The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-27

manufacturing tobacco, and other iniuri.
GUS luxuries, but to deny all relief from
| the burdens imposed on the savings OF
labor in bankrupt savings establish
ments.
"Reform is necessary in the scale OF
public expenses" they said. And to
carry forth this necessary reform they
proceeded to vote appropriations for
public expenses exceeding the appropri-
ations OF the preceding year by more
than IS, OOO,O 900.
Reform is necessary in the civil SER
vice, they said. And to carry forth this
necessary reform the present Congress
OF reformers have passed no act, have
considered no proposition, have taken
no step whatever in any way looking to-
ward a reformation of the most corrupt
and mischievous civil.service system
that can be found on the globe.
These facts are illustrative examples
of the way in which this Congress has
fulfilled the big-sounding promises upon
which 1t came in. 1t has consumed more
than half year in laboriously contriving
how not to carry out a single one of the
reforms which were so loudly proclaimed
to be necessary. The time has been
spent in the petty squabbling of small
and cheap politicians to manufacture
party capital. and in efforts to undo even
what was done by the Forty-third Con-
gress to bring the country out of the
dismal morass of an inflated and ire
deemable currency. Pretending to be
reformers, the controlling section have
shown only capacity to render neces-
sary reform in the composition of Con-
gress itself. Pretending to deprecate
sectional Legislation, the energies of the
House have been given to trading, dick
ering, and log-rolling for all manner of
schemes of local and special aggrandize-
ment. The monstrous method of public
swindling known as omnibus legisla-
tlon " was never more extensively prac-
ticed by an American Congress. And
never, in the whole history of America,
has Congress shown greater readiness
to sacrifice public ends to mere party
ends.
The Tilden- Blair Butler inquisition,
at a cost of 800, 900 to the public, is ap-
propriately the concluding farce in this
programme of partisan sham and imbe-
cility. 1t is farce which exhibits the
cowardice not less than the stupidity of
the Bourbon chiefs in gaudy colors.
Setting out upon deliberately formed
purpose to revolutionize the Presidency
in the interest of a desperate party, the
towards have been driven by swift
gathering public Indignation to deny
their own intention, to repudiate the
logic of their own acts and declarations,
and to proclaim that their undertaking
is an aimless, pro6tless and contempti-
BILE farce, that, like the whole career of
this Congress of small politicians, in
7ites public ridicule.
Looking back over the records of
American Congresses, not one will be
found which was composedon the average
Of such small and weak men, or whose
performance was so little worthy of pub
lie respect, as the present Congress. It
has proven itself by it's acts as we'll as by
it's omissions to be at once the least re-
spectacle and the most contemplate
Congress ever convened in America. It's
most credi.able action is that by which
it's members will retire for a time from
public observation.