Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-06-28
REPUBLICAN MADNESS.
One Hun dred Millions of Dollars
for Tribute-COngress Runs RIOI
with an I'Over m owing Treasury. >,
Mem York World.


The gods seem to have determined to de-
stroy the Republican party. They have
certainly made its leaders mad. The most
extraordinary act of public prohigacY ever
heard of in the United States, or In ary
other country In the world, was yesterdsy Y
perpetrated by the Republican majority Ia
the House of Representatives, when q bill
appropriating one hundred millions of dol
lars was passed without word Of debate,
with only word of protest and under a
suspension of the rules.
The country will now begin to see what
Robson and Keifer were after in what they
impudently described as ''the struggle for
honest elections" Their anxiety was not
that Republicans should be voted into the
House whether they had been elected or not.
1t was simply that the rules might be sus-
pended when the jobs In which they were
interested came up for action. The coun-
try cannot know as yet what thefts the
pension bill may cover. It knows that
Dudley may be trusted to get rid of every
dollar that is appropriated to his depart
men+, and that Keifer made up the COM
mittees In the interest of expenditure.
Everybody knows that two.thirds of the
pensions that will be paid under this bill are
simply robberies of the Treasury, aided and
abetted by the Republican guardians Of the
Treasury.
One hundred million dollarsl Does the
reader take In the appalling significance Of
these figures? 1t is the labor for q year of
two hundred thousand laborers that was
Yesterday voted without debated 1t is the
full pay for year of an army OF five hun
dred and fifty thousand private soldiers that
the rules of the House were suspended to
distribute among claimants for pensions!
The total pension list of Great Britain,
loaded down, as Keifer and Robeson and
Hiscock and Dudley would declare it to be
with abuses, amounts to-how much, thinks
the readerS To SIS ,000, 900 less than one
sixth OF the amount which the majority of
the House yesterday voted was not of i'm
portance enough to occupy the time of the
House with discussionl
The total pay roll Of the British army,
with $50 600 on the active list. was In $780,
'81, $22, SOC, 600. The whole war budget of
the German Empire, the military model OF
the world, with 1904 men and officers
under arms, for the current year is $79,-
27S, ,552-less than four-ffths OF the pension
list of a country whose happiness it Is to be
relieved of the necessity OF supporting an
enormous army; and the general pension
list and invalid fund of the German Empire
together amount to less than $40, ,000, 900,
The whole army budget of France, with an
army in active service of 502, 900 men, was
last year $14, 900 900 more than the sum re-
Gently tossed away as bagatelle without
a division" in the American House Of Rep
resentatives.
Besides this vast and corrupt waste, of
which less than one-quarter represents all
that the country honestly owes to its PEN
sioners, and all that its honest pensioners
will get, the colossal job OF the river and
harbor bill, by which $17 .000, 900 were flung
away the other day, becomes q mere piece
Of pilferiDg. And let not the people forget
that all this waste and all this theft are
premeditated and systematic attack upon a
surplus collected by methods of taxation
the productiveness of which Republican
Congress has secuted the idea of diminish
ing-a system of taxation which Republi-
can President has packed Tariff Commis-
sion to keep In full force. The Republican
majority of Congress Is voting away hun
dreds OF millions at q time, money which
ought to be in the pockets OF the taxpayer,
for fear the taxpayers should ask them how
they came by it.
The day Of reckoning for theae things
cannot be far off.