'Cbc Conservative. 11
The Chicago
LEGALIZED Tribune of July 17 ,
LARCENY.
uiider the head of
"Printing Office Corruption , " faintly in
timates that there has been a tremendous
deus stealing under the immediate super
vision of Public Printer Frank Palmer
at the Government Printing Office in
Washington. The Tribune shows that
during the civil war compositors in that
office were paid $4 per day. These
wages continued until 1878 , when the
daily stipend was changed to $3.20 and
continued at that rate up to the present
year. Bat neither the bookbinders ,
pressmen nor compositors ever got the
taste of the $4 per day out of their
mouths. Every year they have applied
to Congress for legislation to reestablish
the $4 rate. Every year they have been
defeated , down to two years ago , when
the rate was restored as to pressmen.
This , the Tribune says , encouraged all
the employees in the Government Print
ing Office to renewed importunity for
similar legislation. Therefore a lobbyist
was secured. His influence with cer
tain senators and congressmen who had
expressed a desire , with truly generous
altruism , to aid the printers in getting
through Congress a bill to restore the
$4 a day salary was potent. It is inti
mated that this potency came from a
"divide" which was demanded by the
generous lawmakers who were about to
make an appropriation of other people's
money for the purpose of getting poli
tical influence among members of the
Typographical Union throughout the
United States.
The Columbia branch of the Typo
graphical Union at Washington , D. C. ,
unanimously passed a resolution , the
CONSERVATIVE is led to believe , which
pledged each printer to pay to a certain
committee of influential members of the
union the money value of their first
two weeks' pay after July 1 , 1899.
At the advanced rate of $4 a day , this
amounted to $48 for each one during the
first two weeks of
Forty-elfjht Dollar * .
the present fiscal
year. The business committee thus
organized for the purpose of looting the
public treasury consisted of (1) ( ) Oscar
J. Ricketts , a smooth republican , who
acts as private secretary to Public Printer
Palmer and who is held to be on the
"inside" of all Government Printing
Office contracts , deals and possible
profits. (2) ( ) President Jones of the
Typographical Union is Ricketts' right-
hand man and pliant tool. He heads
the local printers' union in Washington ,
and is foreman of a piece division in the
office. Jones has a dolioiously loyal
record when it comes to larceny within
the limits of the law. (8) ( ) J. 0. Clifford ,
paymaster of the Government Printing
Office , is the third member of this
boodling combine. Ho is noted mainly
for a penchant for pretty bindery and
feeder girls , and also for a certain reck
lessness in overpaying discharged com-
positors. (4) ( ) "Colonel" Ramsey , fore
man of the specification division of the
Government Printing Office , who has a
war record of some vagueness , coupled
with a voracity for money , completes
the committee ; although the "Hon. "
Mr. Leach , he of the swelled head , fore
man of the Third Division in the Gov
ernment Printing Office , could , if he
would , give some interesting testimony
n this case.
These patriotic employees of our com
mon country devised and engineered the
bill that passed to restore on July 1 ,
1899 , the $4 a day wages in the Govern
ment Printing Office. But before that
enactment , every compositor and every
Bookbinder in the Government Printing
Office was compelled , whether he wished
or not , to give his personal note for $48.
Mr. Ricketts attended to securing auto
graphs to these promises-to-pay. Having
been secured , these notes were held over
the heads of the members of the Typo
graphical Union with the intention that
if any failed to pay $48 on the maturity
of the notes their situations in the gov
ernment employment would be sacri
ficed. In other words , Ricketts ( who is
in deed and in fact the Public Printer )
would have discharged any offender who
failed to meet his paper.
The foregoing is a brief synopsis of
what THE CONSERVATIVE believes to be
an organized raid with the intent to
commit larceny within the limits of the
law. According to the Tribune , the
robbery is in perpetuity , or until the
law authorizing it shall have been re
pealed. It costs the taxpayers of the
United States $350,000 a year. It pays
the printers and bookbinders each $252
annually more than they received under
the old scale of wages. The loyal lobby
ists make at least $50,000 as there are
nearly fifteen hundred persons affected
by the increased pay. Beside this in
crease of pay they are by the statute
each given thirty days' vacation with
pay. The Tribune hints , however , that
some of the printers and bookbinders
are refusing to pay their notes to the
lobbyists. Through this disaffection ,
the whole scheme of plunder organized
by Ricketts and carried through by men
drawing salaries from the taxpayers of
the republic , has been exposed.
It is possible that all Americans who
denounce this great larceny may be
called "disloyal" by those who support
the McKiuley administration in all its
follies , extravagances and corruptions.
Beside the men who organized and
successfully carried out this strong
grand larceny Alger is a saint , a patriot ,
an angel with white wings and an im
maculate biography.
WHAT MAKES INGERSOLLS ?
Many good pietists wonder what
makes Ingersolls. Ingersollism may be
defined as emotional rebellion against
theological ignorance and ecclesiostica
) rutality. Not Ingorsolls but ecclesias-
ics make theology disgusting. It is
such disgusting sayings as the following
that create "rebellion against God"
and fill the ranks of infidelity. A man
nnst bo false to everything noble in
lim ; "the spirit of God must have gone
out of him , " if ho does not rebel and
disown such religion as is being preached
on the death of Ingersoll. At Douglas ,
Mass. , a "follower of Jesus" illuminated
; he minds of 700 people with this beast-
y infidelity :
"Folks become rich by bargaining
with the devil. They sell their souls to
lini ; he gives them their wealth , and
they go to hell forever to pay for it.
The devil can set a trap right under
your nose and you will nibble and bite
md swallow the bait whole , and he'll
damn you forever , in consideration of
greenbacks.
"Thousands of young men are looking
'or their fathers to die , so they will got
the cash. "
"Christ said , 'It is easier for a camel
; o go through a needle's eye than for a
rich man to enter Heaven. ' He got his
illustration from a narrow gate through
which a camel could go if his pack was
unloaded. So a rich man can enter
Heaven , but he will have to get down
on his knees , unload his plunder , and
wiggle through.
"Young men can't preach the gospel
because the church won't give them a
license. You don't need any license.
Get a pine box and preach in the streets.
I know a man who lived with his family
on $85 a year , but he saved hundreds of
souls. Jesus Christ and two potatoes
beat the devil and any feast ever
heard of.
"When I was at school in Middletown
the devil led me into a mountain in the
same manner he did Christ. He offered
me riches , but I said , 'You old black ,
dirty , greasy devil , I am going to preach
Jesus Christ's gospel. ' He tried to dis
suade me and said , 'You'll have to live
on donation grub and sleep in parson
ages. ' I have been preaching 28 years
now and nothing can induce me to
stop.
"When I was dying of yellow fever at
Aspinwall , a few years ago , my soul
went to Heaven. The Lord said , 'Won't
you go back and preach the gospel ? ' I
replied , 'This is a nice place and I want
to stay. ' I had my choice , but after I
had looked the Lord in the face I decided
to come back , and here I am.
"Ministers will have to preach hell ergo
go to hell.
"Morality will keep you out of jail ,
but holiness will keep you out of hell.
"Rich men will bo temperance advo
cates when they get to hell. They'll
want the water to quench the fire.
"Most of preachers talk to please. I
could bo popular if I did not preach
holiness. " A CONSERVATIVE.