St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-01-30
PRESS COMMENTS.
Blocks of Five.


If is very easy to understand his res
tiveness at a lecture upon honest pol
1itics from Senator VOORHEES,. The
latter gentleman's conduct and att1-
tude during the war, as they are gen
erallv understood, were not such as
to conciliate the prepossession OF old
Union men, and the party of which
he is a distinguished member, and |
which has just selected Senator IN
Ohio, is not in position to reprove
any other party for corrupt motives
and methods.
All this NAV be fully conceded. But |
because there is unquest1onable cor
ruption in both parties, is nothing to
be done? Because Indiana, accord
ing to high republican authority,
was carried by soap" in 1880, and
| because ''hoaters in blocks OF i've
were probably voted according to
republican instructions, or without
] instructions, in 1888, must we all
quietly submit to have our honest
votes neutralized by scoundrels un-
less republicans in good standing call
! attention to the facts And must 1T
be George F. Edmunds who suggests,
what nobody believes, that perhaps
the Dudley letter was a forgery! No
man in the country has pointed out
more clearly or denounced more
strongly than Mr.. Edmunds the con-
sequences of a corrupt use OF money
in politics, and what can possibly be
a worse consequence than that party
spirit should incline even him to treat
the matter gayly or indifferently?
1t was fair for a republican to
strip Mr. Voorhees, proposition OF
all details which were designed to
serve mere party purpose. But 1T
was unfortunate for an honest man
and a true patriot like Mr.. Edmunds
to obstruct in any way or degree as
Il partisan an inquiry into one OF the
most fragrant acts of kind which
Mr.. EdmundS has severely condemn
ed as essentially fatal to free lnst1tu-
TONS Harper's Weekly.
Money the Curse of Politics.
The democratic papers have as
rule, behaved very well and honor
ably in their discussion of the Brlce
election. 1t should not be said of re-
publican papers that they are any
less willing to condemn wrong-doing
in their own party. In the past week
the "blocks of five" letter of Col.
Dudley has been under discussion in
!, the Senate. VOORHEES, is no model of
. political purity, and his attack upon
, Dudley was made for party capital.
Nevertheless, the republican press,
| ought to declare in favor of an hon
est investigation of this matter, and
ought to be prepared to condemn
unsparingly if it should be proved
! that there was gross bribery used by
the republican managers in the last
. presidential campaign. Money is the
, curse of our politics; and it should
? be the business of the press, regard
= less of party ties, to fight and expose
| Doodle methods. Senator EdmundS,
| in his reply to VOORHEES, might have
, taken loftier position than he did
in fact assume. He spoke ably; and
nobody doubts his detestation OF
. bribery and corruption. But he
would not have done the republican
j., party any harm if he had declared
, himself ready to join the other side
: in any honest effort to expose and
: punish any men guilty of gross cor
:, ruption in recent federal elections
: Minneapolis Tribune, Republican.
I Lie q BuIQeH ny Ills OHH dcfS.
/ He knows that the whole thing is
d demoralizing; that the adminiStra
|. ton has no business to grant him
n what he asks; that the more offices
II he has to bestOw, the more is his life
:: made a burden and the greater is the
II number of his enemies. He hrds that
: his snubs and reverSes all come to
q. him from this artificial and unneces
u sary side of his public life. And he is
t conscious, if he is man of any intel
= ligence or rectitude of purpose, thai
l. his real business as q member OF Con
. gress is interfered with and mega
tived by the demands made upOr
II him for office and the effort he mus
q make to satisfy them. Yet, like thu
q drunkard, whose soul yearns for th
1t morning cocktail, he lacks courag
Is to do the manly thing and the RICH
1t thing, and frets his usefulness ava,
S in beating against the bars of tn
y cage he has built for his own contine
e. ment.-TSt. Paul Pioneer Press, Re
IL publican.
- Harrison Raising the Standard.
Henever pretended that he possess
81 ed a monopoly of civic virtues, am
~ that wisdom would die with him
= But having taken the oath of office
~ he forthwith began the great wor
: of raising the standard of public sci
"a vice demoralized by four years {
n democratic incompetency and pei
~ versitv. The spirit which
W. thus exemplifed at the natlonf
~ capital is permea ting the whole bod
II II of federal office-holders. The process
-. is necessarily slow, and the relics
~ democratic misrule are not yet alto
81 gether obliterated. But no loys
,a citizen who is competent to d1scr1m
~ nate between good and bad govern
ID ment can doubt in which catagor
l,a the present administration belong
- -[New York Tribune, Republican.
rs Edmunds' Sarcasm III-Tin1ed-
Senator Edmunds may make tu
of for the galleries and stir the applaus
lis of partisans by charging that Ind
ut ana democrats are as bad or wor:
d than Indiana republicans. But eve
at should he prove it, it would be in
de material The president of tt
to United States, the attorneygenera
to the federal judges and the district a
to torney interested are all tellow-c1t
ev zens of Indianapolis with Dude
cir They have worked togetherin polite
nd a good many years. And there is II
M political subject in which the Amer
can people are more interested tha
Oh in the discovery of the actual facts
a the connection of each and every OIL
yn of this distinguished combina ton