Must Be Settled

The attitude of the eovernment toward t!, i ( nion Pacific railroad must loon be determine l. The president has had several conferences of late witli the attorney general, the secretary of the interior and secretary of the treasury on the subject. In addition to a large indebtedness that will mature on the ist of January next there will becorae due between that date and Jan. 1. 389'J, the remaining principal of thesubsidy bonds. which must be met by tlie government. These amount to more l ban s2d.0OO,CO0 on account of the Union Pacific lines and exceed 121,000,000 on account of the Central Pacific lines. In his message President Cleveland said proceediiigs had been instituted to foreclose the ürst mortgage on the parts of the main lines upon which the government holds a second mortgage lien. Twenty years ago Senators Tnurman and Edmunds presented and advocited plans to compel the Pacific companies to meet their obligations to the United : States. Alinost every congress since that period lias considered and discussed plans and schemes, but none has been adopted. The Forty-ninth congress spent $100,000 on a commission which prohed the whole management ef the roada Erom the start, resulting in an eiirht-voluine report of ,000 pages. It was a committee of able and impartial men, who became masters of the subject and reported a refunding ljill favorable to the government, but it uever became a law. The plan approved by the best men in both branches of congress is to accept a funding scheme which will substituto a low rate bond for the obligations of the roads to the government, embracing the gradual extinction of the debt. Such bilis bave been bef ore congress but have failed of enactment. Xo part of our history has been more disgraceful than the outrageous robbery of the governineut by these Pacific railway companies. Sheriff-elect Chipman of Wayne Gounty, h;is introduced a startling novelty into politics, in the gelee of lus corps of assistants. 11e is re ported to have said: "My eitire effort in selecting my men was to pet those who would lie most likely to tnake good ollicers. I thousrht hhat the circumstances of myelection gave me peculiarly the right to make my choice lintram melled by political eonsiderations, and l think 1 have a good clean lot of men. If I lind that any one of them does not prove to be a good oñicer, he will not reniain on my torce. 1 do not know tint tliis princi [le is a winning one in politics, but it is the proper one for any officer who the welfare of the people at heart." We trust Mr. Chipman bas succeeded, aud if he is able to hold his own ground along that line against all the pressure that isbrought to bear in these days apon men in political positions, he will have d ne liis county good service. - „ lx is a wonder that some of the men i arho tliouirlitlcssly indulge n profanity are not brought to tlicir senses by the 1 amounf of t that is heard on the Btreets today. Small boys, and even 1 ehildren, use ït regularly on thestreets. A boy hardly 10 years okl feil on the 1 sidewalk near the postoffice Monday evening, and he had hardly struck ' fore he began a stream of profanity that could be heard on both sides of í the sUi'-i. Hardly a crowd of boya get to snowballing on the streets, but '.[■ir [aughter is so ioterspersed with prof anity as to make it unpleasant for ladies to pasa them. Asirle from all ' question of right and wrong, it is a disting habit and a senseleas one, and the authorities might well take some steps to suppresa it in public, in the vst of general decency. THE brave are not all de;ul vet. Iliram Gallagher oí' Alpena, dived through a hole only thirty inches square into uine Eeet ot' water, and rescued KoyPierson,! au H year oíd hoy who had fallen in wliile Bkating. ïhe chances were all against his getting out. All around the ice was seven inches thick, :;'ni hcbad to go eight or ten feet away from the hole to lind the boy. JSut he struggled out, and resuscitated the boy limself before a doctor arrived. ïhere is no reward that can compare to hiin, with the happiness reauiting from what he has done, but his friends propose to have his deed recognized by Congress. as indeed it should be. Meamvhilehis deed is an inspiration to all who read af it, and an example of heroism, ]ileasantto contémplate in books,but grauiler far in deeds. If Pbesident Cleveland meant what he said in his message, that in the event of Spain's going to the length of destroying the island of Cuba the United States might then interfere.it would seem to be time for hini to be getting started. According to reports that is just what Spain is doing. Gen. Weyler's papers anno unce that he is marching up and down the Pinar del Rio, and layiñg waste everything in his pathway. They also announce this to be his plan of' eampaign from this time on. ïi the Unitfd States is to prove a friend of ('uba.it seemsto be rapidly becoming a case of "now or never." lx beginning this newyear, The Democrat wishes all its readers avery deal of bappiness and prosperity throughout thedays that are tocóme. Then are many things to be hoped for fmni fhp nw Tfiar. and. aside from our personal wants, we all of us sineerely desire a return to general national prosperity. There are a great raany unemployed, for them wewish plenty of wurk. To everyone according as his needs may 1 e wc hope success and prosperity may come: and may we have a general and universal prosperity in which we all may sliare. ï ■-- -:;■ The Michigan tate Fair lias long been a wanderer upon the face of the earth. It has been held in dilTerent parts of the state, and each year has lelt it in as homeless a condition as before. Detroit is talking now of making an effort to have it pennanently located there. We trust this may be done, [f a permanent abiding place be not found for it, the fair can never !.c a success, and for such a state as Michigan not fco have a successful fair is surcly a disgrace.