The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1901-06-27
What Will The Harvest Be2

The defiant, proAigate and revo-
lutionary Legislative riot will end at
Harrisburg at noon this Thursday,
when there will be voluntary
thanksgiving from every honest
heart in the State. Many Legis-
latures of the past have made rec
ords which brought the blush of
shame upon every patriotic cheek
in the Commonwealth, but the
violent and revolutionary prohgacy
and robbery displayed by the pres
ent Legislature have never been ap-
preached i'll all the varied annals of
Pennsylvania disgrace.
Officers from judges down to tide
walters have been created or multi
piled solely to meet political necessi-
ties and reward men who have be-
trayed the trust of the people.
Charities, some without actual eX-
istence and others which could have
no claim upon the public treasury,
have been voted hundreds Of thous-
ands of dollars as rewards for pro-
fligate Democrats and perfdious In
surgents as the ornamental part Of
the price paid for their treachery,
while institutions founded by the
State, writing the most lustrous rec
ords in educational and charitable
advancement, have been denied APP
propriations because they are use
less or hostile as political factors.
Even the improvement of our
great water highway to the sea was
rejected because prohigate expendi-
lures OF the immense public revenes
for purely partisan euds left no
money available for that most indis-
pensable work. Franchises worth
untold millions were given away
under special laws cunningly franz
ed to permit no competition in ac-
quiring these valuable grants, and
when the desired franchises were
obtained the same Legislature closed
the doors against all competitors by
a prohibitive legislative enactment.
No such record Of consuming shame
has ever been written, or even ap-
preached, by former Pennsylvania
Legislature
The people of Pennsylvania have
been refused all hearing and the
consideration OF their rights in the
reckless and proAigate record of the
present Legislature. The first ex-
pertinent made Was revolutionary
statute sunlmarily dismissing from
authority officers chosen by the
people in the second class cities of
the State, and that accomplished,
the revolutionists halted for the
judicial approval of their action. 1t
came haltingly from the Supreme
Court, in an opinion that deplored
the necessity of judicial sanction for
legislative wrongs, and that opinion
was sustained by bare majority of
the court. With this judgment in
their favor they assumed that their
legislative authority was practically
unrestrained, and drunk to madness
with the power they possessed, they
have outraged every principle of
public interest and public decency,
and carefully planned and consum-
mated robbery to enrich themselves.
The men who have thus prosti-
tuted their official power for their
personal gain,the two United States
Senators, Representative OF Penn
sylvania i'll the Congress of the
United States, the Governor and
members Of his cabinet, State Sena-
tors, Councilmen and the Mayor of
Philadelphia-are guilty ofa public
crime that at former period would
have caused their exclusion from
any public trust if not from human