The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-07-03
BILL ARP ON THE POLITICAL
SITUATION.

NOW we dill duIIllIe MI. OlGFGldIlU
not so much for his democracy as for
his pluck and his fearless honesty.
He is a leader and not a follower. He
runs the machine and so far has run
it pretty well. He does not try to
carry water on both shoulders and
please everybody, for he knows he
can't. But every card he plays is a
trump. Every veto he signs is right.
In fact he is about the only watch dog
the treasury has got. The members
of Congress are all log-rolling. They
are playing the games "you tickle MI
and I'll tickle you '-you vote for my
my bill and I'll vote for yours. You
build me a hundred thousand dollar
postoffce and III build you one; when
the truth is neither of them ought to
be built. Now, if Gainesville was in
the pot, maybe | could see different,
but she is not and so we are opposed
to the big fish swallowing up the little
ones and quitting the treasury just be-
cause there is a surplus there. That
is the way all these fraudulent pension
bills are passed. Nobody watches
them but Mr.. Cleveland. They are
afraid to watch for every member has
got some pet bills of his own and he
wants votes. Once in a while they
will rise up and cavort and abuse one
another terrific, and send their big
speeches to their constituents, and
that night they will get together and
hobnob and plot and scheme to put
their bills through. They are like the
lawyers in a court house who get
awful mad and abuse each others
clients ten dollars worth and both
sides take a hundred out of the pile.
And so the American people are
now looking to Mr.. Cleveland for pro-
lection against Congressional ~rascality.
His message about that surplus and
reducing the tariff was right, but he is
not for free trade. Of course he is
not, nobody is, but everybody is for a
reductlon-a reduction on everything,
he is not making it for himself. We
are obliged to have a tariff for revenue
for we can't u the machine without
it. But if the whiskey revenue is to
be collected after the old fashion, we
won't need much of a tariff on other
things. 1t rolls about $50 millions
into the treasury now and is rapidly
increasing. France runs her govern
ment mainly on tobacco. She buys
all that is made or imported and sells
it again for two or three times it's cost,
and pours the profit into the treasury,
but we run ours on whiskey and the
devil says it is a good way, but |
think the money ought to be set apart
to build orphan asylums in every
town or city. The laws of Sparta re-
quired that all the spoils taken from
their enemies in battle should be ap-
p%ropriated to the support of the fami-
lies of those who fell in the fight and
that was right and just and encouraged
patrlotlsm-just so all the revenues
from whiskey should be set apart as
a sacred fund with which to repair as
far as possible the ruin it does under
national protection. If Atlanta gets
fifty thousand dollars a year from
licenses, that money ought to 90 to
buy food and clothing and fuel for the
wives and children of the poor men
who spent it at the bar-rooms. Put
it right back where it came from.
Pour it back in the Jug.
What a set of political towards
these Congressman are. They were
afraid to vote upon the Mills bill or
any other tariff bill and they are now.
They will fool along until after the
election. But Mr.. Cleveland was not
afraid. He wanted that surplus re-
duced at once. He wanted the nation
relieved and no lodging around.
Politics is a science-the science of
self interest. When a man is in Office
he wants to keep in and so he never
makes an appointment Or recommends
anybody but what the first question is
"what can he do for me; how much
influence has he got in his county;
how many votes can he control" and
that is the second question and the
third. When men come out for office
they lay their plans and combine with
those who want some other Office and
then they all pull together. The judge
OF a circuit is not elected by the peo-
pie of his circuit nor by the votes of
the members Of the Legislature from
his circuit but by the members of
seventeen other circuits, who know
nothing about him and so his election
depends on his combination qualities
and those qualities depend on his
political smartness and ~rascality. Now
and fhQn Uyo horo ~ ,,~ul4 o.-