The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-08-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent. i


WASHINGTON, D. c., August 10, 1884.
Between Ben Butler, the bete noir of
politicians, and Steve Elkins, the Titanic
dispenser of soap" the present campaign
promises to reach the bottom of the de,
pravity that attaches to our political sys-
ten. Not only are offices and high pol
itical positions made the objects of bar
gains and transfer, but pledges are made
that huge Congressional jobs, in aid of
railroad and other corporate monopolies,
shall be put through as a reward for the
inteTcession of these powerful influences
Jay Gould could well afford to put hun,
dred thousand dollars in the Indiana con
test four years ago, because he got it back
in ten fold ratio in the friendly legislature
that followed, and the Republican party
took Stanley Matthews and put him upon
the bench of the highest court in the
United States to look after Jay Gould's
interests besides 1t this kind of doodle"
that is running the present campaign, for
what amount of potency would there be
in the paltry contributions wrung from
the government employees?
One of the most interesting and instruc
tive of the departmental reports is that
proceeding from the Commissioner of Ed
ucatiOn. The volume embraces eleven
hundred pages, and exhausts the subject
of education in America SO far as the
statistics are concerned. With school
population of sixteen million in the cOun>
Try, there are six million who attend
school out of ten million enrolled. There
are two hundred and ninety-three thou
sand teachers, TO whom was paid last
year ninetyOne millions of dollars Up.
wards of one half of the Number of teach
ers were women, whose salaries are grad
ually getting to figure near to the Just
proportion of that of the male teac hers
Why man should receive one hundred
dollars per month for the duty that a
woman is required to preform for forty
or fifty dollars, is not comprehended by
ordinary minds. While the colored pop
ulation sends only eight hundred and
three thousand OF its children TO shcool in
the South. the whites in the Southern
population send only half as many more
to SCHOOL, There are eight thousand col
Orcd pupils in normal school, six thousand
six hundred In academies, and two thou
sand three hundred in colleges. There
| are half u million of students pursuing
studies above and beyond the elementary
school, that is, the higher branches OF
| education, and upward of twentythree
| thousand ministers, doctors, lawyers. and
scientific men emerge from the colleges
every year with the doctors decidedly in
the ascendency.
DR.. ODonnell, minus his sample lep-
ers, has been here and delivered his ltct-
ture on leprosy. 1t turns out that the
doctor is simply an anti Chinese emigra-
ton agent, delegated with authority to
show up the loathsomeness of the disease
and consequently the dangers that beset
US from contact with the Chinese, who
seem to have the sole monopoly of the
! infection. Whatever may be the senti-
ment of the general public upon the Chi
nese question, there is no disputing the
| fact that 1t was not ready to tolerate
| O'DOnnelPs lep2rs who have thus far been
| kept in the background and out of sight
| The people of the far off Pacific coast
who are threatened with Chinese invasion,
can hardly expect to find the same anti,
pathy to the moon eyed children of the
sun among the Eastern people, and
O'DOnnelrs GRAND has only had the ten.
dency to enlist sympathy for a people
who are the only people to demonstrate
the existence of purely scriptural di'
sease, whose loathsomeness is more ina
ginary than real.
The horrible part of the Greedy Arctic
business has come to light in the recita
of the sutferings by starvation and thu
dreadful resort to cannibalism. We have
therefore the reason for the recovery Of
but l l of the IS bodies of those who dice
upon the frightful shore of Cape Sabine
The other seven were eaten by their CON-
rades, who were thus enabled to sustain
life long enough to greet the rescuin!
party. For this hideous chapter of tn
Greedy expedition there is grave respon
sibllity resting somewhere, and the mos
proper place for it is the Signal Office
W hose chief officer, Gen. Hazen, has ex
hi bited either conSummate ignorance ant
imbecility, or a total disregard of thu
teachings or impulses of common hu
mainly. Had he established provision
depots at the points designated by Lieut.
Greedy, and in accordance with the ex
plicit promise that he made to so estab
lish them, this horror would have beel
entirely avoided. But Hazen, like man
another army officer before him, becam
so profoundly impressed with his super
ior knowledge of the Arctic country an
the necessities of its explorers, that b
left at single point 600 rations for
starving and ice beleagured crew, an
brought home $4,000 rations that shout
have been distributed along the shore 0
Smiths Sound, as had been faithful
promised Is such a man as this fit t
hold such position a day longer