Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-01-28
A CRUSHING INDICTMENT.
AN AWAKENING OF THE POLITICAL CON
SCIENCE NEEDED.

The Philadelphia Bulletin is one of
the heightened Radical organs of that
city, and until recently has condoned
every political crime committed at
Harrisburg or elsewhere. There must
be new editor on hand, or his con-
science has triumphed for once. Read
what he says about our Radically gov
crned Commonwealth:
"lf the business Of the State of Penn
sylvania could be conducted on the
general principles that rule the bust.
ness affairs OF any well-managed cor
poration or private establishment, no
Commonwealth in the world would be
in better financial condition. Its OK.
haustless resources would be so used
as to absorb all its debt and at the
same time to carry on its government
and all its affairs upon basis of liberal
but wise expenditure, for the best well
fare of all classes Of its people. If, in
stead Of legislatures reeking with such
Wholesale corruptions as have repeat
edly disgraced the capital, the people
would send to Harrisburg men chosen
for their personal and official honesty,
their intelligence and public spirit, we
should have business, like financial
policies adopted and carried out, and
the public money SO appropriated, dis
burscd and spent as money is used in
any private and woll.ordered business
establishment. We should not have
waste and corruption in the Legisla-
lures expenditures iavoritism, caprice
and uncertainty in the Treasury's dis
bursements, and financial systems and
schemes, that keep the State impover-
ished, virtually bankrupted, continu-
ally dishonorod, while all around are
the abundant means for meeting every
legitimate necessity. We should not
have the public institutions for the
care of various defective classes strug-
Cling year after year to secure their
appropriations, sometimes succeeding,
sometimes failing, sometimes crippled
by false economy, sometimes petted by
false libcrality, sometimes beggared by
the misconduct oflegislativc clerks and
other officials, sometimes lett strug-
Cling along for months under the false
pretense Of an empty Treasury, while
some favored institution quietly OBJ.
tains all that it wants, through per.
sonal favor or still more questionable
influence. We should not have the
public school system dragging along
with its insufficient or unpaid appro-
priations, to the great injury of the
schools and the discredit of the State.
We should not have the annual raids
upon the Legislature in behalf of huge
schemes of public stealing, with all the
demoralizing influences that follow in
their train, whether successful or not
We should have men appointed to of.
fee for what good they can render TO
the State, and not for what good tho
State can render 10 them. We should
have standards of good morals, intclli.
gent capacity and practical experience
throughout the civil service, just as
the business man picks ont his clerks
and othor subordinates for their sup.
posed possession Of these qualities. We
should not have men put in places of
trust and responsibility, who are unfit
for them, merely as reward Of polt-
cal service or an expression of friend
ship and good fellowship.
"With Ponnsylvania's wonderful op-
portunities for being a model Com
monwealth financially and throughout
her civil service, her educational and
institutional affairs, il does not seem
altogether extrayagant TO imagine the
possibility Of such state Of things 1t
is condition far enough away from
anything ever realized within her Dor.
ders. The variation from such high
standards have been numerous and
very great, under successive genera
tions. They have been more nearly
approached under some administra-
tions than Others, but never reached
by any. Pennsylvania is so lntrinsi-
cally rich and powerful that nothing
is wanted but right use of her forces
10 make her all that the highest ambi.
ton Of the patriot, the philanthropist,
the political economist can desire for
her. That she should be so pinched
and crippled in the midst of her own
plenty and power comes simply from
the fact that her people, as a mass,
are not yet educated up to the full
sense of the duty of sclfgovernment.
Whenever they become so, and in pro-
portion aa thev becoma an rJar,-;ah,r,,