Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-27

other retaliation. Pages could De nnea
| N;tb such cases from the reports OF citizens
A npwspaper before us gives that OF q Ia
korer. with family. earning seven nun
dred and fifty dollars q year, pursued oy
harry for fifteen dollars; and also that oil
hoy of thirteen, earning one dollar DAY,
with another harpy after him for three
dollars and sixty cents. To women anu
girls no merck is shown.
In Snrinefeid and other places, unofficial
Iaborers and the tenant class OF officials are
uniting for common defense against the
landlord class-an argument which even
an extortion committee can comprehend;
Outrageous as is the wrosg upon the poor and
humble. far greater would be the calamity
could the committee make the Landlord
class nav its proportion and swell the cor
rnntion fund to six or eight hundred thou
sand dollars. With 80 vast sum,
uesrotism and Bribery nj the Elections
vould make the Republican party infamous
and seal its fate. For, whenever the Amer
lean people shall tamely allow such sums
10 be pilfaged from tenant-at-wlu class Oh
officials, to be used by the landlord class 70
re-elect themselves, who will think our he
publican system has long TO live?
liza party is resolved to have more money
than the people will freely give 1t, there
would. as in the case Of Caesar, be something
heroic in taking the amount required nom
the public treasury and expanding thunder
the forms of law and accountability. That
method would not cause 1.-THE OF the cor
ruption and injustice Of the present one.
But even if the whole tax is to beput upon
one poor, unprotected class, the method
should not be needlessly vexatious and OPP
pressiye. A party. in its national conven.
ton. might assess two per cent. upon all
salaries and wages, niapportion the spoilS
between Federal, State, and municipal
committees. Then teacher, scrub-woman,
or messepger-boy, having paid, could take
receipt as from the captain OF toraging
party, which would be good against all
other barpies.
Now when the national lion and the State
tiger and hyena have taken their MI, their
victims are still at the mercy OF the city
wolf shark and polecat, who come as often
as they are hungry.
Five Grades Of Assessments are Made
national, State, mayorality, ward and dis
trict: to which boss and chieftain claims
must be added. Here is q fresh case from
Philadelphia: salary in pOstothce, eight
hundred dollars; Federal tax, sixteen dol
lars: State, twenty dollars; ward five dol
lars: in all forty.One dollars, or flye per
cent The newspapers before Us shows
that New York letter-carrier, salary one
thousand dollars, is taxed three per cent
by Hubbell, and three by the State COM
mittee-sixty dollars, and all the CITY ex'
tortion awaits him. Such Is the custom.
The minions serving under Congressman
only embolden every local robber. And
WIN, under that precedent, may not any
SUPERINTENDENT OF a railroad or prison, any
foreman of a mill or a galg, any head
waiter, or nurse, even, raid upon subordi-
mates to carry re-appointment or oriDe
rival?
For Congressman to attempt asses sment'
adds usurration to extortion.
The Party Has Given Them No sHch
Authority.
Its attempted exercise is obnoxious and
indelicate, because they grasp for the
money 10 be used selfishly for their own re-
election. 1t is as arrogant as their old prac'
tiCc of nominating the President, and as
selfish o. the salary grab or the Thanking
peIquisite. which public opinion has sup
pressed.
II is the duty of Congress TO provide for
all salaries and wages, taking care that they
are Just both to the public and to its ser
wants; and especially TO guard the humber
of those servants against extoItlon ana
whatever else impairs their rights, their
right of the people in every district to
choose their congressman freely. 1t is
quite superfluous to point out that such
duties and rights are flagrantly violated
when committees are created and used for
wringing money from the fears OF the pun
lie servants elsewhere in order to defeat
the popular choice in particular districts.
Neither Charles /. or James ii. did any
thing more despotiC Infamous, or immoral
We have no space for words about the
contemplate attorney bubble OF Mr.. Hub
bell, that he is
Not an Officer OF the United states.
Ofwhat is he an officer? The plain, de.
cisive facts are that Congressmen-forced
by public Opinion-have put the brand oil
criminslity upon the whole theory oil as
sessments, as unjust immoral and disgrace
full. Ofa!l the officials of the country, they
surely are the last who can with decency
conniye at the violation of these laws. Mr..
HuUprll's plea is only fit for the robber OF a
hen roost Did Congressman prohibit
others levying blackmail only that they
might have the monopoly and all the plum
der of it? DO laws against bribery and
peCulation mean that congressman alone
may peculate and take brides? May Con.
gresSmen violate the spirit and purposes OF
their statutes-even it their neglect or con.
nlNdllCe HIS IelI NClCINlNO 90
themselves? Do they owe nothing to the
dignity of their position, or the better SEN
timents of great nation?
1t is hopeful that some of the members
are com pretending public opinion, and
dare declare their own; one few days
since denounced assessments as blood
money sucked from the veins OF labor
another as "a fostering sore that will faint
the whole body polite, make elections
farce, and destroy the republic" Mr. kas-
san, a Republican leader Of promise, said
all too tamely: 81 do condemn this effort
even as an invitation, owing TO the unseen
and indescribable official influence, which
makes these subordinates feel the danger
OF refusing"
But Yet More.
This statute was passed in lS1G-when sal
arie were being reduced ten per cent.-ior
the purpose of compromising that loss by
suppreSSing a plumber. Mr.. Hale lnow
only nominally, we hope, on the Hubbell
Committee opposed the reduction rs un-
just while favoring the suppression. Yet, in
the greed for money to carry elections, the
pledge, the record, all justice, all consist
ency, all merry are alike disregarded! Nor
is this ALL Members Of Congress never
lose a chance OF proclaiming aloud their
affection and generosity for the soldier and
his children. BY statute Il 1851 they
ostentatiously called on bankers, manu-.
facturers, mechanics and farmers to en-
ploy that soldier class. They gave them
precedence e 1854 in the public service-a
Just provision, to which the civil service
rules always gave effect. Now, q recent
report to that body shows that from
forty to fifty-three per cent. OF the sub
ordinate officials are soldiers or soldiers
children. 1t follows, therefore. that of the
ninety-three thousand dollars extorted by
the Hubbell Committee from those subordi-
mates in 1878 not less than from thirty
seven thousand TO fifty thousand dollars OF
it was wrung by congressman from the
salaries and wages of these fayortes of the
nation,
Who Will Defend That on the Floor or
Congress:
r,-nr.- 900 of .loao eo1d;era apd child an If