Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-10-12

It the polls and IN Congress. 1t is OF
is very essence that fiat shall be
fried" out of its beneficiaries.
Who shall happen to do the ''frying" /
)r who shall happen to distribute the
fat" upon any particular occasion is
mere matter of detail, but while that |
system lasts both will continue to be
lone by somebody.
And the evils of a system of legisla-
tive bounties, SO far from stopping,
only begin with those bounties secur-
ed to the industries protected by the
tariff. The disastrous course of the re-
publican party on the silver question
is an apt illustration of this truth.
1t ought to be an honest money par
ty, and it would be if it could, but
while it demanded increased bounties
for its favOrite manufacturers it could
not refuse increased bounties to the
silver producers, as the votes they con-
troll were probably necessary to the
passage of the Mckinley bill. So stu
ated the republican party had no alter
native but to pass the Silver law of
1890, doubling the purchases of silver
and requiring the building of more
warehouses in which to store the use
less metal. The total purchases made
by the government amount to, hun
dreds of millions of dollars and would
not realize, if resold, one-half their
cost, while the poison of a debased cur
rency, whose work, however slow, is
sure, is making itself daily more and
more felt in every channel. of business
and finance and is inevitably driving
gold out of the country and leading US
to all the evils of a fiuctuating and
therefore dishonest currency based up
on silver alone.
The republican party cannot take
any effective steps toward repeating
the bill, for the silver men are very
likely, if their bounty is stopped, to so
vote that the bounties of the McKin-
ley bill will stop also.
PENSION ABUSES.
The abuses of the pension system
furnish another apt illustration of the
evils sure to follow such a system of
legislation. If Congress was to levy
taxes upon the people to confer boun-
ties upon certain classes of manufac-
turers it was very natural that the pen
sion agents should also join hands to
increase their fees by an indiscriminate
granting of pensions.
The result is that nearly a genera
ton after the close of the war there is
a steady increase of the vast sums pass
I ling through the pension agents hands,
until now the total amount staggers
belief, and has become of itself very
serious burden upon the Treasury.
From the day of Lees surrender I'M
til now no single voice has ever been
raised against the most generous pro
vision for every person who had any
just claim upon the gratitude of the
country but surely there is neither
reason nor justice in legislation which
destroys all distinction between the
discharge of duty and the Sinking OF
it, between loyal service and desertion
of the colors, between wounds received
in battle and diseases contracted in the
pursuits of peace.
UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRATION.
There is still another great and in
creasing evil chiefly traceable, in my
opinion, to the maintenance of an ex-
cessive tariff since the war and the con-
slant meddling with it to make it high
er, and that is the bringing to our
shores of those vast swarms of undesir-
can labor by their competition and
threaten the stability of institutions
based upon an intelligent love of coun-
try.
Just as the duties upon imported
merchandise have been increased, so
has the grade of imported labor been
lowered, until now, under the. McKin-
ley bill, there are coming here every
month many thousands of. more igno-
rant and therefore less desirable labor
ers than ever before. 1t is not easy
to exaggerIte the moral evils they are
likely to inf1ict upon our social order
and our national life.
AS the republican party is now def
nitely committed to the policy of tax
ing the people for the purpose of Civ
ing bounties to such persons or inter
ests as can secure the necessary votes
in Congress, so the democratic party is
now as definitely committed to'the pol
icy of restricting taxation to the needs
of the government for public purposes
alone. The gulf fixed between these
two policies of taxation is as wide and
deep as can we'll exist between political
parties, and am also convinced that
the old causes in which l am interest
ed cannot hope for success until the
avowed policy of the republican party
on this subject is overthrown.
ONLY HOPE OF REFORM.
Until then the right of each State to
control elections within its borders will
not be secure. Until then there is no
prospect of our enjoying the single and
stable standard of value which other
civilized and commercial nations pos
sess. Until then there is no hope of
placing either our pension system or
the regulation of immigration upon a
just and proper basis.
Until then the publication of our
politics will continue ''the iridescent
dream" which high republican author
ity has declared it must always remain
Until then any pretended reform of the
civil service must prove, as it has prov
ed these last four years, delusion and
a snare.
And until then even ballot reform,
the best help yet discovered to honest
and already threatened with
overthrow by the republican managers
in Maine, Vermont and Indiana, must
share the same fate of betrayal in the
house of its pretended friends.
All these good causes are, in the very
nature of things, the relentless foes of
a system of government by bounties to
favored interests, and such system is
their relentless foe. 1852
As believe, for the reasons / have
given, that the true welfare of the
country would be promoted by Mr..
Cleveland's election, it is my duty to
vote for him and as / recall the capac-
ity, the fidelity and the courage with
which he has heretofore discharged
every public trust committed to him,
the duty becomes pleasure.
WAYNE MACVEAGH.
One of the Brightest Charms
Of fair face is a fine set of teeth. The