Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-09-19
"A Remarkable Array of Falsehoods with
Which to Fool Voters.

"A Remarkable Array of Falsehoods with
Which to Fool Voters.
A Washington dispatch to the Philadel-
phia Press says that the record of the
performances of Congress is so devoid of
anything creditable that the Democratic
members in preparing campaign speeches
have resorted to the stupid process of IN
venting so-called reforms" and putting
them to the credit of their party III TINS
Congress One of the speeches Whlch
the Democratic campaign committee Is
circulating is headed achievements OF
the Democracy in the tifty-thlrd Con
.greSS, and was Ostensibly delivered by
Mr.. Coffeen of Wyoming. AS matter
of fact, no such speech was ever delivered
in the House, though it was printed in the
Record under the ''leave to print" and
this obtains for it free circulation in the
mails. Mr.. Coffeen says in his speech
that he IS a merchant in Wyoming, but
1T is evident that he would be more sue
cessful as a writer of fiction Of the Mum
.ChauSen order than as Il dispenser OF
tea and coffee and other commodities.
Mr.. Coffeen figures out that the amount
saved to the people by the reductions in
the tariff on wooden goods alone will be
$141, 3S6,0O0 a year. As the entire inn
ports of wooden goods for the last fiscal
year aggregated only 36,993. 900, it will
be seen that Mr.. Coffeen is not one of
those persons who believe that figures
cannot lie. The decrease in the value
of wool and sheep products of the United
States and of ranch property devoted to
sheep industry in 4 single year has been
S13, OI3,396, or more than twice the value
of all the imports of manufactures of
wooden goods. Hence, instead of the peo-
pie of this country saving anything by
this Democratic wool tariff they are los
erS to a very large extent. The only
wooden goods now imported are hne wool
J I IL IL, Il,
The reduction in the tariff on wooden
goods is for the benefit of that class of
people
Mr. Coffeen's second reform" is men
toned as follows: "A bill retaining
nearly 50.000,000 acres of land from the
to the people again. No such bill has
passed Congress, and the proba bilties are
that no such bill ever Will become a law.
A demagogic measure of this kind passed
the House. but there was no expectation
that it would pass the Senate. as it would
deprive 100000 and more innocent hold
ers of their property without any COM
pensation. Mr.. Coffeens third reform is
a bill to restrict immigration by reQuir-
ing that consular certificates at foreign
ports shall be obtained. This is the
Stone bill, which passed the House and
which the administration killed by the
direct interference of Secretary Gresham
and Secretary Carlisle in the Senate.
The next reform" named is a bill
granting to pensioners Il vested right in
their pensions. This refers to a rider
which was put on the appropriation bill
to prevent the Democratic administration
from suspending any more pensioners
without giving them a chance to defend
themselves. The only object in passing
that rider was to compel the Presl-
dent to stop the infamous course of Sec
rotary Hoke Smith in cutting off old vet
Grams and their widows and orphans by
the thousands from the pension rolls,
without any just cause or reason except
ing to make a show of economy. That
rider" was a direct condemnation OF
the course of the adminiStra ton, 1, course
which has resulted in an alleged saving
of 500 600, 900 in the payment of pensions,
and which saving alone permits the Dem
OcratS now to make q claim OF economy,
as outside of the saving by this infa-
NOUS course the Democrats have actually
appropriated more money than they did
at the last session of the last Congress.
The saving in pensions is S29,O99,o04
whereas the total saving claimed by the
Democrats in their appropriations is S2S,-
$50, 9S9. In other words, IT it had not
been for this infamous pension policy,
under which nearly 10000 old soldiers
and widows had their pensions suspended
before the passage of this rider" to
which Mr. Coffeen refers, the Democrats
would have been unable even to claim a
credit for reducing expenses. But for
the Democratic campaign committee to
circulate a speech claiming credit for the
passage of such a bill is certainly very
remarkable.
Cropping in the dark to find something
more in the line of reform" Mr.. COffeen
SAYS: After overthrOwing the capital
istic schemes shown in the Torrey bank
ruptcy bill, the voluntary bankruptcy bill
was passed for the proper relief of debt
-ors." No bankruptcy bill of any kind
was passed by Congress at its recent SEES
sion. The House defeated the bankruptcy
bill which was approved by every CONNER
cial body nearly in the United States,
and then it passed the Bailey bankruptcy
BILL SO-called, which was hundred times
worse than no bill at all, and which was
designated to give creditors the privilege
of taking advantage of state laws to Sc
cure a discharge in bankruptcy good
throughout the Union, but which gave
creditors no rights whatever. 1t was in
no sense uniform bankruptcy bill such
as the constitution requires, and did not
have the approval of a single commercial
body in the United States. But even
that ridiculous bill was not passed
Another so-called reform is men
toned as follows: "A bill for the coinage
of silver bullion in the treasury and also
the seigniorage was passed and afterward
vetoed by the President. Then it was
carried by the Democrats of the House by
Republicans coming to the help of the
President carried the day against the
Democrats of the House, so that bill was
defeated" Here we have the Democrats
claiming credit for passing a fiat money
bill and for voting by more than two to
one to override the Presidents veto of
that bill. 1t is also stated as a ninth
that free coinage was defeated ''by the
almost solid vote of the Republicans.
joining with the cuckoo Democrats
And it is further asserted that there
never has been a time in the last dozen
years when there was not a good ma
jorfty Of Democrats in the House and also
in the Senate in favor of the restoration
of silver and its recoinage at the ratio of
16 to l." That is no doubt true and it is
q fact the people of the United State will
do we'll to remember
Another reform of which Mr.. Coffeen
boasts very much is the alleged reduction
in the appropriations. which was accom-
plished by cutting off pensions to that
amount. Then the federal election laws
were repealed, so that the South can
carry out their election frauds without
fha infpvvppt iOn IF law rFbaca ;tap,o