Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-06-25
disagreement in Ohio.

Fer Governor Hoadly's sake it is to be
regretted that he has chosen to make
himself the spologist and ally of the
most corrupt Legislature ever seen in
Ohio. The truth is that the Governor
had done many things that deserved
censure. But the Legislature had done
so many more, and had so much more
dagrantly outraged public opinion, that
there was disposition to attribute the
failure of the Democratic Government
in Ohio mainly to legislative incompe>
tence and corruption rather than to any
misconduct of the Governor. He takes
pains, in a long interview published in
the Sun, to make the cause of the Legis-
lature his own, and defends the worst
features of its conduct as if entirely in
diff srent to his own reputation. Per-
haps it is Just as we'll that he does so, be-
cause he spends much of his time in a
glowing Endorsement of Cleveland's Ad-
ministration.
The Governor particularly defends his
party against the charge that by over
throwing the Scott law it subjected the
taxpayers of the State to great additional
burdens. This charge he endeavors to
avoid by putting the responsibility upon
the Supreme Court. But it is noto+
rious fact that the Democratic managers
in Ohio were responsible for this per-
formance from beginning to end, Cover
nor Hoadly himself having been the
attorney for liquor dealers in assailing
the constitutiOnality of the Scott law.
The Republicans of Ohio appear to be
entirely willing to leave the people to
decide whether the overthrow of the
law was praiseworthy; whether it was
best to relieve the liquor dealers of bur-
dens amounting to $2,OOO,OOO yearly, and
to compel the property owners and other
taxpayers of the State to bear that addi>
tional amoant.
The Governor also defends his party
against the charge of extravaganza and
incompetence, asserting that there was
absolutely 10 increase in taxes by the
Legislature. That this statement is not
strictly truthful he sufficiently shows in
his own subsequent comments on impor-
tant measures. For example, he says
that the Legislature abolished the sys+
tenn of contract labor "by moderate
ri oh in hr1 m q
all work under the State account sys-
tem." Rightly interpreted, this means
merely that the Legislature concluded
to support the prisoners at public cost,
rather than to require them to earn their
own support. Other expenditures, the
Governor says, were caused by the Gin
ciHnati riot. But that riot was the re.
suit of the conduct of Democratic off.
cials, which it had long been the duty
of the State Government to suppress or
punish, and the riot itself would have
been far less serious than it was if the
Governor had promptly discharged his
duty. This is even more clearly true of
the Hooking Valley riot, which was
made most costly to the State, to the
miners and to the operators, by the
Governors unwillingness as politician
to discharge with fidelity his duty as a
Governor.
But it is not worth while to discuss at
length questions on which the voters of
Ohio will presently express their judg>
ment. They are sufficiently informed
on those questions to meet the Cover
nor's misrepresentation as they deserve
But when he bursts out in a glowing
eulogy of President Cleveland, be dis
cusses matters which the people of all
the States are equally interested in, and
about which they are equally able to
detect his misstatements. One of the
principal obstacles to the success of
Governor Hoadly as politician has al
ways been his contemptuous disbelief
in the public intelligence, which leads
him to make use of palpable misrepre-
sentations as if they were recognized
and indisputable facts. That course
does not profit either the Governor or
the party he epresents.-New York
Tribune.