McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-05-29
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, D. c., May 25, 1854.

alCof Gno fCn Oh next MARCH, Salu 10
day that if he was President, having
/ 200 delegates at his back, he woulc
do swapping enough to get thu
remaining 211 or dish out his pat
ronage somewhere else. Now if this
is not strange and a strong common
tary upon the weakness of Arthur's
administration, | don't know where
to look for the other proof. Will
100000 well fed office holders at his
beck and call, and this grand army
SO distributed throughout the country
as to spring to the breach at every
local convention i'll every State, coun-
ty, town and school district, it passes
all understanding that he should be
out-generaled in every single State
his own included. The goody-goody
resolutions that have marked the
action of these conventions, and which
pat Mr.. Arthur on the back, are
simply the heartlessness of politics
they mean simply an invitation to
Mr.. Arthur to stand aside with his
patronage and give the rest Of the
fellows chance.
Just as I expected. The railroad
land grant lobby have been getting
in their work to some purpose. The
House Judiciary Committee report
that Congress has no legal right to
declare the forfeiture Of any of these
grants, because such action would
be in violation of the provisions Of
the Constitution that prohibits the inn
pairment ofcontracts Here is COM
pany to which was granted one and
a half millions of acres of the public
domain, on condition that the road
should be completed and in operation
within five years. This company not
only did not complete their road, but
they never even began its construc-
ton. After waiting four years with
out lifting hand toward fulfilling
its part of the contract the company,
with an audacity worthy only of a
soulless corporation, attempted to
transfer the grant to another company
which Of course intended to appro-
pirate it as the company might-see
fit, because it had no contract to
keep with the Government. The
Interior Department got a pretty
strong scent at this huge rodent, and
nipped the affair in the bud, but the
powerful lobby comes to the rescue
and the railroad bondhold9rs will
realize the full value of their securi-
ties without having invested a dollar
in the construction If the people
don't like this way Of doing things,
they had better ask: what are they
going to do about it
Mr.. Randall's appropriation corr
mittee is doing a good work in cut
ting down the consular and diplomatic
appropriation. 1t would be money in
our pockets, and the saving of vast
deal of public scandal if about one
half of this diplomatic retinue of tin
selled humbuggery were wi ped out
altogether. The moment that an
American is clothed with the little
brief authority of a foreign consul,
he seems to loose all respect for his
country as we'll as himself. There is
no more need of consuls at five sixths
of the places where they are now loaf
ing at Government expense,than there
is Tor WarmlnS-panS at llmpuctoo.
It is a big job for one man to un-
dertake when he attempts to reform
the innumerable abuses of this world.
He must be sort of political agnos-
tic, who believes that a Congressional
enactment is all that is necessary to
carry out the evolution and revolution
of human nature, provided that the
whole ground can be covered in a sin
gle bill. Senator Cullom, of Illinois,
is one of those fresh fellows who has
not been in the Senate long enough
to receive his marticulation, but he
has got bill-in fact several of them
which propose to change this Gov
eminent into one of the regular papa |
sort. One of these bills is turning
the entire railroad system of the coun-
try over to quintuple of "Ancient
Mariners" with a modern sort of a