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

compared with the unpaid labor of a
million serfs, brought into competition
with Northern industries in every de-
partment of productive enterprise. This
is question that will stir the nation in
the near future. The lahoring classes
will want to know whether the COM
Portable homes of the North are to be
brought down to the level Of the huts
and novels of the South, whether Amer
lean labor at the North, with its thrift
and competence and honorable self
respect, is toibe debased and degraded to
the level of the ill-requited labor of the
South. In travelling recently 1000 miles
through the old slave States l read in
the squalid poverty and cringing servili-
ty of the laboring classes, the danger that
threatens the workingmen of the North.
1t must be averted.
THE COAL-OIL LEGISLATURE.
In the tragic scenes of the worlds his |
tory there has never been anything so |
marvellous as the late Ohio Democratic |
Legislature, better known as the Coal
| Oil Legislature. When the Democratic |
party came into power in January, 1884, |
the public institutions of the State were |
in prosperous condition, and every de-
partment of the State showed careful |
and efficient management, and there was
in the treasury surplus of more than |
half a million dollars. The Ohio Peni- |
tentiary, under the careful business |
management of the Republican party, |
had a surplus of $4,000 over expendi- |
lures, but, IN eight months after tue 1
Democratic party came into power, the
Penitentiary was in debt $4,000 and |
000 of thu uiafo idla
ruptiOn and extravaganza of this Legis>
lature have brought the State to the
verge of bankruptcy, and increased
bonded Indebtedness in the State over
Sl0,O00,00O It increased taxation, and
added to the burdens of the people more
than any other Legislature in the histo-
ry of the State. And while it was too
cowardly to keep its promise to repeal
the Scott law, it sought refuge in a
Democratic Supreme Court which rob
bed the overtaxed people of the State of
more than $5,0O0,0OO. 1t attempted the
reorganization Of the cities of Columbus,
Cleveland and Cincinnati in the interest
of Democratic supremacy,by resorting to
legislation so OdioHs and infamous as to
disgust the better element of the Demo-
cratic party in every part of the State
IL 10 lhC ouIuOl VI Ill6 ulSS ger
rymander which gave the Democratic
party a majority of the members of Con-
gress from Ohio, when the Republicans
carried the State by 10000. 1t turned
out crippled soldiers to make place for
political bummeTs, and used its influence
against legislation in the interest of
Union soldiers. But the crowning in
fanny of this Legislature is found in the
rif nd hiafa Of
election Of United StBtes Senator and
the cOwardly refusal to investigate a
charge so fragrant that the nation stood
aghast.
THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN.
The coming campaign will not only
determine the recuperative powers of
the Republican party, but it will deter-
mine whether the next United States
Senator from Ohio shall be Republican
or Democrat, a question of great mo- !
ment, not only to the State, but to the !
Nation. 1t will also determine whether ,
this present infamous gerrymander shall
continue to disgrace the statutes of the
State, or whether the congressional dis
tricts made at the time and in the man. !
ner contemplated by the constitution
and laws of the country, shall be restor4
ed. The present campaign will probably
deter mine whether the next House of
Representatives will be Democratic OF {
Republican, upon which will depend the
restoration of the duty on weol, and the
revival of an industry, which before the
reduction of the duty, employed $780,
600. 900 capital, 100000 men, and added
annually to the wealth of the country {
S150,O0O,OOO. The wool growers who
have lost, in the price of wool alone,
800, 5000 since the Ohio Democracy {
promised to restore this duty, have come s
to understand that if the law of 1867 is Z
ever restored, it must be done by the
Republican party. The refusal of the
late Democratic House of Representa>
tives to revise the pension laws, or to l
make any response to the earnest ap- i
peal of the Grand Army of the Republic >
on behalf of those whose struggles and
trials made freedom free and gave the ;
nation a flag without the loss of single
star, and the eager ambition of the @
Democratic party to restore again to
power the old slave oligarchy whose very ;,
touch seems to recall all the perils and
sacrifices of the war, will give US in this ]
the sympathy and support of i
the Union soldiers as we have not had q
since 1868. The camp fires will be re-.
kindled, the old flag will be unfurled, the
old guard will be again on duty, and the P
men who have never kept step to any f
music but the music of the Union, will a
this year head the Republican column.
The party that led the army to victory
at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg, and at G
can alone be depended on to RI
take care of the ceuntry's defenders. "
THE WORK OF THE CONVENTION. 6
COnceding the improperly of a presi-
ding officer expressing any preference as
to candidates, or attempting to dictate
any part of the platform, l beg to say
this Convention will be expected to give Is
10 the Republican party of Ohio ticket A
without spot or blemish, and platform p
abreast with the growing sentiments of 4
,he State, keeping in mind the historic N
fact in the life of the Republican party,
hat the path way of duty is always the
path way of duty is always the pathway >
If victory. ol
Now before closing want to warn s.
you against the delusion that We are to q
nave an easy victory in Ohio this year. il
It is better to rejoice after the election
han before. We will carry Ohio this n
Tesr, and We will carry the country in p
1888, as certainly rs the stars are in the p
ornament above, if Republicans do their RI
luty. Even now the reverbtrations of ot
'ictory are rolling in from the prairies Is
illinois where the grand old hero, John
A. Logan, has taken the long contested
Ort. Take that struggle as your inspi-
alton and you will achieve q victory in oi
october that will shake the continent h'
rom the mountain to the sea. Ohio is, III
md must ever be q Republican State. IN
rhe State that so proudly upheld the V
'auner of James G. Blaine in 1884, the W
esting place of Garfield, the home of II
sherman and Sheridan and Hayes, the co
birthplace OF the hero of herses, Ulysses "
J, Grant, who is to-day watching US from re
lis sick room in the metropolis of the
he nation. the State that gave to the