"man Wants But Little Here Below

And wants that little long." The saying bears the stamp of age, But, none the less, it's wrong, ïhatwhich man craves most anxiously, I've uniformly found, Is not a long-drawn-out affair, But sometimes nearly round, ■ And every person wants it, from The moment of his birth; The thing that I'm referring to Is nothing but the earth. The manufacturers club presses the button- Czar Reed does the rest. Just wait until you see the next tax levy. Then you vviil appreciate what the city government of 1890 cost. All things are said to come to those who wait but the weight for prosperity is becoming a trille weraisome to empty stomachs. His Excellency may at least have the satisfaction of knowing that during the adjourntnent of the legislature the members can't talk back. PlTCHFOKK TlLT-MAN ÍS dOUbtleSS very much of a blatherskite but he has one redeeming vice- he f requently tells the truth about his colleagues. The Democeat is pleased to see the Argus and the Courier taking up the flght started by this paper upon the illegal and wasteful expenditures of the council. As a matter of course those laboring men who voted for McKinley and are still looking for work, will have the satisfaction of reflecting on the dire disasters that were prtdicted in the event of Mr. Bryan's election. The construction of brick cross walks within the proposed dis trict would seem to be ill advised a this time. If the streets in question should be paved the cost of cross-wall construction will have been thrown away. In the present state of the city treasury we c.tnnot afford to conside the opening of any new streets at the expense of the city this year. The same rule holds good in Street opening tha obtains ia paving - let the property benefited stand the expense. Dr. Angell will ílnd quite as much scope for the diplomacy of which he is a master, in Madrid as in Constanti nople, and the matters to be handled in the Spanish capital are of real interest to the American people, which is a e a sideratioii not to be sneezed at by public men. It is the moral effect of British ironclads that enables British financiers to shape the flnancial affairs of Greece. It is the aid and comfort of American tories that enables them to do the s une thing in this country. The excuse is the same in both instances- 'British investments. The corporations are said to have come to the conclusión that it is cheaper to purchase ready made legislators than to take the trouble of making them. The inference is that the corporations iind that low prices prevail in the contraband trade in legislators as well as in more legitímate lines of commerce. Tiiere may be some farmers foolish enough to believe that all this fuss and feathers over the new trifC is in their interest. To those we would say, watch the downward trend of the price of your prOducts which will continue under any tariff, high or low, so long as those producís aremeasured by a standard, the unit of whieh is constantly increasing in value. So far as results of general interest to the state at large are concerned, the members of Michigan's legislature could have spent their time quite as profltably during the past few months pursuing their private business. Outside of passing the appropriation bilis the time f or which the people paid them was taken up with the consideration of private legislation that is of interest only to its beneflciaries. If there is one thing more eonvincing than another of the innate selfishness and class eharacter of a protective tariff it is the spectacle now presented at Washington by the disgraceful scramble of every manufacturing interest to secure as much duty as possible upon the flnished article whieh it turns out, and as little as possible upon the raw materials which are used in the production of its goods. Tow that Senator Campbell has returned to the simple rural scènes and pleasures of his country home, it is to be hoped that he will forget the pitfalls and temptations that beset him at Lansing and cherish only the soothing recollection of his associations with Bill Thompson. The senator may rest assured that his farmer constituents wül not forget his distinguished services to the railroad corporations of this state. The corporations themselves will doubtless remember him also. The number of applications for the Ann Arbor postoffice that Congressman Spaulding must "O. K." in order to keep himself solkl with the push pre sents a dilemma the settlement of which will occasion the general as inuch travail as the birth of his cele brated theory of "safe" bimetallism. I n AS.MUcit as the late legislature gave the governor tliat tired feeling so often Toe Democrat takes it for granted that the adjournment of that bódy wil have the combined etticaey of a soothing syrup and a nerve tonic for his ex cellency . and that he will for a time forget that he has troubles of his own Andrew Campbell was sent to the state senate as a representative farmer In his every oflici-tl act he proved the willing tooi of "W. G. Thompson, the leader of the corporation forces in the legislature. That is where the farmers of Washtenaw and Jackson counties were the victims of misplaced confidence, If the Cuban patriots could stir up a gold mining excitement in some of the inaccessible fastnesses of their island the Cuban question would be