The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-01-09
TASKS FOR GOVERNOR ROB-
ERTS

Ou large scale New York City is
in the precise condition of the United
States. For SHicial sglaries alone 10
that city ten yhiIlions are annually ex
pended. Merchants say that all the
profits nf trade, such ia the close COM
petition of Boston, Baltimore and Phil
! adelphia, are wrested from them by
taxgatherers. Real estate owners can
hardly pay taxes and insurance, and
houses are sadly in need of repairs.
These cooperate with the tradespeeple
and insist that public burdens shall be
lessened. II seems that there are more
terrible h1Tnacles fastened upon the
body polite by the public school sys-
TEN than any other agency of public
expenditure. A commission of in
quiry into the conduct of the schools
recommends a reduction by the trifling
sum OF three millions OF the vast
amount required by those exceedingly
young enough to enable them to find
their ways into jails and penitentIaries.
The very ignorant and the learned rare.
ly commit petty villsinies. Those who
only know enough to transform ignor-
ance into cunning are they to whom
Pope referred when he wrote
"a little learning is dangerous thing"
Invectives against the managers of
the schools fill the newspapers, and
there is degree of interest evinced
in the proposition to reduce the
cost of government and its incidents
to a minimum never before developed
in Gotham. When gold is finally the
standard of values, when the cost of
everything We consume is hardly great
er than in 1860, the cost of governing
each city, town and county of the
United States, is threefold greater than
eighteen years ago, when secession and
its Northern counterpart in popular
morals and partlsanship deluged the
continent with delights. The same
reason for multiplying offices and sim
ecures operated in the South as in the
North and here with even greater
force. There soldiers, lsmed and he
roic, were pensioned. Thirty millions
per snnum are expended by Federal
power in this behalf. Hardly dollar
tof this sum comes into the South.
Relatively the number requiring PEN
ions here Is greater than North of
tie Ohio. But more than this, Federal
Offices in Southern States, postoffices,
nNrshalships, custom house managers
spd all underlings of courts and of
federal authority are chosen to a
graf extent from among these North
eri soldiers. Those of the South are
hlet in nothing Therefore the great
| ldjffilulty encountered by Southern re-
forHers like Governor Roberts. There
are even now so few officers and sine
curs, as compared with the vast null
+ titutes of deserving heroes of the war,
or o. party. that governor and legis-
lature cannot find 1t in their hearts to
reduce the number, and thus the in
I tolerahe cost of maintaining countless
place holders. Governor Coke had q
little aw passed, giving him, with the
conheIt of the Senate, power to ap-
point twenty notaries in each
count. The demand for these
, commissions was ravenous and fearful
to contemplate. Coke was then max
ing tracis for the United States Senate
and he Mad pretty commissions pre-
pared iDgreat, rousing, capital letters
and seal. on them like cart wheels. He
, launched out the 90 to each county and
made foIbimself among the best of the
, people tbs number of stsunch adherents
in eachNconnty. The power 5000
notaries ave Coke was felt when he
! collided nth John Hancock as a can
didate fbI the United States Senate.
3 Offices oflses the meauest and low
e est, are go ght after with an avidity
! eliminating in an inappeasable mania.
1t endure, through life. Whettsd by
e indulgence incumbents finally feel
: that the country owes them q
} place aSd when Abe Lincoln
5 thrust out myriads who had been
, comfortabI. ensconsced in all sorts of
comfortabltsinecures for nearly forty
years, then resulted an awful row
/ about it. .ofmoralts preying upon
? the vitals New York are not pecu-
g liar to that ity. They have wrecked
Houston ad stranded the ancient
3 town of Richmond, and left Memphis
Q helpless and ,enniless, its people, in q
$ great public gathering, having agreed
t last Tuesday that the city, as q cor
T porate fact, Mould be no more. The
: Legislature WI probably approve, and
! thus we hav a city and State con-
3 Tossing the iespacity of a mob for
: tasks of self Government. The same
n fate awaits cO1tless other municipali-
IT ties which aus confess in terms
lr too plain be misunderstood
r the unwurth,ess of those who
i govern and the necessity for
e the reduction OF the number OF
n offices aud thir cost to standards
l. measured by ts financial condition
,l wrought by the,ersistent Secretary oil
d. the Treasury. read, bacon and beef
a are cheap eneyh. Producers re-
le ceive no more 70 these prime necessa
sr ries of life tharelghteen years ago,
le and placeholden in number and sal
Is aries. mast be reeced pari passu with
in the reduction ofshe incomes of the
is people. New Ark city's example
n will be followed Austin and by the
a. commonwealth ofrexas.
a
!, THE Hsalh Joss1l says that accord.
: ing to the most rent researches, GER
:, tain microscopic ,ryanized or living
hndies constitsfp - IN ,~roba b;l;tv