Los Angeles herald., 1891-04-30
WEARY OF REPUBLICAN ExTRAvA-
GANCE AND JoBBRRY.


No amount Of ingenuity on the part
of the Republican leaders can possibly
blind the American people to the enor-
NOUS extravaganza of the first session
of the Fifty-first congress, which will
pass into history as the "Billion Dollar
Congress" There has always been, in
the United States, strong sentiment
that economy is an excellent virtue in
legislative bodies. Merely venial ex-
cesses in expenditures have over
whelmed parties. The back-pay steal
had as much to do as the Credit Mobil-
Ter revelations, in bringing about the
Democratic tidal-wave of 1874, which
transformers large Republican majority
in the Forty-third congress into nearly
two-thirds Democratic majority in the
Forty-fourth congress. The back pay
steal was small and contemplate lar
ceny, but it was enough to utterly ami
hilate the Republican party for the time
being, and to relegate anybody who
participated in tito private life, in most
cases for all time. The mere statement
that the expenditures arranged for by
the Fifty-frst congress aggregated
billion dollars is calculated to appall the
average citizen. Figures of such magni-
tude stun one in time of profound
peace. Their momentous significance is
enhanced by the fact that Mr.. Cleveland
left large surplus in the treasury of the
United States, and that one Republican
admin stration has been able to dissi-
pate it, and to replace it by deficit. If
such things can be done in the pith,
what should we see in the wood? I'm
agination is at loss to picture forth the
miracles of extravaganza such party
would be guilty of if it were embold-
ened by an endorsement of the people.
The wealth of Ormus and of Ind would
be mere drop in the bucket with such
enterprising political buccaneers, and
the mines of Golconda and of Ophir
would scarcely last month. In vain
does Director Leech try to figure out
that there is really no deficiency by say
ing that in 1885, under Mr.. Cleveland 8
administration, certain items were
taken from the credit side of the treas
ury accounts and placed by themselves.
The country knows that, admitting this
to be true, for the sake of argument,
Mr.. Cleveland's administration, under
Mr.. Cleveland's system of bookkeeping,
left balance in the shape of hand
some surplus.
What has become of it? Everybody and
his brother knows. 1t has been "blown
in," to employ the language of Hon. Tom
Fitch in his great Harrison grafton in
the pavilion in this city. ,"What would
you do with the surplus?" inquired one
of thac gentleman's auditors. elbow it
in," promptly replied the Hon. Tom.
In vain do the Republican editors talk
interminable twaddle about the benefits
the Mckinley tariff is to the working
man in face of the profigate squander-
ing of billion dollars and the replace
ment of a surplus by deficit. The work
ingman has sense enough to know that
the American laborers who are benefited
by the Mckinley bill are the Carnegies
and other iron and coal barons of Penn
sylvania and other states, and the in
Vulnerable horde of vampires in other
Lines of manufactures and production.
He has also sense enough to know that
the money to pay for Republican ex-
travagance must come, ultimately, from
his pocket. He knows too-no one
knows it so we'll as he-that the men
who shame truth by an assumed devo-
ton to the workingmen are the very
people who have imported hordes OF
Hungarians, Italians and other Eu-
ropeans to beat down the wages of
labor.
Why should large and respectable
body of the American people put faith
any longer in Republican pledges which
have SO often been betrayed? Why
should credulity grow to such rank
lengths in country which prides itself
on its intelligence? The swift and deadly
way in which the Cleveland surplus was
made to disappear must teach any sens-
BILE man an object lesson which will
surely influence his vote, even in Cali
fornia. The elections Of last fall in the
states of the great west have shown that
the masses are alert and aggressive, and
can no longer be caught with chaff.
They are tired of the rule and the en-
richment of the few. They have at last
detected the weak falsetto in the eternal
self-praise of the Republican leaders.
And surely it is high time! With
continued Republican ascendancy we
should soon shoot Niagara, and plunge
into gulf profound from which rescue
would indeed be difficult. We may re-
mark, en- passant, that the same Repub-
Iican extravaganza, jobbery and corrup-
tion which have characterized the Re-
publican party at Washington have
ramiied through every artery of the city
and county Of Los Angeles.
Even Los Angeles Republicans are
tired of both.