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The Argus is for the conviction of every...

The Argus is for the conviction of every... image
Parent Issue
Day
6
Month
March
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Argus is for the conviction of every guitty "cuss," no matter what "pollyticks" he has. Them's our sentiments. Now that the immaculate Johnny Davenport is out of a job we would respectfully suggest to the g. o. p. of Michigan that he be invited out here to lead the said party back into the path of political rectitude. Warden Chambcrlain has our heart feit commiseration in view of the Lansing contingent, which he is likely soon to receive as boarders at the state bastile. It wil] be well for you to keep your eagle eye on J the crowd, Mr. Warden, lest they count you out of your salary and themselves into it. There are some mighty cute arithmetickers among them. Sometimes it is asserted that our state would fare better at the hands of its officials, if it paid better salaries. This seems to have been proven untrue. Several members of the state government by a little staarp counting more than doubled their salaries, but they continued to charge up big expense bilis just the same, bigger, in fact, than any of their predecessors. The Troy luandry men, who are making such a vigorous kick against the Wilson bill and who succeeded in getting their representative in Congress, the Hon. Charles D. Haines, well-known to some of the monied citizens of this city and Ypsilanti, to vote against it, are the self same people who imported _pauper Armenian laborers to take the place of their men who struck against a reduction of wages not long after the McKinley bill went into operation. They are now greatly wrought up over the pros peet of pauper competition. They desire the continuance of the duty on their product to protect Ameri can labor, you know. ■ For the past thirty years the United States has had a higher tariff than any other nation except Mexico. During the last two decades of the time the condition of our farmers has been growing worse and worse. The staples of the farm are probably worth less today than at any time since 1850. Thevaluejof farm lands, of wheat and of wool has steadily declined as the tariff mounted up. The home market which has been so eloquently expatiated upon has not materialized to the advantage of the farmer. In fact, every promisemade the farmer as to the advantages he would receive from the tariff has been proven untrue. As there is no hope of better conditions for them under a high tariff, is not the experiment of a. tariff for revenue worth trying. It cannot be any würse for them than the McKinley tariff has been. Why party affiliations should make any difference with the merited punishment of the Lansing rascáis who so wilfully and wickedly wronged the people of this state in the salaries amendment frauds, is a mystery. AVho would think, if he had been plundered or crimnally wronged in any way of inquiringthe party label of the offender before proceeding against him? Would it not be enough to knowthe dastardly act had been committed and the perpetrator of the same. Yet in the face of the most gigantic frauds ever committed in Michigan, frauds the very thought of which causes the blush of shame and anger to mantle the cheek of every honest citizen, a considerable portion of the republi ?Ican press of the state persists in its efforts to make it appear that no state official except Attorney-General Ellis is mplicated in these das-; tardly crimes. Because an opposi-' tion state official was benefitted by j the fraud of 1891 and seems to have had some knowledge of the same, these republican fiunkeys are j deavoring, notwithstanding the fact that five republican state officials were benefitted by the frauds of 1893, and the further'fact that these frauds were at least completed in the office of their secretary of state, to place the the whole load of 1 tamy upon the single official who ivears an opposition party label. While the frauds of '91, are bad snough, those of '93 are many fold worse. The frauds of '91 were effected by falsifying the returns of a single county, bui those of '93 were only brought to a successful issue after the wholesale falsificaron of the returns of more than twenty counties. These hide bound republicans, however, are so absorbed in contemplating the mote in the eye of the opposition that they fail utterly to see the beam in their own party optie. That they must fail in their undertaking, however, goes without saying, for their object, which is to draw public attention from the enormity of their own party crime by magnifying those of the opposition, is manifest to all fair minded citizens. The Times of last Saturday in commenting upon a recent editorial n the Argus relative to the filibustering tactics being employed in the house of representatives and the need of reform in the rules of that body, says that it is glad to see that the Argus has carne round to lts way of thinking. Now, if the Times means to imply by this that the Argus has come round to be a believer in the Reed method of counting a quorum, it errs egregiously. The Argus believes now, as it always has, in the duty, as well as the right of the majorïty to do business, but it insists that the method of determining the presence of a quorum should not rest solely upon the ipse dixit of the speaker. By the Reed method it happened more than once that members were counted as present when they were not only not present, but actually absent from the city. Of course these mistakes were not intentionally made, but resulted from the inability of the presiding officer to determine to a certainty. with a single sweep of the eye, the presence in so largh a body of each individual member. That such takes should occur under sucli a method of counting a quorum is 1 luite inevitable. The Reed rnle is, therefáre, faulty in this that an error in counting might arise which ' would irivalidate some act of the house. This danger might easily be [ obviated by bringing the member ■ who refuses to vote to the bar of the : house and then calling his name. If he still refused to vote he could then be counted as present but not voting. The Argus believes, further, that a member refusing to perform his duties under such circumstances should be fined. The loss of a day's salary for the first offense and a heavier penalty for each succeeding offense would unquestionably bring the offending member to his senses. All members are thoroughly alive on the question of drawing their full salaries, if not on questions pertaining to the interests of their constituents. That the rules should be amended at once all agree, but that the changes shall be in the direction of safety and right is quite as important. Our esteemed contemporary, the Ypsilantian, of last week, after cpmmenting upon the " phenomenal republican majority" in Pennsylvania, proceeds to say that the democrats by án appeal to prejudice marshaled their forces for an attack upon the industries of the country and polled their vote in 1892 in favor of a policy that bids fair to reduce them (their followers) to a level with the ill-fed and illclad workmen in the faetones and fields of the old world. lts allusion to the vote of Pennsylvania in this connection seems especially inappropriate. Pennsylvania is the Mecca f the protectionists of thi's country, 1 ind vet the self-same cattle that ' ivere draven to the polls the other ( day in Pennsylvania tinder the crack of the protectionist whip are among the most degraded of the workingmen of this country. They represent in large degree the lowest strata of the European labor element, and they were brought here to displace the higher priced and more intelligent American workingmen whose places they assumed. They are and always have been in the very condition to which the Ypsilantian claims the policy of the democrats will tend to reduce workingmen. This element, the. undisputed offspring of 'protection, utterly unable to speak our language, is what the Bohemianized province of Pennsylvania largely depends upon to roll up its "phenomenal repulican majority." All that is necessary to secure any majority that the g. o. p. leaders may desire in this home of labor riots, incendiarism, would-be assassins of protected mili owners, and hangers by the thunibs of militia men, is to pass the word to the protected bosses as to the size of the majority desired and it is forthcoming. The result is then paraded as an indication of the dissatisfaction of "American" workingmenwith the contemplated changes in the tariff policy of the country. There may be such indications, but the vote of Pennsylvania is not one of them. It is indicative of nothing but the rankest kind of bossism engendered by protection. No state in the Union probably has a greater ill-fed and ill-clad element, very like that in the faetones and fields of the old world, than Pennsylvania. The protection policy, which enables the manufacturer to absorb all the profits of protection instead of dividing them with labor, as the contract wfth the government implies shall be done, is responsible for their presence there and their deplorable condition.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News