solved. Within a twelve-month the island would be so f uil of Americans that there would be no room for Weyler's soldiers and no excuse for international courtesy in dealing with Spain. The flnancial question is not settled and it never will be settled until it is settled right. The people who are satisfled with our present money system are few and f ar between. Even the gold men do not approve of system that embraces seven kinds of currency, and not one man in five can teil which class of notes are legal tender and which are not. The waste and extravagance that has besn piling up taxes of late is not occasioned by defects in the city charter, as some would have us bslieve, bat because the city council ignores the plain provisión of that charter in the expenditure of public money. The charter is all right if the common council will condact public business within itslinütations. That gold is increasing in value is admittcd by the highest gold standard authorities. It follows then that a dollar made of afixed number of grains of that material must take on a corresponding increase. The dollar that is more valuable to day then it was yesterday, necessarily requires more of anythingelse inexchangefor it. Moral: Dear dollars make low prices. 'Pur; campaign in Ohio this f all will be made upon the same flnancial lines as that of the presidential campaign of ast year. The Democratie party hns no surrender of principies to make. It made a stand for principie at Chicago and it has as yet no reason to regret ;hat action. The party is stronger and more (irmly united to day than it has been since the Buffalo fake was projected into its councils. At the risk of being charged with canying chestnuts, The Democrat wil! again cali the attentionof the common council to a matter that has thus far escaped its official notice- to the fact that some person or persons are squandering a considerable sum of money upon South University ave. and that that money is supposed to belong to the taxpayers of this city whoie interests the common council are presumed to protect. Shouxd the mutations of time or the exigencies of politics throw the island of Cuba under the protection of Fncle Sam the commercial instincts of the American people vvould soon accompish what Weyler's armies have been unable to do- the subjugation of the native population. And, by the way, Cuba under American dominion, would, or a few years, be pregnant with opportunities for the enterprising and ambitious. The legislature cut the appropriations for the ensuing two years down about one-seventh. Th is cut, with the $200,000 inerease in revenue from the railroads under the Merriman bill will afïord us a slight reduction in state taxes. The people can stand the reduction. They eould have managed to wiggle along had the useless expenditures of the state government been pared down a few hundred thousand more and the railroads required to pony up their f uil proportion of the expenses of running the state. Watterson said Bryanism was dead in Kentucky. But the Democratie state convention held down there this week endorsed the candidate and principies of the Chicago platform. There were a thousand delegates. There was one dissenting voice. Last fall it was 16 to 1. Now it is 1,000 to'l. The Kentucky editor should confine his political remarks to Cleveland. As he seldom ells the truth ubout anything else he vill be pretty sure to cali the turn on Grover. At all events he's ancient hisory now and the public don't care. The proposition of the Times run thusly: One set of city odicials made a mistake upoii South üniversity ave. henee it is perfectly proper and legiti mate for a subsequent set of city ofti oials to waive proper and legitímate mtthods of doing business in order thai another mistake may be made. Had Mr. Bryan been elected President of the United States last fall the explanation of the continued hare times would not have been hard to find - that is for some people to lind- but inasmuch as the protection soundmoney prosperity confidence men won we are at a loss to know why the goods are not delivered and the transaction closed up. Whilb it is the purpose of The Democrat to criticise freely all acts of the city government which do not appear to be in line with good public policy, it is no more than fair to say that the amount of time devoted to the business of the public by the elective and appointive officers who serve without pay, is fully appreciated only by those who have been through the mili. ïiiere has beena great deal of sentimental slush dished up on account of the arrest and conviction of the Commander of the Salvation Army for disturbing the peace in Xew York City. The verdict of the court in this case simply extended the protection of the law to people who did not care to have their slumbers broken at unseemly hours of night even by a religious demonstration. AViiile waiting for United States Senators to unwind their tariff speeches President McKinley is doing a very flourishing business in federal patronage. The number of office seekers who have f ound out " where they are at" was largely inereased this week. In the eyes.of those who are necessarily turned down (and they are about 16 to 1) the importance to the country of the great Repablicanvictoryof lastXovem ber will perceptibly diminish. It is with gratification thatwe