The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-09-02
The First Stroke Of Republican Cam.
paign Work.

The first stroke OF Republican CAM
paign work, as usual, is to levy black
mail on the Office holders. The Con-
gressional Campaign Committee has
assessed the officers of the two houses
of Congress-, from the clerks down to
the page boys, a per centage of their
salaries This was followed by SINH
lar assessment of the rest of the ninety
thousand persons who hold Office under
the United States Government. There
is Federal statute against the collec-
ton of moneys from officers and en-
ploycs of the United States Government
under which General A. NJ Curtis.
Treasurer of the Republican State Com
mittee of New York, suffered conviction
the. other day. But this statute is easily
evaded and is not at all likely to stand
in the way of the collecting agents of
the Congressional Committee. A polite
request is made by that committee for
contributions from the Office holders and
they get some very polite and significant
hints from Administrative sources that
the safety of their official heads will de-
pend on favorable response on their
part to the request of the committee.
The 'of1ice-holders will contribute, as
they have done in the past, some of
them willingly, others under constraint.
only a small number probably possess
ing sufficient courage to refuse. The
average sum levied upon each of them
will not be less than ten dollars and the
aggregate will probably reach three
quarters of a million.
Thus the people in their efforts to
turn the Republican party out of power
find their own taxes converted into a
corrupt but powerful agency for the de-
feat of their purpose. The salaries paid
out of the revenues wrlng from the tax
payers are tithcd by the Republican
Congressional Committee to create a
fund to be employed in thwarting the
taxpayers will. Even the salt in the
poor mans meat and the sugar on his
table contribute to swell the Golfers of
the Republican campaign managers.
And this blackmailing OF the taxpayers
through the office-holders for the sup
port of Republican campaigns has been
going on for years. 1t is safe estimate
to put the aggregate of the moneys
squeezed out of the earnings of the peo-
pie in this way by the Republican party
during the last fifteen years at ten mill
ions of dollars. This is rather an ex-
travagant sum to pay for the privilege
of being misgoverned, though there is
even a stronger objection to the policy
OF assessing office-holders for political
purposes than that based on its cost to the
people in dollars and cents. 1t teaches
the offce-holder himself that the gov
erning power is not exercised by the
people SO much as by the managing
politicians who corruptly control cleo
tions. 1t suggests to him that as his
party can rob him of portion of his
salary with impunity he may be pro-
tected by his party in robbing the Gov
ernment in turn. Still more and worse,
it is aimed at the integrity of the voters
and'the purity of the ballot-box. The
immense sums that are raised by con-
tributions levied on the of1ice-holders are
notexhausted in the payment of printing
bills and the distribution of documents.
Closely contested States and Congress
sional Districts have been literally bought
up more than once by money collected
by assessments on the officers and en-
ployes of the United States Government.
The Republican plan of conducting
moneyed campaigns is therefore simply
damnable from the moral point of view.
1t should be the subject of denunciation
in every honest newspaper and text to
every teacher of sound morality in the
land. --Harrisbnrg PA. Patriot