Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-22
GENERAL HASTINGS, ARGUMENT.

The declaration attributed TO General
Hastings that, ''even if it was true that the
Republican leader had stolen money from
the State Treasury he would still consider
him better than the best Democrat" has
been denied by him and is corrected by the
papers which published the erroneous quota
tion, to what is given in the official
stenograph report as follows:
''If the Republican party or its representa-
tive had taken from the Treasury every dollar,
as he (Pattison) untruthfully alleges, 1 say to
you that it would not amount in dollars and
cents to one-half as much money as he Patti
SOM cost the people of this State by an extra
session of the Legislature"
The false quotation put in General Hast
ings' mouth was doubtless produced by a
confusion of what he did say with Senator
Ingalls, declaration, at the same meeting,
that ''the worst Republican that eyer lived
is better by far than the best Democrat that
ever lived" Senator Ingalls, sentiment
sufficiently characterizes ITSELF Since Gen.
eral Hastings is rightfully acquitted of the
brutal recklessness of the same assertion as
applied to State politics, it is pertinent to
point that what he did say carries with it i'm
plications that he would not deliberately
make except under the misleading inspira-
tion of partisan oratory.
In the first place it implies that to steal
the public money TOR private advantage is
no worse than to commit an error in public
administration that costs something.
One man may steal $50, 900; another, as a
public official, may perform an act within
the range of his duty, out of which
he does not get a cent of pecuniary advan-
tage, but which costs the public treasury
500, 900. Of course General Hastings would
not say at any other time that they are on a
par; but if the sentence quoted from his
speech has any bearing on the campaign, it
means that the honest official is worse than
the thief because his act cost the people
500, 1000, while the thief only stole $50, 900.
In the next place, it implies that when
the Executive who summons the Legislature
to perform public duty which that body
refuses to perform, the Executive, and not
the Legislature, is responsible for the waste
of time and money. This is exactly the
statement of that extra session trouble.
The Constitution called for the re-
districting of the State. The Legislature
refused to perform the work because the dis
tricts could not be gerrymandered to suit the
views of party leaders. The history of
that period is full of the efforts of Governor
Pattison to get the Legislature to perform
its work decently and economically, and of
the reckless refusal of that body to do SO,
and its determination to grab all the salary
its members could obtain. If it were not
for the campaign search after partisan argu-
ments General Hastings would not commit
himself to the proposition that because one
man uses his legal authority to make an
other do his duty, therefore the first is re-
sponsible for the seconds refusal or failure
to do what he should do. If the General,
while in command at Johnstown, had Or
dered body of the State militia to perform
certain duties, and the regiment had boldly
and defantly refused to do the work, he
would have had no difficulty in perceiving
the injustice of charging him with the loss
of money spent in maintaining the useless
and insubordinate bodies. Yet the exigen-
cies OF the State campaign lead him to make
exactly that charge against Governor Patti
son, for the wanton refusal of the State Leg
islature to do its work.
The mildest commentary that is possible
upon such arguments, Is that the Repub-
licans must be very hard up for campaign
material when they are resorted to.