Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-05

persons or classes as are 6Ole 10 cOntr0i OOn
gressional action in their favor? 1t SEEM
to me like travesty on taxation to re
quire, as the Mckinley bill does the farm
er who grows corn in Indiana, to nay ,
bounty to the farmer who produces can,
sugar in Louisiana or to require the farmel
who grows wheat in Pennsylvania, to pay {
bounty to the farmer who produces maple
sugar in Vermont; but it is nearer than
tragedy to the masses of the people to in
crease the wealth OF the very wealthy own
ers of most OF our protected industries
Who VIII Fry the Fat.
But even such inequality and injustice
are the least of its evils, for while such {
system endures, political corruption is abso
lutely sure to increase, as such system moi
Only invites but it requires the corrupt use
of money both at the polls and in Congress
1t is Of the very essence, that ''fat" shall
be 'sfried' out of its benefciaries. Who
shall happen to do the ''frying," or who
shall happen to distribute the 'fat" upon
any particular occasion, is a mere matter oi
detail; but while that system lasts both will
continue to be done by somebody.
And the evils of a system of legislative
bounties, so far from stopping. only begin
with those bounties secured to the indus.
tries protected by the tariff The disas.
trous course of the Republican party on the
silver question is an apt illustration of this
truth. 1t ought to be an honest money
party, and it would be if it could; but while
it demanded increased bountIes for It's
favorite manufacturers, it could not refuse
increased bounties TO the silver producers,
as the votes they control were probably
necessary to the passage of the Mckinley
bill. So situated the Republican party had
no alternative but to pass the silver law of
1890, doubling the purchase of silver and
requiring the building of more warehouses
in which to store the useless metal
Pension Abuses Bother Him.
The total purchases made by the Govern
ment amount to hundreds of millions of
dollars, and would not realize, if resold,
one-half their cost, while the poison of q
debased currency, whose york, 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 10 all the
evils of a fiuctuating and therefore desperate
currency based upon silver alone. The Re-
publican party cannot take any effective steps
towards repeating the bill, for the silver
men are very likely, if their bounty is
stopned, to so vote that the bounties of the
Mckinley bill will stop also.
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 bounties upon certain classes of
manufacturers, it was very natural that the
pension agents should also join hands to in
crease their fees by an indiscriminate grant,
ing of pensions The result is that nearly q
generation after the close of the war there
is a steady increase of the vast sums passing
through the pension agents hands, until
l,a al ato hals o,,A
has become of itself a very serious burden
upon the Treasury. From the day of Lees
surrender until now, no single voice has
ever been raised against the most generous
provision 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 dis
tinction between the discharge of duty and
the shirking of it, between loyal service
and desertion of the colors, between wounds
received IN battle and diseases contracted in
the pursuits of peace.
immigration Must BE Checked.
There is still another great and increasing
evil, chiefly traceable. in nv opinion, to
the maintenance of an excessive tariff since
the war. and constant meddling with it to
make it higher, and that is the bringing to
our shores of those vast swarms of undesira-
BILE immigrants who degrade American la
Dor by their competition and threaten the
stability Of institutions based upon an intel
Hgent love of country. Just as the duties
upon imported merchandise have been in
creased, 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 ignorant, and
therefore less desirable, laborers than ever
before. 1t Is not easy to exaggerate the
moral evils they are likely to infiict upon
our social order and our national life.
As the Republican party is now definite
ly committed to the policy of taxing the
people for the purpose OF giving bounties to
such persons or interests as can secure the
necessary votes in Congress, so the Demo-
cratic marty is now definitely committed to
the policy OF restricting taxation to the
needs of the Government for public pur-
poses alone, The gulf fixed between these
two policies of taxation is as wide and deep
as can well exist between political parties;
and l am also convinced that the other
causes in which 1 am interested cannot hope
Tor success until the avowed policy of the
Republican party on this subject is over
thrown.
Seme Things Wait Until Then.
Until then the right of each State to con-
troll elections within its boundaries will not
be secure. Until then there is no prospect
of enjoying the single and stable standard
of value which other civilized and CONNER
cial nations possess 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 puri-
fcation of our politics.will continue tsthe
irridescent dream" which high Republican
authority has declared it must always re-
main.
Until then any pretended reform of the
civil service must prove, as it has proved
these past four years, a delusi0n and a
snare. And until then, even ballot re-
form, the best help yet discovered to honest
elections, and already threatened with
overthrow by the Republican managers in
Maine, may 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 forces of a system
Of government by bounties to favored in
terests, and such a system is their relent- |
less foe.
As l believe, for the reasons 1 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 1 recall the capacity, the fidelity and the
courage with which he has heretofore dis
charged every public trust committed to
him, the duty becomes pleasure
Sincerely yours,