OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10306, 13 March 1895, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(Fbosi Odb Own Cokresfondeht.)

San Fbancisco, February 9. THE WOULD OF POLITICS.

The heavy and continuous outflow of the gold reserve has again forced tho Administration to do something. 16 was hoped by the President and his advisers that Congress, representing as it doe 3 the people, would have come to some understanding and passed some measure for the relief of tho present situation. Congress, however, has done nothing but talk; not, be it understood, that it ercr does muah more, although, in view of the steady drain upou the Treasury, even an American citizen might be pardoned for looking to bio representatives in Congress to "get in and work." But a Congress that took a year and &-hr.lf to pass a Tariff Bill is not a Congress likely to rush through any currency measure even in visw of facts patent to all. The President in his mesBage recommended the passing of a bill authorising the issue of 500,000,000d0l worth of bonds for the purchase of gold aad the retiremsnt of all outstanding paper. Immediately there we;e 6 shower of objections, and protests and amendments from all sides. True, the various Chambers of Commerce and the like approved the President's course but not so the peoples' representatives in Congress. These Utter have been introducing scheme after scheme, each guaranteed to effect a cure, without number. Irritated and alarmed at this procedure, the Administration has decided to issue, under powers vested in it by a previous act, bonds to the amount of 100,000,000d0l at 3£ per cant. The greater portion of thi3 loan, it ia understood, will be taken up by the Rothschilds, it having long since become apparent that the selling of bonds to American bankers for gold was merely taking the money out of one pocket and putting it into another. As stated in my last, the gold so raised disappeared from the Treasury as fast as it was pub in. In addition to issuing bonds to the above amount, it is rumoured that the President purposes keeping the gold reserve close up to the 100,000,00'0doi limit, at every cost, and will to effect this issue, if advisable, bonds again and again. It would thus appear that even Congress will have to do something definite before it dies.

What is the cnuce of this financial muddle ? Briefly, I should say the inevitable outcome of 30 years' misgovernment, corruption, folly, and ignorance. But, of coarse, no one will accept this view—at least not many. Some will tell you it is thetaiiff, others the demonetisation of silver, others Democratic stupidity, others Republican criminality, and tha like. Personally I stand to my own guns. I go further, and cay that this present condition of affairs is merely what any ordinarily intelligent observer has been predicting all along, and that neither the present bond issue nor 20 other bond issues will permanently stive off tha inevitable. A« well might we expect to gather grapes from thorns and figs from thistles. No individual could conduce his household affairs as the affairs of the United States have been conducted without ending in chnoa, and the same rule holds true of the individual in the mass.

Take the opinion of any unbiassed person, no matter what his nationality, upon the institutions of this country, aud each and all will ba found to speak in the same tongue. Take the opinions of the country's own public speakers, and the cry is the sams; so that it is beyond measure unfathomable how anyone can speak of ths United States as they now are and imagine they are doomed to snrvive. All history is a product of the imagination and without form or substance if these United Scete3, as we know them, are to live on through the centuries.

Financial muddledom is but one straw on the current. Cleveland had 102,000,000d0l gold reserve when he took office. He ha 3 borrowed 117,000,000d0l since, and now has to borrow 100,000,000d0l more; and this in two years! "Oh, bat wait," cries our political optimist, "uatil this 'depression' passes over and our .revenue becomes ' elastic ' and business assumes its ' normal' tone, then you ufcali ese Uncle Sam rise to his full magnificence; and giory and crush the outworn and deorepid monarchies and tyrannies," &c., &c. So that, I suppose, we had better wait. N.B.—Since writing the above, the lower branch of CoDgrass has rejected the President's proposals. I'his action will merely have the effect of expaditing thn issne of bonds to the amount of 100,000,000d01.

