fellow did get there by jury the
Presidents pardon met him at the door
of the penitentiary. Applause
They retrenchl When has head ofa
department made an estimate for Con-
gress that retrenched one dollar? Even
this last session they came in with their
estimates for expenditures-these hard
times, when the whole country was suf-
fering and staggering under the depres-
sion of business, when the net earnings
of the entire year would not pay the in
terest upon the debt, to say nothing of the
priucipal-and what did they recommend
in regard to the retrenchment? They re-
commended twenty-five millions more than
the appropriation of the year before
GApplause. They recommended fifty
five millions more than they got from
thatDemocratic House. Applause
You have no idea of the work, of the
resistance with which that House had to
contend everywhere. There was not in
any instance in their estimate recon-
mendation to reduce their expenditures.
They were not favorably disposed towards
this Democratic House of "ex-Confeder-
ates and all sorts of rascals" hey were
bent OH retrenchment, and no work was
ever followed up more faithfully in the
world than that cause was followed up
by the leaders of the House Of Represen-
tatives, sustained all the way through by
the rank and file of the party. The Ad-
min.stration said we cannot suffer re-
duction in the force. 1t will cripple the
public service. Reduce their wages =? No.
We proposed to reduce the wages Of the
employees ten per cent and started out
honestly by first reducing our own; we
tried it little on President Grant, but
we didn't succeed very we'll with him.
[ Laughter. But we did with our own, so
far as we were concerned, and they raised
a hue and cry, "You are expressing la
borw
All over the country, as you know, the
wages of the laborers have been reduced. |
There are thousands and ten ofthouslnds |
and hundreds of thousands, there are
millions of workmen in this country to-
day workingfor relnced wages, or in vain |
seeking to get work at reduced wages.
[Applause.] They have submitted with
in two years to two or thJee reductions of
% to so per cent, and as said, thousands |
of them cannot get it At the lowest reduc-
ton 1t It " was hard, was i to come on to to |
those fat fellows at Washington, and ask |
them to give up 10 per cent of their
wages wRsss a.es est e15e5 0e 59RsS that tS 'ReSs
fixed during the imitation period. There
are men getting 81 ,800a year there that |
venture to say could not get thousand
anywhere else. OIL how afraid they
were that we would cripple the public
.Aal- A