The New York herald., 1876-09-15
A Call TO Order.

vass should not be conducted in the most
honorable and truthful manner. What the
voters want are facts what the country
Both parties have faults both have depend
ents and hangers-on who are neither wise
nor good. The interest of tho country is that
that party which on the whole will most
wisely govern it shall succeed, and the
party leaders, speakers and organs, on both
sides, should, in presenting their cases, en-
deavor to do 30 in a calm, temperate and,
above all, truthful manner. 1t is the part of
the independent press to point out where
either or both violate this sound rule and
the HERALD, which has often before acted
the part Of moderator to the great assembly,
will continue to do SO in this canvass.
Here, for instance, are certain republican
journals and speakers-prominent among
them we are sorry to notice Mr., Wheeler,
candidate for the Vice Presidency-who are
making noisy issue of the late war ; of the
fact that persons who served in the rebel
army have since been elected to Congress,
and of exaggerated and false accounts of
prescription, so called. and Outrage in the
Southern States. Now this is all wrong.
The war is over 4; the ''ex-Confederates, 80
called, would not be in Congress at all if the
republican majority there had not rightly re-
lieved them of their disabilities, and if repub-
lican misgovernment in Southern States had
not united the majority of the people there
into an opposition party. The Southern
IN in
it is very well known that Governor Hayes
does not defend the misconduct Of the so
called republicans in such States as Lousi-
ana, and that if he is elected the Kelloggs
PackArds, Spencers and Pattersons will get
no support from him. While he insists that
oil the amendments are sacred and must be
obeyed as the supreme law of the land he
will not exercise or tolerate federal inter-
ference in the local affairs of the Southern
States. Those republicans, therefore, who
try to excite anew the animosities and sus-
picions of the North against the white
people of the South are not only unpatriotic,
but they are trying to introduce into the
canvass a false issue and to place the party
and its candidate in false position before
the country. If the republican party had
no better appeal to the suffrages of the
voters than the old cry of the 'bloody
shirt" it would deserve defeat and would
undoubtedly be beaten.
On the other hand, certain democratic
organs and speakers are no less unfair and
unwise Here, for instance we find an ar
ticle in leading democratic organ compar-
ing the federal expenditures during demo-
cratic administrations before 1860 with
those under the republican administrations
from 1861 to 1875, including the whole cost
Of the war and of its consequences. Mr..
Buchanan spent seventy-eight millions a
year, this journal tells its readers but the
republicans an average of nine hundred
millions year. There ore, perhaps, readers
ignorant enough to be taken in by such
state ment but is it not discreditable to
take advantage of their ignorance? The
inexcusable manner by the democratic
party in the South that the Southern demo-
cratic leaders were encouraged to begin it
by their Northern political allies, and were
persuaded to continue it for at least two
years after it had become hopeless strug-
gle by the silly and unpatriotic attitude of
many influential Northern democrats. The
democratic party may therefore be justly
held responsible for the expenses which
the war entailed and continues to entail
upon the country, and it is not wise in the
democrats to put forth statements which
necessarily recall this fact to the attention of
the country.
Let us have fair dealing on both sides.
Neither party can win by misrepresenta-
tions and false issues. What the country
demands is reform of the civil service, so
as to place the government service on the
same footing with private service and secure
fidelity and capacity in the transaction Of
the government business. What it wants
besides is settlement Of tho currency and
a revision of the tariff, SO as to enable us to
sell abroad our surplus manufactures, and
thus set the wheels Of industry going again.
Whether the democratic or the republican
party is most likely to give US these reforms
is the question which the country will de-
eide next November. The cry about hugo
expenditures is nonsense, for where the
democrats have ruled, as in this and other
cities, they have been even more extravagant,
wasteful and dishonest than the republicans
at Washington. We shall have economy
only when we get an honest civil service;
and we need that here in New York and in
all our city governments just as much as in
the federal administration, and seem to be
even further from getting it.
Reaction OF Coal C0mbin N alton.
Commonly the only perceptiblc effect of
such conspiracies as the great coal combina-
ton is seen in the misery of the poor. But
they have other effects, and those other effects