The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-08-31

IHIIIIIluIanIEulnaH8
their diversion from actual settlers by the
party in power, which has squandered
200, 900, 900 acres upon railroads alone,
and out of more than thrice that aggre-
gate has disposed of less than sixth di-
rectly to tillers Of the soil.
REFoRM--ADoPTED CITIZENS, REJECTED MON
COILS.
Reform is necessary to correct the omis-
sion Of Republican Congress, and the
errors of our treaties and our diplomacy,
which have stripped our fellow citizens
OF foreign birth and kindred races re eros
sing the Atlantic of the shield Of Ameri-
can citizenship, and 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 by law
denied citizenship through naturalization
as being neither accustomed to the ira
ditions of progressive civilization nor
exercised in liberty under equal laws.
We denounce the policy which thus dis
cards the liberty loving German and
tolerates a revival of the Coolie trade in
Mongolian women imported for immoral
purposes, and Mongolian men held to
servile labor contracts.
THE FALSE sECTARIAN IssUE-THE FALSE
SECTIONAL ISSUE.
Reform is necessary and can never be
affected but by making it the controlling
issue of the election and lifting it above
the two false issues with which the office
holding classes and the party in power
seek to smother it.
FUYf-The false issue with which they
would enkindle sectarian strife in respect
to public schools, of which the establish
ment and support belong exclusively to
the several states, and which the Demo.
cratic party has cherished from their
foundation, and is resolved to maintain
without partially or preference for any
class, sect or creed, and without coatri-
buttons from the treasury to any.
SecOHd-The false issue by which they
seek to light anew the dying embers of
| sectional hate between kindred people
once unnaturally estranged, but now re-
united in one indivisible Republic and
common destiny.
REFoRM-THE CIVIL SERVICE.
Reform is necessary in the civil service.
Experience proves that efficient econo.
mical conduct of the government bust
ness is not possible if its civil service be
subject to change at every election, be
a prize fought for at the ballot box, be
4ief reward of party zeal Instead of posts
of honor assigned for proved competence
and held for fidelity in the public employ
that the dispensing Of patronage should
neither be tax upon the time Of our
public men nor the instrument of their
ambition, Here. again, professions falls
fed in the performance attest that the
party in power can work out no practical
or salutary reform.
REFORM-CoRRUPTION OF HIGH PUBLIC OF.
FICEs.
Reform is necessary, even more in the
higher grades of public service. Presi-
dent, vice president, judges, senator's,
representatives, cabinet officers-these
and all others in authority are the peoples
servants Their offices are not a private
perquisite; they are public trust,
When the annals of this Republic show
the disgrace and censure of a vice presi-
dent; late Speaker ofthe House of Rep.
resentatives marketing his rulings as a
presiding officer; three senators profiting
secretly by their votes as lawmakers;
five chairmen of the leading committees
of the late House of Representatives ex-
posed in jobbery; late Secretary of the
Treasury forcing balances in the public
accounts; a late attorney general misap-
propriating public funds; a secretary of
the navy enriched or enriching his friends
by PERCENTAGE levied off the profits of
contractors with his department;an en-
bassador to England censured in a dis
honorable speculation; the president S
private secretary barely escaping con-
viction upon trial for guilty completely in
frauds upon the revenue a secretary of
of war impeached for high crimes and
misdemeanors-that demonstration is
complete that the first step in reform must
be the peoples choice Of honest men
from another party, lest the disease of
one political organization infect the body
polite, and lest, by making no change oi
men or parties, weget no change ofmea-
sure and no real reform.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All the abuses, wrongs and crimes, the
product ofsixteen years ascendancy OF
the Republican party, create a necessity
for reform, confessed by Republicans
themselves; but their reformers are voted
down in convention, and displaced from
the Cabinet. The party's mass ofhonest
voters is powerless to resist the eighty
thousand office holders. its leaders and
guides,
Reform can only be had by a peaceful
civic revolution. We demand a change
of system, change of administration, a
change of party, that we may have a
change of measure and of men.