Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-10-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
TFrem oar Rssul.. oonu..poDas-t.,a

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Dot. II, 1855 .
To those who cannot sleep Of nights lest
Mr.. Cleveland should fall into the hands d
the mugwumps, II may be said that the Presi.
dent has not indicated by word or deed thst
he intends doing anything of ths kind. Ther,
is one thing, however, that the President ha,
determined upon, and that is that the spoil.
element in the Democratic party shall not gel
the upper hand Of him or get into a position
by which they will be enabled TO dictate tc
him. 1t is this determination that has an.
tagonized SO many of the spoils-seekers who
make the mistake of berating the President
for the one great feature that creates the ex-
celiance of his administration. He is the
President of the people, and not Of the fac
tion who suppose that he is simply sent to
Washington TO dole out the Offices. He has
been elected by the people 70 exercise his
gIeat Office in the improvement of the public
service and thus promote the public welfare.
He said just'this before he was voted for by
the people, and why should it be expected
that he should change? If the great Dem
ocratic party cannot accept him as its leader
with the admirable purposes that he has set
out to accomplish, it were better that it
should disband, and organize under any plat
form that eliminates patriotism and decency,
to adopt the despicable motto of the spoils-
man. Hf 14i s.. H,.- "' .l.''
Washington is about to put on her best bib
and tucker to receive in a suitable manner
the man who was mainly instrumental in
making the city the most beautiful and at
tractive in the world. When Boss Shepherd
was at the head of affairs in the District of
Columbia, he was boss with all that the name
implies. He struck ont with determination
to make Washington what the capital of a big
people and the envy of foreign visitors, and
how thoroughly he has done the work the
streets and parks and general appearance of
the city abundantly demonstrate. 1t mat
tered not that Shepherd practic impover-
ished the taxpayer of the District in the grad
ing and improvement of the streets, by the
extravagant prices that he paid for both labor
and material, for property was enhanced in
value to that astonishing degree that turned
the tide of better feeling against Shepherd to
pays one-half of the tax levy of the city while
the citizens pay the other half and little
more, because that for gas and water is levied
directly upon the consumer, at exorbitant
rates. From 1868 to 1874 while Sheppard was
in the vigor of his administration, he ex-
pended about thiry-one millions of dollars
in bringing Washington out of its poor estate
as a swamp and malarial swamp at that, so
that beside the extraordinary advances in the
value of the real estate of the city there was a
increase in the healthfulness
as well as cleanliness of its population. When
the Potomac fats shall have been deepened
and the sewerage of the city completed as it
is now proposed to complete it, there is no
reason why Washington should not show as
clean bill of freedom from mortality as any
city in the United States, for all of which she
stands indebted to Boss Shepherd.
The prospect that the occupation of the
and consequent dictation of typo
unions will be gone, is promised
capable of setting type and stereotyping the
matter as it goes along. The instrument has
not yet been put upon public exhibition but
it is said that it works admirably. A compa-
ny of newspaper capitalists at any rate have
become so thoroughly convinced of its utility |
that they have agreed to invest quarter of a
million dollars, making thorough expert
nents with it. The machine does away with |
.ompositors, it dispenses with stenographers,
md it has no use for anybody about print |
ng Office so far as the mechanical part of the |
work of getting up newspaper is concerned.
t will only claim perfection when it furnishes |
,ff hand editorials to suit the political tastes
If all readers. The machine is of Baltimore
but the name of the inventor |
las not transpired. Surely it looks as if we
we're going to have a revolution as well as |
revelation in the black art.