The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-10-03


hands for execution, creating at no time
an artificial scarcity of currency and al
no time alarming the public mind into
withdrawal of that vaster machinery OF
credit by which IS per cent of all busl-
ness transactions are performed-a sys.
tenn open, public, and inspiring general
confidence, would from the day of Its
adoption bring hsaling on its wings to
all our harassed industries, set in motion
the wheels of commerce, manufactures,
and the mechanic arts, restore employ
ment to labor, and renew in all its natu-
raj sources the prosperity of the people
REFORM IN FEDERAL TAXATION.
Reform IS necessary in the sum and
modes of Federal Taxation, TO the end
that capital may be set free from distrust,
and labor lightly burdened.
We denounce the present Tariff, levied
upon nearly 1000 articles, as master
piece of injustice, inequality, and false
pretense.
1t yields dwindling, not yearly ris-
ing, revenue.
1t has impoverished many industries to
subsidize few.
1t prohibits imports that might pur-
chase the products Of American labor.
1t has degraded American commerce
from the first to an inferior rank on the
high seas.
It has cut down the sales of American
manufactures at home aud abroad, and
depleted the returns of American agri-
cuiture-an industry followed by half
our people.
1t costs the people five times more than
it produces to the Treasury, obstructs the
processes of production, and wastes the
fruits of labor.
1t promotes fraud, fosters smuggling,
enriches dishonest officials, and ban krupts
honest merchants.
We demand that all Custom House tax
alton shall be only for Revenue.
REFORM IN PUBLIC EXPENSES.
Reform, is necessary in the scale of Pub
lie Expense Federal, State and Munich
pal.
Our Federal taxation has swollen from
80 millions gold, in 1860, to $50 millions
currency, in 1870; our aggregate taxation
from l54 millions gold in 1860, to 100
millions currency, in 1870; Or in one de-
cade, from less than SIS per head to more
than Sl6 per head.
Since the peace, the people have paid
to their tax gatherers more tnan thrice
the sum of the national debt, and more
than twice that sum for the Federal Gov
eminent alone.
We demand a rigorous frugality in
every department, and from every officer
of the Government.
THE PRoFLIGATE wAsTE'..oF PUBLIC
LANDS.
Reform IS necessary to put stop to the
profigate waste of public lands and their
diversion from actual settlers by the par
ty in power, which has squsndered 200
millions of acres upon railroads alone,
and out of more than thrice that aggre-
gate has disposed of less than sixth d.
rectly to tillers Of the soil.
THE SHIELD OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP.
Reform is necessary to correct the omls-
sions of Republican Congress and the
errCrs of our treaties and our diplomacy
which have stripped our iellow-cltizens
of foreign birth and kindred race recross-
ing the Atlantic, of the shield of Amerl-
can citizenship, and have exposed our
brethren of the Pacific coast to the incur
sions of race not sprung from the same
great parent stock, and in fact now by
law denied citizenship through naturalI-
cation rs being neither accustomed to the
traditions of a progressive civilization nor
exercised in liberty under equal laws.
We denounce the policy which thus
dscards the liberty-loving German and
tolerstes the revival of the coolie trade IN
Monaghan women imported for immoral
purp oses, and Monaghan men, hired to
perform servie labor contracts, and de-
mand such modification of the treaty
with the Chinese empire, or such leglsla-
ton by Congress within constitutional
limitations rs shall prevent the further
importation or immigration of the Mon
golian race.
sECTARIAN STRIFE AND SECTIONAL HATE
Reform is necessary and can never be
effected but by making it the controlling
issues OF the elections, and lifting 1t 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 enkindie sectarian strife in 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
foundation, and is resolved to maintain
without prejudice or preference for any
class, sect, or creed, and without contrl-
buttons from the treasury to any.
9. The false issue by which they seek
to light anew the dying embers of sec
tional hate between kindred peoples once
estranged, but now reunited in one lndl-
visible republic and common destiny.
CIVIL SERVICE.
Reform Is necessary in the Civil Ser
vice.
Experience proves that efficient, econ
omical conduct Of the governmental bus
mess is not possible if its civil service be
subject to change at every election, be
prize fought for at the ballot box, be a
brief reward of party zeal, instead OF
posts of honor assigned for proved COM
potency, and held for fidelity IN the pub
lie employ; that the dispensing OF patron
age should neither be tax upon the
time of all our public men, nor the in
strument of their ambition. Here again
promises falsifed in the performance, at
test that the party in power can work out
no practical or sautaIy reform.
OFFICIAL CRIMES AND MIsDEMEANoRs
Reform is necessary even more in the