Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-10-02

| CONTRADICTION OF tnelr pledges during the
campaign, thus deceiving the people of
Ohio and those who put them in power.
II there is anything in the claims of the
Democratic party in this campaign in re-
latlon to Ohio affairs, ii is sustained sim
ply by bold declaration absolutely vary
ing from the truth of recent history, and
resting purely on the Justification of the
record. i watched with expectation what
would be the battle cry of this campaign,
and read with interest the speech of the
| chairman of the Democratic convention at
Springfield. And | must confess that |
have been disappointed in the line of
argument advanced by the able presiding
officer in the person of Mr.. Baker, of Gin
cinnnti- The whole tenor of his speech
was an attack upon the last Republican
administration of this state; slipped of all
| its verbosity, with rhetoric and eloquence
eliminated, the argument was simply a
complaint that the administration of Gov
ernor Foraker was Republican. 1t took
| great deal of assurance to complain of the
| board rule" as practiced by the last adj
| ministration in the light of "home rule"
as practiced by the present.
My friend Baker charged the last Re
| publican administration with having
created board after board of new of
cials, and giving them salaries out of the
public treasury" And he forgot to tell
the Democratic convention that greater
number of boards was created and exists
under Democratic administration and
under a Democratic governor than were
created or existed under the last Repub-
lican administration He said further:
More than 1900 new officials in these
four years." referring to the public ad-
ministration, found creation at an ex-
pense to the taxpayer of nearly 81 100000
annually" And he forgot to tell the
Democratic convention that if the last
Republican administration created more
than 600 new officials the present Demo
cratic administration did not, in a single
degree. reduce the number of these of
ffcials He forgot TO tell the convention
that if those officials cost the taxpayers
Sl,OO.OW annually, which is not true in
TACT, the Democratic administration has
failed to reduce the cost of those o.
fcials single dollar or a single cent
He fGrgOt to say thIt the enormous array
of officials of which he spoke consisted of
twenty -one boards and their appointees in
all, and that all of them except one was
strictly bipartisan. He forgot, further,
that seventeen of them were election
boards, and that they exist to-day in the
Democratic administration, and will exist
as long as the people of this ate are will
ONO has fair elections. With all its as
surance the Democratic party of this state
has not bad the nerve nor the courage to
strike out of existence Il single elec; ion
board i'll this state. When we know these
things we do not know at which we should |
wonder most, tie wickedness of Democ-
racy in sustaining these terrible relics of
Republican administration or the eSti-
mate in which our Democratic orator
holds the intelligence of the people of
Ohio.
IN : z CITY OF CINCINNATI
the san., spirit which pervaded the logic |
OF this opening speech permeated all the |
legislation of the last legislature in rela- |
tion to that city Nowhere i'll Ohio was |
the same complaint INDUCED in concern
ing board rule as that made by the Dem |
ocracy concerning the Queen City. And |
yet the legislation relating to that city |
has been more intensely partisan than
euen contem plated by the most radical be-
fore the election. The chief board created
has been built upon partisan foundation
and the law creating 1t has been so con-
structed rs to keep within the Democratic
party the control of these boards for ut |
least three years to come. The sole pur-
pose seems to have beel directed with an
eye single 10 partisan success.
The interests of the people, vast as they
are in that great city, were absolutely ig-
nored, ami even down To the appointment
of the most insignificant officers, the
power of the legislature was invoked to
direct and control it i'll the name of the
Democratic party. Everything, from the
board of public improvements down to a
stationiry StOrekeeper, was regulated and
manipulated in the interests of partisan
ship alone; and we witness the astOunI-
ing spectacle of the party that raised its
hands in holy horror at the deprivation of
local elfgovernment running riot amid
laws, the nature of which they condemned
and created with greater number and
recklesSneSS than WAS ever before indulged
in in this state. There is no necessity of
specifying i'll detail the various acts to
which | refer.
1t is suf1ic. .cient to say, and it stands
upon the record, that the Democracy have
been recreant to every pledge made to the
people of the metropolis of Ohio, and at
the same time haue tailed to give to them
any improvement i'll government. 1t
stands to-day, in the eyes of the thinking
people of Cincinnati, monument of par
tisanShip, favorltlSm, Imbeclllty and bad
politics. 1t is the more expensive to the
taxpayers than ever before, and consider
ing the price paid for il, it is the dearest
example of municipal control ever in
tllcted upon the people of any city. Nor
did this board rule" stop with Cincin-
natl. They extended it to cities in this
state never before contemplated as being
the prope. subjects for that system of
government. In the
CITY OF COLUMBUS
the board of trade, a nOn-partisan COM
mercial body composed of business men,
protested against tile passage o. the law
creating board of public works in that
city, but their protest was spurned with
contempt. The Thurman club, Demo-
cratic organization, composed OF conserVa-
tive Democrats, argued against its passage
in vain. The cry OF the political rloter
was heard above all these sensible warn
ings, and without oIe word of petition
from the people of the capital city, almost
the entire power, both executive and leg
islatvs, of that city was taken from the
existing authorities where the people had
placed it at The polls and concentrated it
in board OF public affairs. Why? Was
it because the people petitioned for it, or
was it because the city government was
so corrupt that there was popul ar
sentiment in favor of taking the
power from existing authorities
purely political measure to advance the
interests of the Democratic party and
take from Republican officials elected by
the people the power which was leg1tl-
mately theirs under the law. Mark how
adroitly this madness of partisanship
worked The entire control of the fire de-
partment of that city was taken from the
proper authorities, which were Republi-
can, and vested in this Democratic board;
siOners was left untouched and undis-
turbed because it was a Democratic body.
The city council was a Republican body
and Its powers were nulllfied and pract1-
cally destroyed for that reason alone The
result was that the legislative body of
that city, elected by the people, was
divested of the authority given them at
tie polls and the control of the city taken
from the people themselves by an enact
ment of the general assembly. In the
craze for political power they struck down
the board of health in that city, an entire
ly non partisan body, composed of physi-
clans and men skilled in sanitation, and
turned the sanitary management of the
city over the police board in order that
they might remove Republicans holding
positions of trust and emolument. They
went further and crippled the efficiency of
the public library so that for while it
was closed against the public use. And
all these things grew out of the applica-
tion of the principle of "home rule" as
practiced by the Democratic party after
the election, and not as preached by them
before the election. They reached out and
TOOK IN THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD
In their legislation, and took from the
city council of that city right, which by
hnH hai for nG