The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-07-11
WITHoUrPRooF

Senator Davis, Of West Virginia, has served
at least one very useful purpose. He has been
the means of disclosing the weakness of one of
the lines of attack contemplated in the Demo-
cratic plan of the next campaign. 1t is known
that he has been afflicted for several years with
sort of mOnOmanIs on the subject of Treasury
accounts, and what he calls fraud in the Treas
ury Department. Some years ago he thought he
had discovered discrepancy in the Treasury
parlance of the street he Event for il. 1t Was
soon made apparent to other people, though he
has failed through ignorance or Obstinacy to see
methods Of book keeping, easily explained. and
that there was nothing upon which to found Il
charge of official corruption or dishonesty But
Treasury had Eeen plundered, and that thor
Ough investigation would disclose a condition Of
rottenness in the Department which would startle
the country and cover Republican administration
with irretrievable dis grace and infamy. His own
p2rty took no stock in the vast suspicious with
which he entertained himself, but q Republican
Senate humored him in what seemed a harmless
hobby, and gave him the fullest authority, with
all possible facilities, to make thorough over
hauling of the Treasury Department and its
accounts, and bring everything connected Win
il into what Mr.. Marble elOquently calls 1.-THE
keen bright sunlight of publicity 1t Il win
this investigation that he has chiefly concerned
himself during almost the entire period OF ms
public service He has been in the Senate the
counterpart of Glover in the House He has not,
it is true, convulSed the country with laughter
to such an extent as Glover did, for he has not
so often the wrong fish, but in his way he has
furnished a good deal Of quiet amusement by his
nervous anxiety, and the obstinate persistency
with which he chung to his delusiOn.
Until within a few days there has been pre-
vailing beliefsamong his colleagues that he was
quite sincere in his hobby, and that ne did actu-
ally believe his charges against the treasury de-
partment were measurab!y :r;:e. He had 3 way
of sirOpping mysterious hints about the s-ork OF
his committee and the things they had pretty
nearly found out and would shortly astonisn tne
I'll xx-,fh hat "
vein, and never failed to amuse the senate; the
more so because he seemed SO deeply y earnest
about the matter himself, and no one else, even
of his own party, attached the slightest import
ance To his investigation or its results But 1t
now turns out, through running debate IN the
Senate last week brought on by his own eagerness
and the lnd,scretion of the impusive salisbury,
that it was part of the Democratic plan to use
charges which have not been snbstantiated, and
assertions which cannot be proved IN their pros.
ecution Of the campaign of 1890 In brief but
very able and powerful speech in the Senate last
Wednesday Senator Window cOntrasted the po-
litcal financial and industrial condition OF the
country under Democratic and Republican rule.
His array of facts and figures so stirred up Mr..
salisbury that that senator ventured to attempt
u reply. in which, after clarifying the Democ-
racy and making the hold avowai that ne was
proud of every page Of its history, he proceeded
to arraign the Republican party for corruption,
cxtortion and robbery. To this loose eNpectora-
that three wears ago he asked the Senator from
Delaware '.to name a single individual, single
Republican official, whom the thirty three Dem.
ocratic investigating committees ha,i proved 10
have stolen one dollar from this Government.
He failed 70 do at that time: he has had three
wears to think it OVER And said Mr.. Window,
81 repeat the question: This touched Senator
being stumped by tit brought him to his feet
with his old charge of alterations III the state
msnt of the public debt amounting TO many ~.
said, .'to state at this time what has occurred
and what has been proved by Treasury officials
This sort of insinuatOn has become habit
with Mr. Davis. and is ordinarily little regarded;
but in this instance Mr.. Window proposed to
bring him to book. He accordingly asked unan-
imOus consent that Mr.. Davis be permitted TO
state anything that has been proved IN the
two years investigation. Mr. Davis alone OBJ
jected. He preferred to indulge in insnuati tons.
without undertaking to prove or justify them;
The most infamous charges had been made against
members of the Republican party, and when the
demand was made for q single specification the
accusers skunk away under the cover Of the sec
which followed, and which took q wide range,
other Democrats participated, and an evident
purpose was manifested to sustain Senator Davis
in withholding the official report and findings OF
the committee, while squirting out unauthorized
and unofficial hints and insinuatiOns Tor cam
paign purposes. Senator Allison accordingly
mony taken by Mr.. Davis's committee be printed
for the use of the senate. This resolution met
the unite ed opposition of Democratic Senator'S
and exploded charges of the West Virginia Sem
ator for campaign purposes. without permit
ting the public to know the facts or read the tes-
timOny upon which they are based. The Re
publican demand is that all the facts be made
known and all the testimony published, Messrs.
Window and Allison made short work with the
two or three feeble offers of specifications from
Davis. SALISBURY and Beck, and to that extent
their guns are spiked but the obvious plan is to
attack Republican administration with sly IN
sinuatiOn and bold, unsupported assertion. while
refusing upon one technical plea and another to
bring forward the testimony by which alone the
truth can be ascertaned. The debate has dis
closed the dishonest purpose of the party and the
utter inslncerity of Senator Davis. He has
made it plain that, whatever may have been his
original motive he is actuated now by nothing
but a desire to make capital for his party, and
that by no fair or honest methOd.-N. Y. Tribune