THE HAWAIIAN POLICY of the present Administration came up for discuseiba during the past month, owing to the cens of the attempted rising of a few desperadoes in and near Honolulu. Very little that was either new or interesting came out in debate. The same reckless and bitter charges were hurled against Cleveland by his political foas, and the same arguments were brought forward by his supporters in his vindication. I have long since placed myself on record ss an adrairer of the Pretident's action in relation to Hawaii, and nothing has tracspired to alter that opinion; in fact, it is difficult to understand how sny unprejudiced outsider can do otherwise. The events vrero so boldly set forth by their creators, and the underlying causes so apparent, that nothing short of the blindest I and most bigoted pai'tioanchip could fail to j understand tbern. It remains on record, however, that a majority of the press and politicians did not appreciate Cleveland's attibude, and I have snarled and jibed both in season and oat of season. In the words of the London Timea, it does not seem possible for the majority here to rise t3 the high moral level of the President's action in this matter. Kecall the facts: I A representative of this country, by virtue of

his position, was responsible for the overthrow of that authority to which he was accredited. The President of the United States, after full iuquiry, d»nidod that, as the representative of a, presumably honourable people, he could no less than nffer to restore the status quoante. The conditions attached to this offer having been re-jested, he quietly withdrew, and very wisely permitted ttie islanders to rule theinsslves according to their own desires. And now, because this oligarchy has met with opposition from its opponents, the I're.'iidfint, wa are seriously told, is largely rcsponsibl9 for the trouble, aud ought to havo had an Amoricau policy and stoppad tho pernicious influence of Great Britain in Hawaii! Senator Lodga poured forth a wholo torrent of invective lroui his seat in the Senate upon British influence and British intrigue; and some hob-headed gentleman, isomewhere or another, issued a call for a thousand men to proceed forthwith to Honolulu, there to defend Amoricau interests against these Knglish—"for tho blood of an American in Honolulu m as precious as the martyr blood of tho patriot on the battleliuld of Lexington." Notv to all this Cleveland has had but one reply -. America's duty does not lie in active interference with outsiders. This may not be an American policy— i.<!., Jingoism,—but it appears to me to be one of common snnso aud markfid by Bound judgment. Nor am I alone in this opinion; the Seaate lojecbod the resolution of censure upon the policy of the Administration, and no virtually declined to make it3elf ridiculous by endorsing a policy of intervention and, perhaps, ultimate annexation. Had Cleveland done as well in home affairs as he has in Hawaii his record would be more pleasant to ponder upon.

A WAVE OF MORAL KKFOfIM has swept ovsr the land, and has not yet done sweeping. From New York to California is a far cry, bub not too far to keep the latter free from a righteous indignation when contemplating the shameful record of its city and municipal history. Lexow is, like Boycott and Mrs Bio'imer, doomed to a certain kind of immortality. " Chicago to be Laxowcd," "To Lexow San Frnncisoo," are common terms nowadays in the press. Every great city would appear to be outdoing theother in its desire to h»ve the State Legislature appoint a committee of inquiry whose powers sh*ll be of a most rigorous character. Mass meetings have been held, Dr Parkhursb has teen called upon, nnd clergy and laymen would seem to have at last realised that there are sorna spots upon earth beside which Sodom and Gomorrah would ataud well before a just judge. Chicago, Dr Parkhursfc declares, is worse than New York, but not so bard to tackle, because corruption was nob strengthened and centralissd by a colossal political machine; nnd the firßt thing, he continued, you will have to do is not to elevate but to tear down and rip to pieces, for, so far as I can learn, you have no tone that in worth elevating. And this last declaration is in line with the charge of another speaker, who declared that it was the iufluontial and intelligent men who were to blame for the rottennessa of their sooial life, for they, he cried, are behind the men whom wo all so glibly condemn.

