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The adniinistration of Gov. Rich increas...

The adniinistration of Gov. Rich increas... image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
October
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The adniinistration of Gov. Rich increased the tax burelen !aid on Washtenaw county for the past year $20,775,48 overthe taxes of the corresponding period under Winans. At the same time it made this large increase in the burdens of the mechanic who owns a little house and of the already over burdened farmer, it did not add to the amount of railroad corporation taxes a single dollar. The editor of the Michigan Democrat published at Sturgis, refering to the banquet of Gov. Felch, pays the honored ex-Governor a graceful tribute. The editor was some years ago a law student of the University when Gov. Felch was a professor and lecturer in the law department. This perhaps may account for some of the vigor and incisiveness of the Democrat's editorial utteranees. In 1S92, under Geo. W. Stone, the auditorgeneral's office employed an average of 48 clerks. In 1894, under Auditor-General Stanley W. Turner, the average has been 104, and at present there are 120 employed there. The state administration during the fiscal year 1894 cost the taxpayers $63,000 more for clerk hire alone than during the corresponding year of the democratie administration. But it was necessary to take care of the heelers, you know, and the dear people pay the bilis. The saving to the people brought about by the administration of sturdy old Gov. Winans stands out like an oasis in the desert of republican extravagance. It cost the people $545,495.98 less than the Luce administration which preceded it, and $757,299.36 less than the Rich administration which succeeded it. It not only lightened the burdens of the people by these vast sums, but it turned over the treasury with a cash balance of $345,000.00. Nor can this saving be explained away, as republican organs attempt to do, by asserting that it was brought about by exhausting the supplies and emptying the treasuries of the various state institutions. In addition to the cash balance mentioned above, the democrats left $165,000.00 in the treasuries of these institutions, and a stock on hand exceeding what they received from the republicans of $313,198.76. Not a bad record for two short years of democratie rule. Let voters ponder. Apathy or hesitation in the present state issues is something that no honest democrat can for one moment allow. No more important canvass than this of today ever called the attention or demanded the full vote of democracy. The interests at stake are not as between the characters of the men whose names lead the opposing tickets, but those of democracy and the republican party, represented by those names. This s a time when true citizens are to 3e tried in the fire of an unflinching purpose, and the clear-headed democrat who has stood for his principies through the victories and defeats of the past thirty years will not ie found wanting at the polls with lis vote now. All that democracy stands for is in danger, and no bugaboo of possible defeat raised up by he republican party should frighten voters from their fealty to the truth, or from voting right in November. The voter stands with the balances of right government in his own hands, and if he now yields them to monopolistic greed and official corruption, ie alone is guilty of treason. To vote for the republican nominees is o vote for the machine, as against he people, the plutocrat as against he toiler, the railroad and and monopolist as against the relief of the people from burdensome taxation, and the extravagant as against he economie administration of state affairs. Certainly no true democrat would be willing to do this. And ret, apathy, or the purchase of a cheap revenge by failing to work for a party, or by staying away from the )olls, is an open subscription to every act and all the failure of the sresent state government. No est democrat can afford to do this, and the vote in November will undoufytedly show every democratie ballot placed for the victory of true government.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News