The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-18
CURRENT PRESS COMMENT.

The small wits of the newspapers who say that this
is the first time that General Grant was ever known to
decline anything are probably not old enough TO re-
member that he declined to take General Lees sword.
Providence journal.
The attempt to "iberate Ireland by blowing up
bridges and buildings in London is as silly and fruit
less as an attempt to abolish slavery in the South by
blowing up the Capitol at Washington would have
been. The kind of agitation needed is not that pro-
duced by a conclusion in the air, or the destruction of
property. Unfortunate ireland has a few friends
whose folly is only equaled by their wickedness.-Bos
ton Herald.
IF there ever was a time when workmen REQUIRED
iudicious leadership, that time is now. All interests
have been greatly unsettled by the long period of de-
preston through which we have passed, and by the
possibility of a radical change in the policy of the
national administration on several questions very
closely affecting the interests of all our great indus
tries, and it would be wise on the part Of all classes
to accept the necessities of the situation, and wait
until the future demonstrates whether we are to have
prosperity or dversity.-Pittsburg Dispatch.
THE law is on the side of the people. The railroads
have no right to issue stock that is not paid for in
cash; they have no right to tax the people unreason-
able rates in order to pay interest and dividends on
bogus stocks and bonds; they have no right to charge
one man one rate and his rival another-the State has
a right to regulate their charges and methods of op-
Grating. If, under these circumstances, the people
choose to submit any longer to the outrageous abuses
which characterize the railroads of this country, it is
only their pusillanimity that is to ~blame.-Chicago
Tribune.
MIR. CLEVELAND will be at his post early and late. He
will work hard. We do not think he will dissipate
As he said in his letter to Mrs. Beecher, he will not
have time. Avarice both for money and for power
being his ruling passion, he will not stand the expense
of any others. Law will cut no figure in his theory of
personal government. The test of fitness for Office
will be the power to hold Office without saying any
thing and without doing anything, except TO
strengthen the Cleveland gang, and as nearly as pos
sible to make it the government of the United States.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
DESPITE all the tremendous clamors of the British
press and people. dynamite has yet to shed its first
drop of blood. Some window1glass has been shat
tered, some plastering disturbed here and there, and
much agitation has been communicated to the heart
beats of the English people, but no life has been lost.
The campaign inaugurated for the freeing of Ireland
by the blowing up of England has thus far been as
harmless as the cracker-popping of a Fourth of July
celebration. On this account the responsibility affixed
to us is without weight, and ought not to keep awake
nights even the most conscientious of our people.
Chicago Times.
THERE has been in trials of former offenders good
ground for believing that much of the inspiration for
dynamite explosion came from New York city. and its
Nihilist clubs. If further investiga-
changed that the guilty, if detected, should be brought
to justice. 1t is for American love of fair play, and
hatred of cowardly and brutal crime. to aid the Eng
lish people, who alone suffer by these explosions, in
hunting down the wretches who plan and execute
them. If America shelters such crimes, the day may
come when the dynamite argument will be used here,
Boston Advertiser.
STATES and municipalities may reasonably be called
upon to take care of their own immediate sanitary
interests; 30 provide sewerage systems and water sun
plies; to enact and enforce health laws and ordip ances
for the protection of health and life against the ordi-
nary dangers which beset them. But they are power
less against the introduction, in a thousand ways, of
the specific disease germs born of centuries of old
world filth and squalor and emi-starvation. Against
these foreign foes to health the agencies of the gem
eral government only can successfully contend, and
the time is opportune for their prompt and wise en-
ployment-Chicago News.
IT must be admitted that vhe policy reciprocal for
eign trade undertaken by the President is in its ma
ture and purpose highly creditable to him and his adj
visers. 1t Isl broad and statesmanlike policy. 1t
aims at the permanent advantage of the Nation, and is
intended to open up channels of trade, the value of
which cannot at all justly be estimated by the degree
to which we can at present take advantage of them.
1t is in no sense a partisan. and much less a personal,
policy, but is national and patriotic in its purposes,
and elevated in its spirit. 1t is in these regards true to
the traditions of the best American diplomacy, and
should be so acknowledgement York Times.
THE silver men show very little faith in the silver
dollar as a circulating medium, though they continue
to insist on its coinage. 1t is by their opposition that
the proposition to retire one and two-dollar green
backs, in order to make room for the silver dollar, has
been rejected heretofore, and now that it is again pre-
sented they are again opposing it. MIR. Lacey, of the
committee on coinage, weights and measures, is about
to ask the House to pass his bill to substitute one and
two-dollar silver certificates for the greenbacks of
like denomination, Is long as the silver men con-
tinue to show SO little faith in their favorite coin,
they must not expect other people to believe much in
it.-Louisvile Commercial.
To the father of a family the sugar duty is practi-
cally a tax which he cannot avoid the tobacco and
beer taxes he can pay or not as he pleases. One nee
essarilY enhances the cost of living and OF all produc-
ton; the other does not. Cheaper sugar would not
encourage any vice or excess; cheaper tobacco and
beer-if cheaper to onsumers-certainly would. FL
nally. the removal of the sugar duty would benefit the
whole people, and especially the working classes. The
removal of the tax on beer would benefit only the
brewers and dealers. To a great extent the removal
of the tax on tobacco would have a similar effect
the manufacturer and dealer would gain, rather than
the consumers.-New York Tribune.
THESE combinations to control the products of pc
troleum, copper and coal, to regulate the transporta-
ton agencies of the country, to seize upon our public
streets for private uses. and in other ways to tax the
industry of all men for the benefit of a few conspiring
capitalists, constitute a danger to the country and to
our institutions far greater than any that foreign
wars, or even domestic rebellion, could bring to us.
These m en- mean mischief of the worst kind. Their
purpose is to absorb to themselves tho earnings of the
whole population, and to that end they are ready to
buy Legislatures, control elections and destroy popu.
lar government. 1t is time to call a halt and take an
accounting.-New York Commercial Advertiser.