In Sau Francisco civic federations and citizens' leagues have been formed. Large meetings have been held on Saturdays and Sundays, and a special committee is to be appointed by the Legislature, now in session, with the object of making an exhaustive and thorough investigation of the myriad charges openly bruited abroad. How duep our condition is may ba gleaned from the fact that the Braminer declares we have passed the investigating atago long ago, what we ought now to do is to punish, and that promptly. " For years San Francisco has seen the legislative delegation buy its seats with tho bribe mouey of bosses and then spend 60 days at the capital blackmailing corporations and county seats, and bargaining for municipal, State, and Federal positions when its time should have expired. In fact it has grown to bo almost axiomatic that the member of the Legislature who gets a political job after his retirement has received his position as a bribj, and his possession of it is sufficient evidence of his legialativs infamy. We have seen in San Francisco members of the Board of Supervisors emerge from poverty and burst forth into the full radiance of wealth's splendour by means of Dioney taken either as blackmail or as bribes. Wo have seen these sams men bought, nold, and paid for by political bosses. We have seen Buckley grow from the barkeeper to the millionaire without the aid of a day's fconest work or. a single legitimate investment. We have seen him fly over the border to escape a grand jory's indictment nnd come back as insolently dishonest as ever nndor the protection of an unfortunate judicial decision. No one auppossd that his wealth was gained by the selection of honest men for oHiee or by the assistance of men placed in office by honest votes. It is notorious that for years nearly every election in San Francisco has been decided by the votes of some 6000 thieves, pimps, opium fiends, gamblers, and staffers, supplemented by dishonest counting."

The chief of tho police in San Francisco says his men are honest, and that there is no corruption. A parson, in reply, names half a dozen gambling dens on Market street, and which are opan, against the law, morning, noon, »nd night; and reiterate*, what everybody knowe, that the police levy a weekly tributs upon the inmates of the brothels within their districts.

In Oinsha, a large city in tha State of Nebra»ka, they hive grown tired of reform, and gambling and betting and pool rooms are henceforth under police sanction. Over in Oakland, a city of 60.000 in&bitants, its own mayor declared, the other day, "the city is black with corruption End intrigue. Substitute Oakland for New York and the findings of the Lexow Committee would fit us exactly."

So far as the findings of this celebrated Lexow Committee are concerned, they were handed in ib the form oE a voluminous report to the New York State Legislature about the middle of January. I noticed, by the way, a New Zealand papar, under date of Decsmber 8, referred to the Lexow Committee in the past tense and that its scope extended over all branches of municipal governmunt.. That is, of course, an error, as the committee did not complete its work until the first week in January, and it had no power to go outside the Police department. It now asks for larger powers, and wishes to include every branch of municipal government, but would only pursue its labours at the request of the mayor. The following is the gist of the proven charges against tha enonndrelly ruffians who have so long; tyrannised over their fellow citizens :— " Brutality to gratify personal spite or brutal instincts ; blackmail practised for years with impunity, and with a reckless disregard for decency; fostering and protecting disorderly places, and maintaining substantially partnership with inmates; occupying a similar position in regard to gambling, poolrooms, policy shops, aad graen goods swindlers ; violations of the excise laws for tribute; having an understanding with pawnbrokers and thieves in regard to stolen property, and having a systsm of blackmail and oppression by which, revenue was extorted from pedlars, merchants, and others." The chief remedies proposed are : A non-parbi-san board of commissioners, reorganisation, and the absolute power of dismissal of any persons to bs vested in the mayor.

How matters will "pan out" is dubious. Men like Parkhnrst do not come forward every day, and eno man, or even half a dozen men, cannot, on physical gronnds alone, do all the fighting. The vicious and their panders never re6t; they work unceasingly, and leave no art unpractised; but the good tire, for the work seems endless and the reward so poor, and the incentive almost nil. Therefore tha wicked have not ceased from troubling—not by much, as tfco Americans nay. And, even thus early, the reformers of last November are openly charged with fighting among themselves, and using their new powers to gratify personal spite and personal greed. So that I am not yet prepared to announce the near approach of that municipal millennium of which visionaries have dreamed, but which Tammany has hitherto successfully poohpooed.