The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-11-05
PUBLIC 0PiNl0N

To the Editor of The Farmer, Sir:
 Long and unchecked possession ot power by any party leads to exlraVa- gance. corruption, and loose practlces. After forty years of domination by the ReDublicans, chronic abuses have be- come fastened on the Public Service like barnacIes on the bottom Of stranded ship There is no hope Of reform by leaders who have created A system of maladministration, and who are interested in perpetuatlnS it's evils Nothing short of the stern est remedy gives any promise of et- fective reform, and the first toward 1t is in a change of rulers. The Gov ernment must be got out of the ruts in which it has too long been run New blood must be infused into the management of public affairs before relief can be expected. The people demand change, and, being in earnest they are likely to be gratifled. We are now a free, united, and happy people, but what security have we that we shall long remain so, we need not go abroad in search of the enc mics of our liberties. or the disturb CTS of our Union. They exist and plot here at home. They are among us. and they are of us. They assailed commission to '. The record of a broken oath. In the office of Secre- tary of the United States Senate there IS carefully preserved this record of a solemn oath: ''I, George F. Ed munds. do solemnly swear that I will impartially examine and consider all questions submitted to the commission of which I am a member, and true Judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the laws; so help me Godp'
 The commission was the Electoral commission of 1877. The form of the oath, there is reason to believe, was devised by George F. Edmunds, him. self. It is absolutely certain that he subscribed to it. Among the ques- tions submitted to the commission of which George F. Edmunds was member were two of supreme impor- tance Was the vote of Florida cast for Tilden or for Hayes? Was the vote of Louisiana cast for Tilden or for Hayes? Instead of impartially examining and considering these ques- tions, the commission refused to ex- anime or consider them at all.
 Eight members steadily voted to violate the oath which they had just taken. When those eight Republi- cans swore in the name of God did they swear to the truth or to a lie?
 They despised it. They rejected it. They trampled it under foot. some done it openly. and candidIy avowed their intentions of a higher law, as though a law were necessarily higher and more worthy the respect of the Nation because framed and expound- ed by them. Others do it indirectly and bring into the field of politics new fangled, mysterious-looking and hitherto unheard of engines intended to better the Constitution to set at naught the rights of millions, working them under cover of darkness while men sleep. Others. under the delu- sions of morbid philanthropy, would cure great evils by the infliction of bribery and perjury-would cure chick en poX by small poX-would reform the country by turning everything up side down-would flood the country with Chinese and reduce to slavery all the whites.
 The manifest tendency of the ma- chinations of these, and many other classes of refOrmers. is to destroy the social and civil liberties of our coun- tTymen. to dissolve our union. to let loose among us foxes and firebrands. and to excite to civil wars and blood shed. Our only safeguard against re- suits so disastrous and subversiye of