Personal
Something over a year ago the undersigued, tor over twenty years sole publisher and editor of the Auaus, sent out what he then thought a final good by to bis friends and readers, vacated the fabled tri-pod, and placed the paper in other hands. Circumstances have made it neüessary for him to again earn an honest living, - editors and publ8hers can do just that thiug if uot overloaded with dead-heads o their subscription books and in their advortising uiiIuiuuh, - and he picks up his " kuilt ing " where ho dropped it, and goes on with hia work. He will build no platform,- politicians have built and smashed them, to their own, and the people's sorrow, - but will only say that he shall labor, week in and week out, to make the Akous just as good a paper, local and politicai, as the support of the party and the patronage of the public will warrant. But havingneither inherited nor made a fortune, he can no more make a paper creditable to city and county, without a large subscription list and a genorous advertising patronage, than the boiidsmen in Egypt could make brick without straw. It is, then, for the public to say how good a paper the AllGUS shall be made. And yet its publisher inay say that it will riot be the vehiclo of personal or politioal detraction, tho organ of ring or faction, while under his control. It is presumed that he will generally, if not always, differ from political opponents, many of whom always have been and he trusts always will be both personal friends and patrons of the ARGUS; and he may, as he has, dift'er from individual Deinocrats, and, perhaps, dissent now and then from party action. But this will be done, recognizing the right of others to their own viows, and in no arrogant or dictatorial spirit. With these few words ho invites the business and reading public to subscribo for and advertise in the Argus, and resumes his labors ás a journalist. E. B. Pond. January .3d, 1876. We suggest to tho Democratie House whioh just now has the future of the party, if not that of the nation, in its hands, to enter upon a cainpaign il favor of economy by a close look' ai home. It is not to be presumed tha while sinecures have found comfortable quarters in evury nook and corner o the several departments they have been carefully excluded from the south wing of the CapitoL Cannot afew assistant cleiks, door-deepers, messengers, pages tfcc, bo given leave of absence withou any detiiment to the public service or tho business of the House!' Let two men do the work in document anc folding room that is now done by three and so in every branch of the House service, and thereby save one-third o: the expense. Salaries may also be cu down and another third easily saved As "too many cooks spoil the broth " so too many servants in halls and corridors and committee rooms not only obstruct business but are a leach upon the treasury. Come down to bed-rock in the House, whero you have control, and then demand the same economy in the other wing of the Capitol, in the Capitol pólice forcé, and in every department building. A close observer cannot go through tho Treasury building, the Land and Patent Offices, or any bureau, without seoing almost nuniberless men doing absolutely nothing, only waiting for a pretense of something to to. A red tape System has so divided and sub-divided the duties, that clerks must necessarily wait by the hour, if not by the day or week, for a " job " to reach their tables. With fewer men, more brains, less routine, and hours of labor approaching what is requirc-d of men engaged in corresponding work for private individuals or corporations, one-half the amounts now paid for running the several Executive dopartments could be saved, and the public be better served than now. Classification of skilled labor has no doubt woiked wonders in the constructiou of machinery, but setting one man to open a letter, another to read and file it, another to acknowledge its receipt, and then pass il through several bureaus, to each time run a similar gauntlet and be similarly receipted, is the way business is daily obstructed and the responsibility for its intelligent and honest performance reduced to a minimum. We cominend these hints to members of tho House who, oither have in view the interest of the tax-payers whose pockets are being unnecessarily deplet ed, or wish for party success. It wil provo no excuse that tho Republicans have creatod and filled these useless offices. Cut them off at once, and then hew to tho line at once in every branch of the public service, at Washington and throughout the country. That is the way to win tho confidence of the people, their votes, and victory. Commextixg on the charges made officially against Senator Spencer o Alabama, and their donial by that " distinguished statesinan," the Detroit Pos says: " Mr. Spencer Í8 either a very bad man, a rival on a sraall scala o Tweed and Fernando Wood, or the accusations against him are so extrava gunt that they are sure to react in his favor and make him the victim of personal or partisan malignity." If they " react in his favor " one would naturally suppose that he would escape boing " a victim of personal or partisan malignity." We wouldn't give much for a " reaction " which convicta. The colored Bepublicans held a meeting last week, and declared in favor of giving Grant a third torm, And now who'll say Bishop Haven don't speak from the cardV Tuis colored action was in Washington, inimediately under the Presiden t's official nose. Congress convened again Wodnö8day. Livoly work is indicatod. A goOD story is quietly told, and mmensely laughed at, in Washington circles, at the expense of Secretary Chandler, but which we have not seon Q print. An order having been issued o provent the circulation of memoriáis, tracts or