The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1893-09-21

crOw-Dar ana help hfmSel1!
And then there were scandals and
scandals in the penitentiary and other
departments of the state government
but you will excuse me for not referring
to them: for rs the learned Mr.. Wegg
said to the learned Mr.. Roftin: There
are ladies present."
But what the state administration
lacks in lurid beauty is more than made
up by the late legislature. Its record
towers above all others, as the noun
tains of the moon tower above a collecs-
tion of mole hills.
1t was two-thirds republican in both
branches, and yet Gov. Mckinley and
the republican correspondents are try
ing to lay it's sins on the democratic
party. That is, when they are not de-
nying its record, or are praising its
worst misdeeds, US they do sometimes
If any job, any license to syndicate
without redress, failed to pass, it was
because it's promoter had more con-
science and less gall than the two
thirds ma jority.
If the prayer of any farmer or any
workingman for relief from any bur-
den, or protection against any rapacity,
was needed in Legislative enactment,
the recording angel dropped tear of
surprised joy upon it and washed it out,
for it can not be found in the record.
If it left upon the statute books any
democratic lazy cutting official salaries
down to reasonable proportions, the
fact is unknown to the taxpayers of the
state. 1t found the law there and
wiped it out under the whip of sus-
pension OF the constitutional rules AMI
the gag of the previous question.
1t appropriated every dollar of possi-
BILE revenues in the treasury, aad then
emulating the example of the man who
conducted double-entry bookkeeping.
by charging the items up twice, it appro-
priated S6OO.O0) that was not in the
treasury, but which must be drawn
from next years revenues to meet tine
expenditures of this.
This is one of the things which Gov.
Mckinley especially praised in his
speech of acceptance, lie described it
as new and beautiful system of ad-
vanced drafts. which relieved the ne.
cessities of the present
But if any of You should catch your
clerk, or cashier, or booI-keeper maxi
ing advance drafts on his next years
salary to meet his riotous expenditures
of this year, how long would you permit
him to have charge Of your business?
This same legislature, during its two
sessions, devoted itself to piling local
Indebtedness upon the people, and
passed all sorts of special bills, good,
bad, indifferent and strictly devilish.
until at the end of the second session
it had added about $50, OOO. 600 to that
form of tax-creatipg and tax=eating
obligations
When that legislature expired, it eX-
pired amid the universal eXecration OF
all men and newspapers, for this rea-
son above all others. Now the repub-
lican leaders and newspapers are try
ing to deny or conceal the record
Their denials, however, are in Vague
and general terms. Some try to cut
the enormous mountain down ope-third;
others want to reduce it one-half. but
they take good care not to produce tho
record.
One of them declares that If we "omit
the road bills and other measures, the
total increase of the bonded indebted.
ness is only sci, 800. OOO,'
He reminds one of the fellow who
was being tried for the unlawful sell.
ing of whisky. and who plead that he
only sold cocktails. ''But what composes
cocktail?" inquired the judge. You
take a little water, and little sugar,
and little stoughton bitters and
little lemon, and little pine apple and
a few other little things and mix them
together" was the reply.
When pressed to tell what the other
''little things were, he offered to sell
the court the recipe for s25. So with
the republican writer who wants to
omit the road bills and other meas.
ures," which make up the other $780,.
6OO and complete the Legislative cock
tails.
On the morning on which the regular
and adjourned sessions of the legisla.
ture quit work in 1892 and 1893, there
appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer,
one of the leading newspapers of the
country, complete lists of all the bond
Great ting bills, with their number as in.
troduced, description and the amount
of bonds they called for.
These lists are still accessible in its
files. Their accuracy has never been
successfully questioned and never will
be. The auditor of state has officially
certified that the increase of local debt
following the regular session of 1893
was s12. 400. 600, exactly verifying tho
list for that year, published in the En-.
4uirer.
The list published in 1903 shows an
increase of $4,000. 900 in round NUN.
bers, and the next annual report of the
auditor of state will confirm its accur-
acy.
This year, for the first time, the gen.
eral laws are bound in one volume and
the local laws are to be bound in an.
other. The local laws create the ST..
600, 900 debt. The general laws have been
printed and bound; the local laws have
not. Nor will they be in all likelihood.
this side of the November election !
They are the record of the bonds, and
are under the seal of secresy in friend
ly printing office in Norwalk. The re-
publican leaders deny the enormity of
the burden and say: Produce the laws
and show the amount of bonds!' /
This is what they call republican
craftsmanship in Ohio! /
And in that same printing Office are
buried the journals of the two houses,
and there they will remain buried un-
til after the election, and the repub-
lican members. denying their records,
will defy their constituents to prove
them by the Journal
There are republican officers about
the state house, who know more about
that printing office and its secrets. and
who are backing it, than they care to
tell Bot touching these and several
other matters, / shall speak at future