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But What is the Remedy?
Tho Chicago Chronicle says that to a larger
oxtont than over before tho wealth of the country
is enlisted on tho side of tho republican party and
it oharges that this is due, in part, to tho fact
that tho republican party favors manufacturing
and other enterprises, and, in part, "to some re
cent doliveronccs by democrats which have been
construed as hostile to public and private credit."
The latter suggestion, taken in connection
with previous utterances of tho paper, justifies
tho inferonco that it refers to tho speeches made
in defense of tho Chicago and Kansas City plat
forms. Tho Chronicle itself has been inclined to
construe such speeches into an attack upon wealth,
whereas a distinction has always been made be
tween honest accumulations and money made by
illegal means. It is chief among the western ad
vocates of reorganization and is persistently using
its great influence to make tho democratic party
more like the republican party with a view to
winning back those former democrats who havo
been supporting tho republican tickets during re
cent years. Tho charges which tho Chronicle
has so often brought against tho Chicago plat
form, tho Kansas City platform and tho men who
defend those platforms arc wholly without found
ation. There is not a plank in either of those
platforms which can fairly bo construed as an at
tack upon jJi'oporty or upon those who accumu
lated money by legitimate methods, neither can
the speeches made in support of those platforms
bo so construed.
The democratic party and those who believe
in its policies are really the conservative element
of the country, They aro trying to protect life
and property and to advance the public welfare
by tho application of old, tried and well settled
principles; they would relievo that wealth which
is the reward of industry from tho odium cast
upon it by wealth which is tho result of exploita
tion or governmental favoritism.
There is no tenable middle ground between
the position occupied by tho republican party and
tho position ocoupiod by the democratic party.
Republican policies are all of a kind; they all vio
late tho doctrine of equal rights to all and special
privileges to none.
It is not a mere conincidonce that tho party
which in 1800 was willing to turn over tho fi
nances pf tho nation to tho financiers, was also
tho party which, in 1900, furnished nearly all
tho advocates of imperialism, a largo army, trusts,
subsidies, etc. Is it merely a coincidence that
the Chroniole, which in 1890 aided in the election
oi a republican prosidant, celebrated Mr. Mc
Kinlpy's second election by repudiating the posi
tion taken by tho democratic party on tho Phil
ippine question and tho financial question and by
adopting republican phraseology in protesting
against the use of harsh words in condemning in
dustrial combinations?
Tho democratic party cannot accept the repub
lican ppsition on one question and then make a
successful fight against the republican position on
other questions. In other words, the democratic
party must bo consistent and apply democratic
principles at all times and everywhere. It must
be tho exponent of popular rights and the friend
of the producing classes, or it will become the
tool of predatory wealth.
After discussing tho purpose of the republican
The Commoner.
party .to run the government for the benefit of
the few and after warning the republican leiders
that there is a limit to public endurance tho
Chronicle makes this significant prediction:
The democratic party is opposed to class privilege
as exemplified in protective tariffs and subsidies. It
has made an unsuccessful effort to eliminate the evil
from our government politics. It's failure in this re
spect under Mr. Cleveland is what gave rise to the
more radical movement under Mr. Bryan. If the
great conservative class of the republic, the men who
stand between the very rich and the very poor, and
who have twice saved the repuolican party from de
served defeat, shall at length revolt at the practices
which havo made republican triumph synonymous
with robbery and jobbery, we may bo sure that in
their wrath they will call for some remedy more radi
cal than any that has been proposed by the demo
cratic party of Cleveland of the democratic party of
Bryan.
It will be noticed that tariffs and subsidies are
the special privileges emphasized. What about
the other evils that demand attention?
In prophesying that radical measures will be
resorted to if conservative ones fail, the Chronicle
is simply judging the future by the past; but
what remedy docs it propose? Tho democratic
party must bo prepared to meet every emergency,
to combat every wrong, and to apply a remedy to
every disease which afflicts the body politic.
The democratic party declares that the Fili
pinos should bo given their independence and
then protected from outside interference as the
republics of Central and South America have been
protected. What other remedy is. there for im
perialism and militarism? The democratic party
has declared war on every form of private monop
oly. What other honest course can it pursue?