other papera in the dejartment, either for signatures or readïng, without the consent of the Secretary, ono Dolan, a clerk in ono of the bureaus, placed on the table of Mr. Ohandler, a tract or pamphlot, vigorously portraying the many evils resulting from a use of iutoxicating liquors, and especially of adulterated liquors, and attached to the same a petition asking Congre88 to provide for a commission of experts to examine into and report upon the effects of alcohol, used as a beverage, upon the human systena. The document was also accompanied by a very polite letter, asking permission to circuíate in the department for signaturos. Secretary Chandlor coming into his office picked up the " tract " before finding the letter, and it was the red rag which made him as mad as when he made his famous raid on " Newspaper Eow." The lines stared them in the face, they were meant as a reproof, they were an insult ! yes, an insult ! ! " Who put thia on my table ï" was thundered out. " Mr. Dolan" was the nioek response. ' In what room is Dolan ?" " No. ." " Send tor his chief clerk." The chief was sent for, the chief came, the chief received positive orders to discharge the unfortunate Dolan at once. Dolan was discharged, Dolan had his bread to earn and could not afford to be discharged, Dolan proceeded to the irate Seeretary's room to make explanation and apology and beg to have his head restored But Chandler wouldn't see him. It so happened, however, that Chaplain Newman, the minister in charge of the President's church and the President's conscienco, was a friend of Dolan - Dolan being a superannuated Methodist minister. Dolan explained to Newman, Newniau explained to Chandler, Chandler " turned up " and read Dolan's letter, took the " sober second thought," graspod hold of the idea that those staring lines upon the first page of the tract had nothing personal in them, and poor Dolan was reinstated. In a recent speech to the conservativa working men ai the Corn Exchange of an Knglish city, Ktirl Derby got in Beveral pat hits at the U. S. ïhis for one : "It used to be the fashion to say 'Look at America ; look at the United States. There is a country ; no wars, no debt, no taxation, and every man has a vote.' " Who wonders at the words "much laughter" which follow in the report. And again : " Well, but 8ince then the United States have had a tremendous civil war. ïhey have got a debt and a heavy one. They havo got taxes which are a good deal more burdensome than ours, taking State and Federal together," - a truth which Eepublican Congresses and Legislutures have kept in the back-ground. But, worse than all : " They have a civil servico which, not to say anything offensive, is not generally considered clean-handed or aa efficiënt as ours.' It is well to look such charges as these, coming from a source so intelligent, squarely in the face. The country is in peril. Relief must come from soine source. It cannot be found in inflation, it will be prevented by a system of taxation for protection. It must come from an economical and honest administration of all branches of the Government - State and National, from a repeal of all class taxation, from the retirement of unnecessary and oorrupt office-holders, from a general purifícation of' the political Augean stable. "Harper's Weeldy states tliat Whipper, whom Gov. Chamberlaiu, of South Carolina, whjpped out of a judgeship, was formerly a lumberman in Michigan. - Pree Press. " Lumberman," eh ! that's a good word, " lumberman." But then it reminds us of the way another distinguished " colored brudder," perhaps an ancestor of the would-be " Judge " Whipper, stated his vocation : " A carpenter I is by trade, 1 have it underBtood That the way I get my living, Is by sawing gemmen's wood." If burning charcoal, cutting and drawing cord-wood, and " doin' pro" miscus teamin' " mako a man a " lumberman," perhaps Whipper was one in Michigan. But when he resided in this county he had seither aspired to the dignity of a " lumberman " nor shown sufficient iuclination to the law to always keep out of the clutches of the officers. TllE Second Comptroller of the Treasury and his deputy, the Third Auditor, and several clerks, resigned last week, because of a report charging neglect of duty in connection with the allowance of the Sugg Fort ttiid other swindling claims. This in Bristow's department. Babcock, indicted tor knowing too much about " crooked whisky," is not yet announced as having been asked to be rolieved from duty. Babcock's post is at the White House. And that's the difference 'twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee : a stone's throw or thereabouts. Til E jam in the Detroit Opera House on Tuesday evening, to witness the champion wrestling match between J. H. McLaughlin and J. J. Benjsmin, composed of people from all parts of the State, with an admission of $1 to $3, and hoavy betting, is not an indication of hard times, - in sporting circles at least. Mr. McLaughlin won an easy victory. Thomas A Germán. - A Gernan under the signature of Herr K, gives in the Dresden Nachrichten some facts in reference to Thomas, whose name is notorious in connection with the dynamite explosión. Ho states that Thomas was born in 18.'i8 or 1840 in the town of Bocholt, Westphalia. Whon two years o)d his f'ather went to America and beearae a carriage builder iu Brooklyn. Herr K. became acquainted with Thomas in 1852 at Noelles' commercial school at Osnabruck. In the summer of 1875 Herr K. met accidently a gentleman at Kneist's beer hall, Droiden, who spoke Gorman, who proved to bu Thomas and who it was fully shown had been born and educatod in Germany, Thomas had spent from 1867 to 1875, the last eight years, in Germany.
Article
Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus