Show PERILS OF THE REPUBLIC UNDER this heading beading the springfield republican liban has a long and strongly written article in denunciation of the current policy of congress in in respect to certain subjects of national interest inter estand and concern which it deems perilous to the republic it begins by quoting this recent remark by senator ingalls the decalogue and the golden ru rule le have no place in politics and asks was there a rough truth in the saying it then states the nature of pending legislation respecting pen pensions si one the tariff and silver and regrets the failure of the international copyright bill ot of the first it says the house has passed and the senate seems sure to pass and the president to sign a bill which gives to every man who served in the army or navy 8 a mo th from the age or of 60 until his death the same pension ision to each one under 60 disabled disabled from whatever cause and the same to every soldiers widow who has reached 60 or who depends on her dally daily labor this with earlier provision means that at least a million men and women are to be paid an average of a year from taxes levied on their fellow citizens part of this is a just debt to men hurt in the count co u it rys Is ser service V ice part of it probably a full full half goes to such as eave have no moral claim to and are pau by receiving it the whole peaceful al army of toil is taxed on the necessaries of life to belki degrade ade by a mercenary stipend a service once regarded as a patriotic offering to the nation and still the cry is for more of the republican tariff measures now pending the article says under the name of protection they would constitute a system of gigantic extortion upon the whole people for the benefit of a small and wealthy class 0 the republican briefly but point edy edly objects to the pending silver legislation alleging that it will force the government to become a customer for the product of the silver mines partly to add to the wealth of a few millionaires partly to hu humor a popular delusion that cheap mont money y cheap because inferior brings bringis prosperity 1 of the lost I 1 international nal copy rig right h t bill it says A bill to make the moral right of th the a foreign author a legal right a bill carefully drawn with consideration of the interests of american printers a bill long debated and well understood was deliberately rejected by the house it was rejected on the ground that the people want cheap broks boks no matter if the material is stolen since only foreigners are robbed I 1 I 1 then comes the following folio wing recapitulation each of these four measures concerning pensions tariff silver cop copy right is an action by bv which a certain certain class takes fakes money from other peoples pockets by the aid of the government each one dresses itself up in fine words and theories it is in the name of patriotism or of protection to industry or of stimulating trade or of making books plenty that this taki taking coverd cover 5 of oiher peoples money is covered up the sin is confined to neither party part of these four subjects only the mariy tariff is a party question the sin is not confined to the political leaders the war veterans as a body have scarcely raised a voice against the sale of their honor for a mess mesa of pot pottage potoae tae the western farmers clamor for a debased dollar each protected industry seeks only to get a bigger share of booty than its iti neighbors the congressmen who like mr Bockwell Rockwell vote to rob the foreign authors believe belleve that they have an approving constituency behind them it is by a mixture of greed with delusion that a great part of the american people at present the part are using the government to get other peoples peo money they may i blind themselves but they cannot a lter alter the eternal law of morality nor escape the sweep of its penalties the commandment stands thou malt not steed thou not covet and youve got to git up airl airey airly 17 it if you want to take in god the republican then goes on to set out the positions of the two parties of the republican leaders in the house it says they have altered the machinery of the house so as to give the majority unrestricted power they are proposing a similar course in the senate they are preparing legislation which they hope will enable them to gain ain congressmen and electoral votes in in the south they are admitting territories aboe population hardly equals an eastern county wh whenever enver by doin doing so quey can gain two senators ney they are bending everything to the continuance continuance of their p pirty arty ascendancy the laws of the country are determined in a republican caucus men once reckoned conservative and patriotic men like edmunds sherman allisn All ism hoar dawes evarts follow without flinching the au docious clique who have taken the lead the democratic party is ie commended for some some things but censured because it is delici deficient entin in convictions vict ions and in conscience and iu in respect to certain public questions is no better than the republicans n the general condition of the nation is thus referred to we believe the nations heart is sound but its pulsations are sluggish and its bloo blood 1 is corrupted A change in the congressional majority or the presidency is not enough the mischief lies in the popular disposition to look to the government for private profit the government has not a penny but what it takes from the people government aid is simply money modey for you out of your neighbors pocket there never was more need for patriotic men to speak out and act out the closing sentences of the article embrace a quality unusual to dolitia editorials in this country once when things looked darkest for the antislavery anti slavery cause frederick douglas made a speech burdened almost to despair with the wrongs that seemed hopeless of redress old sojourner truth was in his audience and when he ended she rose and said sol emaly frederick is god dead he was not dead then he still lives and we have faith i hat some day it will appear that the decalogue and the golden rule have a place in american politics the qualities of truth boldness and independence characterize the republicans article it sets forth correctly some of the motives which control in the present policy of congress relative to a number of public questions que stiens this much in kiy ky be said without entirely endorsing that papers position relative to the subjects referred to while our massachusetts contemporary has pointed out tendencies which actually are menacing to the welfare of the republic it has not noted the most significant sign of degeneracy in congress nor the greatest peril now threatening the weal of the country eDu while bribery in any form is a deplorable evil while the improper disbursement of the peoples peopled money will certainly have a demoralizing effect and while the use of the national legislative power for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many is an abominable abuse yet it is possible for all these evils to flourish to a great extent without actually imperiling impe riling the perpetuity of the nation these are but skin diseases upon the body politic which if they do not become too aggravated may continue for an indefinite period without producing dissolution but there is a measure pending in congress which has been reported favorably by a committee and the passage of which is predicted by its friends which is of a nature to inject poison into the vitals of our national system that so astute a writer as the one from whose article the above quotations are made in an enumeration of 16 perils to the republic should have failed to take note of it is somewhat singular it is the bill which attacks religious liberty the very corner stone of the american national structure by providing tor for disfranchisement on account of religious church membership there is more danger to the american republic in one such measure as this actually placed upon the statute book than in all the unwise and corrupt financial legis la lation tioff accomplished or proposed to which the springfield republican has directed attention were it all as bad as that paper represents it to be if men will have no care for the future they will soon have sorrow for the past |