Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-08-25
PLUMBER IS THE POLICY.
ished Under the Republican
Plan of Administrat1on.

"It's the hit dog that hollers" is a
homely proverb, and, judging from
the noise coming from the post office
department, public opinion is laying
the lash on we'll. The bowling, how
ever. is unseemly, judged by the es-
tablished methods of the republican
party in dealing with full treasury
/. in the past. In fact, it cannot be said
that Machen and Tyner and Heath
and Payne have departed in any man
ner from the regular plan of proceed
ing in republican administration
whenever the vaults of the treasury
began to overflow.
The famous declaration of Corporal
Tanner. God help the surplus" when
he entered upon his occupancy of the
post of pension commissioner, may be
taken as the keynote of the republican
policy in such matters. Corp" Tan
ner went farther than any other Of the
party leaders; he was franl1er and
more outspoken, but he in nowise va
ried from the policy which Messrs. Ty-
ner, Machen, Heath and others have
been practicing SO successfully at this
later day. The corporal's plan was to
shovel out the treasury assets to the
army Of pension beggars, but he made
so much noise and ranting over it that
President Harrison was forced to dis
place him with Gen. Green B. Raum.
1t can be said for Gen. Raum, how
ever, that he made no substantial
amendment In the prodigality with
which Tanner administered the pen
sion Office. What Tanner did was
done openly and by main strength and
awkwardness; Raum reduced to a
science an equally prodigal method of
scattering the public revenues. Under
the plea of helping the veterans and
axpediting the work Of his bureau, APP
plications we're rushed through the
hands of the examiners with such ra-
pidity as never before known He
put holder and more plausible face
upon the matter, but he, no less than
Tanner helped the whole party lay
the broad foundations for the deficit
with which the succeeding democratic
administration had to deal
eft Is easier to deal with surplus
than a deficit" was another oracular
republican utterance, and was as cas-
lily justified as Tanners. The democrat
ization which followed Gen. Raum in
the pension Office was not corrected by
Gen. Blacks severe honesty nor even
by the lawyer-likerespect for the tech
nicalities and the statutes shown by
Commiss1oner Evans. Mr.. Evans was
finally driven from ONCE by the hun
cry pack of pension agents and
solicitors, and now his methods have
been transferred to the department
that furnished the next best opportu-
mites for footing. The great revenues
of the post Office and the plea of en-
larging the service afforded the means
TO new outbreak of criminal extrav-
agance. Abuses of every kind have
multiplied and flourished until every
step that is taken in the investigation
reveals new and more extensive means
of plundering.
Do not blame the hooters unthink.
ingly. Aside from the fact that they
are all republicans and following re.
publican presidents, they are perhaps
only aiming to distribute the vast ac-
cumulations of the treasury. They
kave needed the cry Of Wall street
that money has been taken out Of
business and locked up in the vaults
OF the government where it can do the
people no good. 1t is the sympathy
with Wall street and with the cry fol
a more liberal currency system thai
has set these officials to blowing opcr
the vast receptacles of the revenue.
and parceling them out where the,
will relieve those who believe them
selves the needy. Their methods hav,
been effective, and they have beer
working along old and respected line.
of republican policies. What is tn,
moral difference between takins
money from the consumer for tn,
benefit of the robber tariff barons ane
stealing 1t from the treasury by lille
gal contracts and gratuities? Ger
tainly the distinction has to be finel,
drawn to make the one plan appear
worse than the other-Louisyill,
Courier-Journal