Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-08-26
Administration scandals. "

| ~ bBc DCuOCl dllC oOdLC COUNcuIlOu III
Indiana few days ago, Senator Voor-
bees congratulated his party that the
Democratic administration had got along
thus far with mo scandals" 1t may be
that from the Democratic standpoint
Senator VOORHEES, is right. None of the
Cabinet officers or other high federal
officials have been hanged for murder,
or convicted of burglary or even larceny.
To that extent. at least, there have been
mo scandals" thus far in the lifetime of
the administration. But the admins
tration is young yet and its experience
in guiding the ship of state is largely
tentative. 1t has not had fair and full
chance to exploit Democratic character
istics. Nevertheless, it has developed
enough of what ordinary people would
call scandals" to entltle it to the solid
support of the Democratic rank and file.
One of the members of the Cabinet, Gar
land, stands convicted at the bar of pub
lie opinion of having used his official
position to promote swindling scheme
of most contemplate kind. In the
minds of right thinking people, this is a
deplorable scandal. For his part in the
same scheme, Solicitor General Goode,
virtually a Cabinet officer, was refused
confirmation by the Senate. The Presi
dent is implicated in the same scandal
by his apparent Indifference to the con
idence game his legal advisers tried to
play, and to considerable extent did
play, upon an unsuspecting public. A
number of southern towns were swim
died out of thousands of dollars each by
these confidence operators, who sold the
rights" to use the Pan-electric tele-
phones, which were not worth the paper
Oh which they were written. This scan+
dal beat the Credit Mobilier out of sight,
although it does not appear 10 figure as
serious offense in the Democratic cata-
logue. The nominations of something
like score of Jail birds for important
federal positions have been looked upon
as so many scandals by people who are
not at all nice in their determinations
however they may appear to Senator
Voorhees, and his Indiana supporters.
We do not want to appear too particular,
but the determined and successful efforts
made by the administration to ruin John
Roach, the only shipbuilder in the coun-
try who was able to construct first class
ironclads and cruisers, the contemplate
lying that was practiced to discredit the
work he was doing under contract for
the government, and the thinly disguised
purpose to purchase materials in Eng
land for the construction of war vessels
was even more scandalOus than Gar
lands performance. There is a very
strong and general impression existing,
also, that the country has been greatly
scandalized by the ignorance and cow
ardice exhibited in the foreign policy of
the administration. The precipitate,
nwarranted, and clustering demand on
Mexico for the release of Cutting, and
the sneaking backdoWn of Secretary
Bayard under the protests of honest
American newspapers, appear doubly
scandalous when compared with the
action of the State Department in sub
mitting to the seizure of American fish
ing vessels by canadian cruisers. The
Democratic idea of what a scandal" is
may differ from that held by the more
scrupulous elements of the population
but the judgment of the country at large
will not concur in Senator Voorhees,
statement. The fact is that no admins
tration the nation ever had developed so
many scandals in the first eighteen
months of its existence as the one that
now directs the affairs of this country.
Cleveland Leader.