Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-07-05

come, and while annually professin,
to intend speedy return to speci
! payments, has annually enacted fresl
hindrances thereto. As such hin
dcrance we denounce the resumption
clause of the act of 1875, and we here
, by demand its repeal.
, We demand a judicious system o
preparation by public economy, by
: official retrenchmcnts and by the fl
, nance which shall enable the natioI
to assure the whole world of its per.
feet ability and its perfect readiness
. to meet any of its promises at the cal
of the creditors.
i We believe such q system, we'll de-
viscd, and above all entrusted to com
petent hands for execution, creating
at no time an artificial scarcity of cur
rency and at no time alarming tht
j public mind into withdrawal o.
that vaster machinery of credit b,
which 95 per cent of all business
transactions are performed, system
open to the public, and inspiring gen
eral confidence, would from the day
of its adoption bring healing onit'
wings to all our harrassed industries
set in motion the wheels of commerce
manufacturing and the mechanical
arts, restore employment to labor and
renew all its National source the
prosperity of the people.
reform is necessary in the sum aud
mode of federal taxation, to the end
that capital may be set free from dis.
trust and labor lightly burdened
We denounce the present tariff levies
upon nearly four thousand articles as
masterpiece of injustice, incquali-
ty and false practice; it yields a
dwindling and not yearly rising
revenue; it has impoverished many
industries to subsidize a few; it pre-
vents imports that purchase the prod
ucts of American labor; it has de-
graded American commerce from the
first to an inferior rank upon the high
seas; it has cut down the sales of
American manufactures at home and
abroad and depleted the returns of
American agriculture an industry
followed by half of our people.
1t costs the people five times more
than it produces to the treasury, oh
structs the process Of production and
wastes the fruits of labor it promotes
fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches
dishonest officials, and bankrupts dis
honest merchants. We demand that
all Custom House taxation shall be
only for revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scale of
public expense, federal, state. and
municipal. Our federal taxation has
swollen from 100000, 600 gold in 1860
to $450, 600, 900 currency in 1870. or in
one decade from less than five dollars
per head to more than 18 dollars per
head. Since the peace the people
have paid to their tax gatherers more
than thrice the sum Of the national
debt and more than twice that sum
for federal government alone. We
demand vigorous frngality in every
department and from every officer of
the government.
Reform Is necessary to put stop to
the profigate waste of public lands
and their diversion from actual set
tiers by the party i'm power, which
has squandered two hundred millions
of ceres upon railroads alone, and out
of more than thrice that aggregate
has disposed of less than sixth di-
rectly to the tillers of the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the
omissions of a Republican Congress
and the. errors of our treaties, and our
diplomacy, which have stripped our
fellow citizens of foreign birth and
kindred races, recrossing the Atlantic
of the shield of American citizenship.
and have exposed our brethren of the
Pacific coast to the incursions of a
race not sprung from the same great
parent stock, and in fact, now lately
denied citizenship through naturaliz-
alton, as being neither accustomed to
the traditions of progressive people
nor exercised in liberty under equal
laws.
We denouncc the policy which thus
discards the liberty loving German
and toleratcs the revival of the Coolie
trade i'll Mongolian women imported
for immoral purposes, and Mongolian
men held to perform servile labor
contracts, and demand such modifica-
tions of the treaty with the Chinese
Empire, or such legislation by Con-
gress within constitutional Limitation,
as shall prevent the further importa-
tion or immigration of the Mongolian
race.
Reform is necessary, and can never
be effected only by making it the con-
trolling issue of the elections and
lifting it above the two false
issues with which the office
holding class and the party
in power seek to smother it; the false
issue with which they would enkindle
sectarian strife in respect to the pub
lie schools, of which the establishment
and support belong exclusively to the
several States, and which the Demo-
cratic party has cherished from their
foundation, and is resolved to with
out partiality or preference for any
class, sect or creed, and without con-
tributing from the Treasury to any.
The false issue by which they seek
to light anew the dying embers of
sectional hate between kindred peo-
pie unnaturally estranged, but now
reunited on one indivisible Republic
and common destiny.
Reforms is necessary in the the civ
il service. Experience proves that
the efficient economical conduct of
the governmental business is not pos
sible if its civil service be subject to
change at every election, as a price
fought for at the ballot box, be q
brief reward of party zeal instead of
posts Of honor assigned for proved
competency and held for fidel-
ity in the public employ !;
that the dispensing of pat
patronage should neither be tax
upon time of all our public men, nor
the instrument of their ambition
Here again have professions been fal-
sified in performance, and attest that
the party in power can work out no
political or salutatory reform.
Reform is necessary, even more in
the higher grades of public services,
The President, Vice President, Judges,
Senators, Representatives, Cabinet
officers, these and all others in author
ity, are the peoples servants, their
offices are not private perqui-
site; they are public trust.
When the annals of this republic
/ SNo" sAS NhoSA A1CC ohN SChSuic VI q
Vice President, a late speaker of the
House of Representatives marketing
his ruling as a presiding officer. A
chairman of the leading committee of
the late House Of Representatives cx-
posed in jobbery a late Secretary Of
the Treasury forcing balances in
the public accounts; o late Attorney
General misappropriating public
funds; Secretary Of the Navy en-.
riched or enriching friends by
percentages levied of the prof.
its of contractors with his de.
partment; an ambassador tG
England censured in q dishonorablt
speculation the Presidents private
secretary barely escaping conviction
upon trial by guilty completely il
frauds upon the revenue
three tSenators profiting secretly by
their votes as law makers. A
Secretary of War impeachcd fol
high crimes and confessed mis-
demeanors, the demonstration i,
complete that the first step in reform
must be the peoples choice O
honest men from an other party