The democratic party is in favor of the green
back as against the bank note. How can those
democrats who favor a national bank currency,
issued by private corporations for private benefit,
oppose other special privileges of the same kind?
And what are such democrats doing to prevent
the conversion of five hundred millions of legal
tender silver dollars into subsidiary coin or to pro
tect the jury system from the assault that is being
. made upon it by government by injunction?
There is some encouragement in the fact that
a paper like the Chronicle admits the dangerous
tendencies of republican policies, even though it
has no plan for meeting those dangers. Having
discovered the disease it may now seek a remedy,
and when it does set out in earnest to find a rem
edy, it will find it in converting republicans to
democratic principles as set forth in the party's
latest platforms, rather than in the conversion of
the democratic party to republican ideas.
The Root of All Evil.
Rev. W. B. Wright, in a sermon recently de
livered at Buffalo, N. Y., discussed the dangers
which threaten our republic. After mentioning
the disinclination of many to take part in politi
cal affairs, the abuses of party organization, the
corruption of officials and the demoralizing in
fluence of tho war spirit, he condemned what he
called the "cult which the euphemism of today
has named 'the spirit of commercialism' but what
.Christ called 'the worship of Mammon,'" and
added:
I am not sure but this last includes the four
preceding dangers, as an acorn includes its oak.
Democracies, we aro told; are specially tempted
to seek money with excessive eagerness, because
where there is no recognized aristocracy the pos
session of great wealth offers to ambition tho same
prizes which in aristocratic nations are conferred
by birth. Calm and conservative thinkers view with
alarm the dangers with which the worship of money
threatens 113."
Dr. Wright is correct in emphasizing the
evils which come from the worship of Mammon.
This-is the tap-root of all the trouble; out of it
grow all the dangers enumerated. It is the over
weening desire to get rich that so absorbs the
attention of many that they have no time left for
the discharge of civic duties; it is the same thirst
for wealth which perverts party organizations,
corrupts officials and rushes nations into wars of
conquest. Experience, individual-and national,
confirms the truth of Holy Writ:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which
while some coveted after, they have erred -from the
faith and pierced themselves through with many sor
rows. W
Two years ago this month the war in the Phil
ippines was begun. During that time the United
States has sacrificed more than 3,500 soldiers
and expended upwards of $250,000,000 in money
in an attempt to show the Filipinos the benefits
of American rule, and incidentally to secure com
merce to the extent of about $10,000,000. Im
perialism comes high, but the promotors have
nothing to lose as long as the people pay the ex
penses and offer their sons' for sacrifice.
TiAashington's Nam.
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By Howard S. Taylor.
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Washington's Day! and our memories dwell51'
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On the book of the Dictured nast:
The fearless Congress; the liberty bell;
The wacer of battle at last:
The buff-and-blue in a thin, thin line
As it fronted the tyrant George;
The struggle from Boston to Brandy wine;
The winter at Valley Forge;
The Yorktown siege and the deathless fame
That settled forever on Washington's name!
Washington's name! Time only endears
That name to our patriot pride;
He draws our hearts through a hundred years
As the moon draws upward the tide!
And we thank our God for the plan
Of a providence, strange and great,
That brought together the Time and the Man
In a swinging pivot of fate
That turned and turned till liberty came
'And the whole world thrilled with Washington's
name!
He knew no section, he served no class,
No furtive and foreign control;
And felt-shod plunder could find no nass.
To the tall Virginian Y$ soul! ' "'
True to his trust, in deed and in word,
He spurned the bribe of a crown
For freedom he lifted his valiant sword,
For freedom he laid it down;
For freedom he ruled till freedom became
An answering echo to Washington's name!
The years have sped! We stand at the gate
Of a century new and strange;
We know we are reaching a crisis of fate
In the drift of a mighty change;
But we vow to heaven that no hand shall fix
A bound to the hope we hold,
And we drink from the vintage of Seven tvsSix
A toast to the days of old!
Confusion to Tories! Confusion and shame! "
And honor, eternal, to Washington's name!
Judge not tho workings of his brain
And of his heart thou canst not see; ;; ,
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain, 7' ;
In God's pure sight may only be HJ?
A scar, brought from some well-won -field&
Whetc thou wouldst only faint and yield'.'-
Adelaide A. Proctor,-
I
