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yet the ordinary games of chance arc innocent
amusement in comparison with the greater
games played where cliques, corners and false
rumors affect the market and drive prices up
or down to suit the purpose of those in control
No one will undertake to defend gambling
from a moral or an economic standpoint, hut
why do the crusaders exhaust their energy upon
the petty offenders and remain silent in the
presence of big gamblers who, besides bring
ing ruin to thousands, lend a sort of re
spectability to schemes for obtaining something
for nothing?
The total amount of money lost at the card
table, the wheel of fortune and other games
which are declared to be illegal is insignificant
in comparison with the amount lost in specula
tion on the boards of trade and stock exchanges.
Then, too, in small gambling the parties to the
games and their immediate families are usually
the only ones pecuniarily affected, while specu
lation upon the market injures the producers,
consumers and legitimate dealers who try to
conduct their business honestly and who them
selves do not deal in futures or options.
If the ministers who discourse eloquently
on sin in the slums of the cities will arraign
the speculating pew holders, they will find it
easier to cure the more hideous but less harm
ful kinds of gambling.
If the educators who have faith in the power
of public opinion to remedy evil will endeavor
to create a sentiment against gambling in stocks
and grain and produce, they will find it easier
,.,to prevent gambling among their students,
w The mania for making a fortune in short order
''is corrupting societyand undermining the bus
iness integrity as well as the morality of many
communities.
A Bad Symptom.
The Cleveland Leader in a recent issue con
fined an editorial which must have grated
upon the sensibilities of such of its readers as
believe in American principles.- It said:
One need not be suspected of the slightest
leaning toward any form of hereditary govern
ment if he admits freely that many monarchies
are far better governed than mosfof the republics
of South America. The conditions which are
chronic in countries like Venezuela and the United
States of Colombia are a reproach to the name of
democracy. They burlesque free institutions.
It is a bad symptom when a great daily
offers a gratutious insult to the republics of
South America in order to show its respect for
a monarchy. The first part of the item is a
very lame apology for what follows and instead
of relieving the editor from suspicion shows
that he was conscious that his words if prop
erly construed would prove him to be. a sympa
thizer with the European idea of government.
The Worm Turns.
The testimony of J. M. Langley of the
Merchants Association of New York before
the Industrial commission ?vould indicate that
the New York merchants are getting a taste of
tbe corporate domination which they seemed
willing to support so long as people in other
parte of the country were the victims. It looks
The Commoner
as if the worm is about to turn. . Accord
ing to a press dispatch he said:
The railroads aro a power that amount
to arbitrary taxation ard in the mak
ing of these classifications, which really amount
to rate-making, the merchants have no representa
tion. The changes, he said, In the territory south
o': the Ohio and east of tho Mississippi, amounted
tu an advance of about two-thirds in 200 items of
classification and a complaint ho had made was
dismissed by the road as too genoral in spite of
the wholesale naturo of tho advance. He cites a
large number of instances of alleged discrimina
tion between carload and less than carload rates
vhich he claimed to be unjustifiable.
He referred to the system of inspection of
freight at transfer points by inspectors employed
by the roads and railroad associations, and
charges that rates aro often cut by the inspectors
"looking tho other way" in inspecting freight for
the large and more powerful shippers. This right
to open freight consignments, the witness said,
was assumed by the road and the merchants did
not object. Objection, he stated, would not inure
to. their interests.
It is possible that discrimination may be
come so intolerable that tho New York mer
chants will be forced to cast in their lot with
those who believe in compelling corporations
to treat the publio fairly.
W
When Harmony is Possible.
There is no word more pleasant to tho ear
than "harmony," there is no condition more de
lightful to contemplate or to enjoy than "har
mony"; and there is no phrase more shamefully
abused than "harmony."
Just now BomQ.mon who wore formerly
democrats are pleading loudly for "harmony"
and they offer to deliver their particular and
peculiar brand of "harmony" post paid to any
part of the countiy west and south preferred.
Their promises and guarantees read like the
advertisement of a sorceresB. "Estranged
friends reconciled, waning love revived, obsta
cles to reunion removed, lost property found
and a happy and prosperous life ensured." "
This is but a partial catalogue of the good
things held out by the sooth-sayers who ply
their avocation imder the guise of reorganizers.
No one should be deceived by this pre
tended desire for harmony. No process has
ever been discovered for welding together into
one harmonious party men who differ in con
viction and desire the triumph of opposite prin
ciples. There can be no difference of opinion
among intelligent and honest men as to the
basis of real or permanent harmony.
In Webster's dictionary harmony is defined
as "concord and agreement in facts, opinions,
manners, interests, etc." This is the only foun
dation upon which useful or enduring har
mony can rest.
There was harmony in the democratic party
until 1892. In that year Mr. Cleveland ran
for president upon a platform which was clear
and definite on the tariff question, but ambigu
ous on the money question. One part of the
platform was emphasized in the east and an
other part in the south, while in the west the
democrats were advised by the democratic na
tional committee to vote the populist ticket in
order to defeat tho republican electors in states
where the democrats were known to be in tho
minority. Following theso instructions the
democrats helped to carry Kansas, Colorado,
Idaho and Nevada for the populist candidates
and almost carried the state of Nebraska.
When Mr. Cleveland took his seat he sur
rounded himself with a cabinet composed of
men who, on the money question, dissented
from tho views of the majority of the demo
crats who voted for him. Instead of calling
Congress together to consider the tariff ques
tion which had been made the paramount issue
and about which nearly all democrats agreed,he
waited until summer and then convened con
gress in extraordinary session to consider a
financial measure proposed by Senator John
Sherman a year before. This measure was
forced through congress by a disgraceful use
of patronage, and received the support of a
larger percentage of the republican congress
men than of the democratic congressmen. Soon
afterwards a bill was passed tocoin the seignor
agc a bill which was supported by a majority
of tho democrats and opposed by a majority
of the republicans. Ir. Cleveland vetoed this
bill at the demand of Now York financiers.
A little later he made a contract with tho
Rothschild-Morgan syndicate for the sale of
gold bonds and then asked Congress to ratify
tho contract, but a democratic congress re
fused to do it. Then came the election of 1894
which gave the republicans a majority of over
one hundred and forty in Congress. To under
stand the change which took place in two years
,(and that, too before the party standard was
placed "in unfamiliar, bands," as Mr. Cleveland
would say) it is only necessary to remember
that the democrats had a majority of ninety
two in the preceding Congress. In this new
Congress, elected in '94, New York had only
six democrats, Pennsylvania two, Ohio two,
Illinois one, and Indiana none.
At that election the republicans carried
eleven of the fifteen districts of Missouri and
Mr.'IIill was defeated for Governor in New
York by 150,108.
Of the twenty-nine senators whose terms
began the following March eighteen were re
publicans, ten were democrats and one a popu
list. ' In the spring of 1895 it became apparent
that the next national convention would have
to deal with the money question. On April
13, Mr. Cleveland wrote a letter to a Sound
Money League in Chicago defending his own
financial views and opposing those which ho
knew to be entertained by a majority of his
party. Near the conclusion of the letter he
said: "Disguise it as we may, the line of bat
tle is drawn between tho forces of safe currency
and those of silver monometallism." The fol
lowing month, Mr. Carlisle, then secretary of
the treasury, went to Memphis and attempted
to organize the southern democracy in support
of the president's position.
In June of that year the democrats who fa
vored bimetallism sent delegates to a meeting
at Memphis arid at that ''meeting the National
Silver Committee was appointed. Then fol-
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