Year: 1872

THO 1ufo0 JODe OIL the FOrty.Secoha


Consress-Giving Everybody Everything.


1t will be remembered that Mr.. Tittlebat
Titmouse was elected to Parliament partly on
account Of his spirited advocacy OF the famous
'Bill for Giving Everybody Everything"
bill Of q similar kind would hardly satisfy our
land-grabbers and steamship subsidy rings,
but the grotesqueness of Titmouse's arguments
is one Of the best weapons which can be used
against the thieves and corruptionists at
Washington. In looking over the debates on
the Bayfield, and ST. Croix bill we find the
point very tersely put by MIR. Cox, who said,
II would be IN favor Of all subsidies provided
everybody got subsidy" Mr.. Cox is well
known as an experienced legislator. He is
close student, and as an exponent of political
economy according to the free trade school he
has no equal in Congress. Accident as we'll
as fitness makes him the representative and
the champion of the shipping interests of
New York. His district is the home Of the
merchants and shippers who believe in free
registry law and free ships. In one of his
jocose moods he must have studied Mr.. Tit
mouse's astonishing economic principles, and
we should not be surprised if he introduced
measure into Congress for giving everybody
subsidy. Ii he does we shall support it. There
is no principle 80 fair, so wide in its influence
or so universal in its application as the great
principle of giving everybody everything.
When everybody gets subsidy everybody
will be satisfied, and there will be no work
left for the lobby.


In another part Of to-day's HERALD we print
letter from our Washington correspondent
on the three great jobs of the session-the
Bayfield, and st. Croix bill, the Goat Island
scheme and the Pacific Mail subsidy. 1t is a
faithful transcript from record from which
there is no appeal-a leaf from history which
cannot be blotted out. The great battles Of
the lobby on the floor Of the House are vivldly
portrayed without favor and without fear, and
it is shown how desperate was the contest of
dishonesty with honesty. II is story full of
instruction and full Of warning. The meas
ures by which powerful corporations sought
to grow rich at the expense of the people
were defeated one after the other but if one
Of them had succeeded there can be little
doubt that the success of one would have been
the triumph Of all. The result would have
been the public domain squandered without
regard to the rights of settlers and the Treas
ury depleted, that few persons might sail
ships at tho expense of every man, woman
and child in the country. Nor would this
have been the only resul H. Other corpora
tions were waiting to see the success of these
battles TO come forward with other demands.
If the Bay yield and ST. Croix job had been
pushed through the House the Forty-second
Congress would have become the most cor
rupt in history. Not only would other rail
roads have sought aud obtained other lands
and other steamship companies have come
claiming subsidies which their hired attorneys
on the floors Of Congress could easily have
gained for them by showing that TO give them
was for the benefit Of commerce, but jobs Of
every kind would have cl aimed recognition
and the lobby revelled in delight. There


would have been no end to the corruption and
fraud and wrong doing of the national legis-
lature. Even now two, and perhaps all,
of the three great jobs which our
correspondent details may succeed. The
Senate has set its face like flint in favor of the
evils which were crushed in the House. 1t
may still perpetrate the crimes which the
House refused to commit. 1t is a body full Of
weak but wicked men. Its former dignity in
some degree and sembanoe of its former
glory still cling to it, but its virtue and worth
have departed. We tremble to name the men
who sit in the chairs once filled by American
statesmen, or who come from the newly organ
ized and the reorganized States. The years
Of revolution have been years of revolution
even here, and, strange to say, the House of
Representatives, once filled with turbulent and
reckless spirits, has become our conservative
legislative body, caring for the interests of the
whole country and guarding the public domain
and the public treasure. But the men of the
Senate cannot betray the interests of the peo-
pie with impunity, and, sooner or later, un-
faithful Senators will learn that the country
may overlook weakness, but that il will not
forgive wickedness.


The warning cry Of the hour Is, ''Look to
the Senate!" 1t is filed with men of doubtful
character and without reputation. These
must be watched and their conduct held up to
public scrutiny, and, wherein it is wrong, to
public scorn. In two of the jobs the legislative
history of which our correspondent gives the
Senate differs with the House and differs in
favor of giving away the public lands and the
public treasure. If everybody got subsidy
the case might be different. Then everybody
would be benefited, and not merely favored
few. But everybody does not get subsidy,
and the 'Bill for Giving Everybody Every
thing has not yet been discussed in its broader
aspects. Now few people want everything
at the expense Of everybody. Mr.. Cox has