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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1899)
- - * . . .LJt 8 The Conservative. INTKGIUTY. [ Written for TIIK COXSKIIVATIVK by A. B. Fnrquhnr , of York , Ponns.vlvnnia. ] I nin earnestly of the opinion tlinfc nothing , even in politics , that is not identified with righteousness , can attain a lasting success When we oppose im perialism , protectionism , unsound cur rency , or lavish public expenditure , it ought to bo because they are opposed to the principles of fair dealing between man and man , and the same motive ought , to penetrate every political view we entertain and guide us in every po litical act. On nil points of national policy our aim should be to apply a higher and sounder morality , and so en list under a standard which though "crushed to earth will rise again. " We must strive for right and fair dealing ; not for the cause that is likely to suc ceed to-morrow but for the cause that is sureto succeed permanontly. We may well labor with a minority for a time , being secure of a majority here after. There has never been such op portunity as now for the embodiment of integrity in politics , and the very name of sound money expresses the form of it most needful to the time while symbol ising all the rest. Our nature is spirit ual , but all the right and sacredness of our relations are to be earned out through matter. Money , though in it self essentially material , calls on the ut most of our virtue in private relation erin in public. But how stands the case with regard to this fundamental question of public morals this most vitally important of political issues ? The battle for honest money has often been said to be already won , and yet it is only partially won. As seriously as ever the cause needs the most strenuous efforts of its champions , so long as the law continues to permit any secretary of the treasury ( if sup ported by the president ) to establish the silver unit of value at his pleasure so long as a further coinage of silver dollars lars , in addition to the 400,000,000 al ready uselessly and wastefully coined , can be bought , or rushed or sneaked through congress so long as conspic uous statesmen call maintenance of the nation's credit and gold standard by the cowardly nickname of "preserving the parity of the two metals. " The present republican administration , called to power by the sound money sentiment what will it do in presence of this need ? I have little hope that it will do any thing. The administration can afford to dodge the question , and therefore will. The dominant party in congress can dodge the question , and therefore will. One of the most unfortunate con sequences of the present moral bank ruptcy of the donocratic party is that the republicans feel assured of the sxip- port of the sound money sentiment of the country regardless of what they do , and exempt from all obligation to win a continuance of that support by doing anything to deserve it. They argue that any positive eifort in any direction is bound to raise enemies , and it is policy to make no such positive effort so long as they know that supporters will not bo converted into opponents by simply de clining such a duty. Just that situation , so delightful to the politician , the ad ministration and its party now occupy ; to all. appearance consenting that their record of solid service for the cause that won them victory and office shall re main a blank. Yet the worst evils of unbridled protectionism are trifling in comparison with a vitiated currency which pollutes the very source of na tional honor and good faith. Imperial ism is but superficial , while a rotten money system corrupts a country to the core. core.Nor Nor is the outlook less dismal when we turn from nation to state in our re view of this triumphant party. No where has it firmer hold of power , or is faith in it deeper seated , than in Penn sylvania. And yet it is just here that a plurality of voters , reaching well into six figures , has enthusiastically elevated to the governor's chair a man best known by his subserviency to an un scrupulous boss ; and just here that two- thirds of the republican legislators , borne on by the same party current , have now nominated that boss to fill again the high position his vices dis graced. Such an honor , to a man in the "gates ajar" of the penitentiary , seems like either a grim Mephistophelean jest , or the lowest abyss of all American pol itics. It was our state's capitol that so lately resounded to the sycophant praises of this precious leader , where his biogra phy was luridly portrayed , where a long line of his ancestors was brought oiit to endow him , each with his several gift , where every favorite epithet of adula tion ' ' brilliant" ' 'matchless' ' ' ' ' ' , , daring' , and a hundred more wore dropped upon him like a shower of gold and all swept us like a flood until we noted that in this dazzling whirl of powers and vir tues the orators had not included the one plain "honest. " Would they not have spoken that word if they had dared ? Most assuredly. Knowing that nothing can so win the fixed regard of the people as integrity , no charm would they use so .gladly if they could. Yet now , like unhappy Cassim in the den of forty thieves , they were without the one vital . This veritable pass-word. paral ysis , which , whatever fools may be painted solons or hypocrites saints , bars his most servile follower from showing a knave as honest , here. seemed as though God , present in oven their dark souls , was testifying his silent self and work. But when there is mention of our true leaders , how different the story ! First to the lips rises "honest , " the fore most of virtues , the rest following as they may find their place. Such a true leader , one whose integ rity will come to mind with his name , wo now seek in Pennsylvania. Away with the more adroit politician the one who can meet the cunning republican boss on his own ground , and contest with him at his own game. Send us his polar opposite the man whose contrasts with the Quay type are widest , bright est , clearest one who is true where he is false , lion where he is fox , mountain where he is hummock. Surely our leg islature can think of one such , even though its choice is confined to republi cans ; and we can hardljT expect this year an anti-republican senator from Pennsylvania , notwithstanding the flat tering delusions into which some demo crats have been beguiled by the wily enemy. It is an easy device of the Quay gamesters to hold the democratic minor ity as firm as the caricatured democratic mule , if they can , while they tire out the opposition under their own flag into finally uniting , if it may not be upon their own adored chieftain , at least upon some substitute who can be trusted to represent their kind of politics. To foil that device , the broadest and mor ally soundest , course is the one to follow join with the best republicans to choose the best republican for senator , and prove to the watching common wealth that democratic votes may con tribute to set a new fashion in such elec tions , and give the Keystone state at last a representation in the upper house of whom none of her sons need bo ashamed. If patriotism is not true enough and foresight not keen enough among the democrats representing our mighty state to guide them to this wise and benefi cent course , the onljr hope for state and nation is to form a now party not tram meled by the vices of the old , while freelj- appropriating what is best in each. I hope to call your attention again to this subject , which is too vast and momentous for the end of a letter already too long. Instead of cursing all who have worked , saved and accumulated wealth , how would it do for some of the popu- listic orators and editors of Nebraska to , themselves , go to work , stop wasting and begin saving ? After a few years of self-reliance and self-denial , by indus try , they might become worth self- damning as a part of "the money power. " The discussion of embalmed beef for army consumption as conducted by de baters Miles and Eagan will soon become a putrid reminiscence. Latest asser tions seem to indicate that some sort of chemical experimentation may possibly have been exercised on beef intended for the army of the United States in tropical campaigns.