notice that our esteemed neighbor across the way, the Register, is now devoting a considerable proportion of its news space to the propogation of silver sentiment. While the Register is still classed in the ranks of the sound money press it is probable that its editor has come to the inevitable conclusión that the "soundness" of money is determined by its capacity to accurately msasure the business transactions of society, rather tlian by its so called intrinsic value. As the result of her horse play (reece will have to pawn her revenues to secure the thirty millions which are necessary to sinooth out Turkeys rnffled feathers and she raay have to submit to the national humiliation of having a foreign bailiiï take charge of her ünances. While the bondage of Greece is placed upon modern commercial lines it is as complete and galling as those they were wout to impose upon conquered people in the days when Greece was more than a colored spot upon the map of Europe. If the Greeks were wise they would adopt the Kansas plan, move on to new territory, and let the powers foreclose their mortgage. A most distinguished "sound" money authority, the firm of Dimockj& Co., iuvestment brokers of Kew York citv, say in their weekly letter that there is ao possible chance for the McKinley administration to maintain the gold Standard without issuing more bonds. Are our gold standard friends ready to stand sponsor for a financial system that makes the periodical issue of bonds necessary to prop up tKe currency with which the people make their exchanges. The simplest function of money is to be the medium by which the people transact their daily business. It should not be medium of building up an enormous national debt in time of peace. The idea which prevails in some quartersthat the bicycle is in a measure responsible for the depression in business is not founded upon very sound economie reasoning. That many people have denied themselves some of the ordinaryconveniencesof life in order to enjoy the luxury of a wheel is doubtess true. But this change in the investments of a portion of the people has not hindered the employment of labor nor the production of wealth. It has, f anything stimulated business from the fact that many dollars which are now spent for bicycles would otherwise have remained idle. The sum that has been invested in wheels has simply taken a different channel. It of course makes a dilïerence to the dry goods man and the bicycle dealer whether the new woman spends her surplus cash for fine rainment or invests it in a bicycle, but it will make no difference in the sum total of commerce or in the employment of labor, and these are the staniards by which to measure the effect of changing conditions upon business. The horse need not despair. The bicycle lias not. and cannot, for mos practical purposes displace him. The notion that the prevailing low price of horses is due to the almost unniversa use of the bicycle is largely erroneous There are estimated to be upwards oí 3,000 wheels in Ann Arbor today. It is safeto say that (hese 3,000 wheels have not displaced twenty-five horses. This beiiïg the case itisidleto talk about the bicycle lowering the price of horses. The people who now use wheels are, for the most part, those who formerly used their feet as a means of locomotion. The family horse still remains, the gentleman's driving horse is with us yet, and those more useful and essential beasts through whose assistance the traffic of the city is carried on have not been dispensed with nor will they be within this genf-ration. The trouble with the price of horses is the same oíd trouble that has knocked the bottom from under the price of the farm and all its products products- that price is named in more valuable dollars now than formerly. The next years tax levy will need to pass the one-half of one per cent. limit in order to meet the prometed expenditures and make up last year's defleit. At the close of the fiscal year enditig March 31, 189K, the city had a balance in its several funds aggregating $18,551.58. This balance was dissipated last year and on March 31, 1897, the city's account was overdrawn $2,674.(52 at the banks. This overdraft together with the sum necessary to run .he city until the sunnner taxes come n must be made good. Provisions should also be made ior funds to run the city until the taxes of 1898. come nto the treasury, in August of that rear. Th ie Democrat would also suggest o the common council that the appropriation for the street fund should be utticient to pay back the $14,918 that :as been trausfened to this fund from othtr funds during the past two years ind leave a surficient sum ' for this year's work. This would necessitate raising at least $24,000 for the street tund. t ut the f unds from which this money has been withdrawn can be made correspondingly smaller. The object in doing this would be to place squarely before the people the exact course their money has taken. It isa sham to appropriate 5,000 to the street fund and S5,0C0 to the water fund and then spend the whole amount upon streets. So long as this method of indiscriminate borro wing without repayment is pursued the annual appropriations are a farce. The reports of the city treasurer show that during 1895 and '9(3 14,918 that was raised for other purposes has beenused upon the streets.