The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-07-20

set IN motion the wheels OF commerce,
manufactures, and the mechanic arts,
restore employment to labor and renew
IN all its natural sources the prosperity
the people.
REFORM OF THE TARIFF-FREE TRADE.
Reform is necessary in the sum and
modes Of Federal taxation, to the end that
capital may be be set free from distrust
and labor lightly burdened. ..
We denounce the present tariff, levied
upon nearly four thousand articles, as a
masterpiece Of injustice, inequality and
false pretense, 1t yields a dwindling,
not yearly rising revenue. 1t has i'm
povershed many industries to subsidize
few, 1t prohibits imports that might
purchase the products Of American labor.
It has degraded American commerce
from the first to an inferior rank upon
the high seas. 1t has cut down the sales
OF American manufactures at home and
abroad, and depleted the returns of
American agriculture, an industry follow
ed by half our people.
1t costs the people five times more than
it produces to the Tresury, obstructs the
process of production, and wastes the
fruits Of labor. ltpromotes fraud, fosters
smuggling, enriches dishonest officials,
and bankrupts honest merchants. We
demand that all Custom house taxation
shall be only for revenue.
REFoRM-ECoNoMY IN PUBLIC EXPENSE.
Reform is necessary in the scale of
Ctat 4
nicipal, Our Federal taxation has swol-
len from 500 100000 gold, in 1860, to
S45o, 100000 currency, in 1870. Our ag-
gregate taxation, from $I54 900, 900 gold,
in 1860, to $3.50, 600, 900 currency, in 1870,
or in one decade from less than IS per
head to more than SIS per head Since
the peace, the people have paid to their
tax gatherers more than thrice the sum
ofthe National debt, and more than twice
that sum for the Federal Government
alone. We demand a rigorous frugality
in every department and from every
officer of the Government.
REFoRM-PUBLIC LANDS TO ACTUAL SET
LERS.
Reform is necessary to put stop to
the prohigate waste of public lands, and
their diversion from actual settlers by the
party in power, which has squandered
200. 900 900 of acres upon railroads alone
and out gilmore than thrice that aggre-
gate has disposed of less than sixth
directly to tillers ofthe soil.
REFoRM-ADoPTED CITIZENS, REJECTED
MoNGoLS.
Reform is necessary to correct the
omission of a Republican Congress, and
the errors of our treaties and our diplo-
macy which have stripped our fellow citi-
zens of foreign birth and kindred race re
crossing the Atlantic. of the shield of
American citizenship, and exposed our
brethren of the Pacific coast to the incur
sion ofa race not sprung from the same
great parent stock, and, in fact, now by
law denied citizenship through naturali-
zation, as being neither accustomed to
the traditions of progressive civilization
nor exercised in liberty under equal laws.
We denounce the policy which discards
the liberty loving German and tolerates
a revival ofthe Coolic trade in Mongolian
woman 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
effected but by making it the controlling
issue Of the election and lift it above the
two false issues with which the office hold
ing classes and the party in power seek
to smother it.
FIrSt-the false issue with which they
would enkindle sectarian strifein respect
to the public schools, of which the estab-
lishment and support belong exclusively
to the several States, and which the Dem
ocratic party has cherished from their foun
dation, and is resolved to maintain with
out partiality or preference for any class,
sect or creed, and without contributions
from the treasury to any,
SecOH6-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 SER
vice. Experience proves that efficient
economical conduct of the Government
business is not possible if its civil service
be subject to change at every election,
be prize fought for at the ballot box,
be brief reward Of party zeal instead of
honor assigned for proved competency
and held for fidelity in the public employ;
that the dispensing Of patronage should
be neither a tax upon the time of our
public men nor the instrument of their
ambition. Here, again, professions fall
sifed in the performance attest that the
party in power can work out no practical
or salutary reform.
REFokM-CoRRUPTION OF HIGH PUBLIC
| OFFICIALS.
Reform is necessary, even more in the
higher grades of public service. Presi-
dent Vice President, Judges, Senators,
Representatives, Cabinet officers-these
and all others in authority are the peoples
sevants. Their Offices are not a private
perquisite; they are public trust.
When the annals Of this Republic show
the disgrace and censure of Vice Presi-
dent late Speaker of the House of
Representatives marketing his rulings as
a presiding officer; three Senators profit.
ing secretly by their votes as lawmakers;
FIVE chairmen of the leading committees
of the late House of Representatives ex-
4 IL 1.k. r Al.
Treasury of forcing balances in the pub
lie accounts; late Attorney General
misappropriating public founds' Sec
retary of the Navy enriched or enriching
his friens by percentages levied off the
profits ofcontractors with his Department
an Ambassador to England censured in
dishonorable speculation; the Presi-
dents Private Secretary barely escaping
coviction upon rial for guilty completely
| in frauds nnnn the reuenIe. 4 SecretarA.