'Cbc Conservative.
abnormal that it causes him to make
the unfortunate
. , , * , , .
mistake of believ
ing that the workingmen of the coun
try are chaffing with impatience to vote
for him and that they can bo kept from
so doing only by the use of forceful
and coercive measures. Mr. Bryan is
\ altogether too confident of the effect
iveness of his kind of campaigning.
Perhaps after a few more unsuccessful
"battles" Mr. Bryan will know that the
sympathy and support of those who
labor cannot bo obtained by preaching
the doctrine of hostility , hatred and
envy between these who employ and the
employed. The intelligent workingmen -
men know that there is a mutuality of
interest between themselves and their
employer. They realize that they can
prosper only as their employer prospers ;
that it is impossible for them to enrich
themselves and at the same time to im
poverish those who pay them wages.
They are conscious of the fact that their
interests can be best promoted by aid
ing to promote the interests of the in
dustries in which they are employed.
They are well aware that when politi
cians interfere in business and threaten
its destruction , they will be the first
to suffer by being left in idleness.
So it is quite natural and reasonable
that in the campaign this year the laboring -
ing men of the
llHtru t of liryiiu. , , , ,
country should ar
ray themselves upon the side of those who
are carrying on the great industries and
against the wordy demagogues who
would destroy these industries. ' They
doubt the genuineness of the friendship
that would give them words instead of
work ; that would take from them the
employment they have and secure none
in return. They doubt whetker the
perennial presidential aspirant who so
glibly talks in their behalf is really and
'truly ' their friend. They marvel at the
wealth he has accumulated during the
last four years until today he stands as
one among the well-to-do of his home
city , and this too without the expendi
ture of a single dollar in the employ
ment of labor. The workingmen , who
think , know that they and their fami
lies are better clothed and better fed
when employed than when in idleness.
When these workingmen consider the
manner in which their self-appointed
protector acquired his worldly goods
they wonder and speculate as to who is
in truth , their best friend , those who
build and operate factories and pay
good wages or this man who never
turned a wheel or built a factory but
has used his every energy to destroy
and tear down those which others have
built , whose ambition is to be a de
stroyer rather than a builder , the
prophet and forerunner of calamity
rather than the emissary of prosperity.
They conclude that the builder and nol
thex destroyer is their , friend , Hence
we , find them working on the aide of in
dustry and thrift and against idleness
and poverty bnt it is this co-operation
hat Mr. Bryan says is brought about
by coercion. In short he calls this en-
ightened selfishness coercion.
WILLIAM L. WILSON.
Nothing could be better adapted to
mpress upon the serious part of the Am
erican public the decay of the democra-
; io party than the death of William L.
Wilson , coming as it does in the midst
of the manifestations of the cheapness
and shallowness of the demagogue whom
an ironical fate has permitted to put
liimself forward as the representative
and organ of that historic organization.
No two men could be , as public men ,
more exactly antipodean than William
L. Wilson and William J. Bryan.
It would not be possible to mention a
man who more completely and creditably
represented the best type of public men
who have been developed in the south
by the conditions following the civil war
than the chairman of the ways and
means committee in the tariff
reform congress. In the north the
standard of statesmanship was by no
means so much lowered as in the
south by the results of the war. In the
south one result was to displace the
members of the slave-holding aristoc
racy , except such of them as hung on
by mere dint of survivorship , and even
of these many tragically closed their
political careers before the end of their
natural lives. This was a pity because
they were succeeded by a less able and
a less honest class of men. Before the
war the south owed a great part of its
disproportionate ascendency in the
national councils to the fact that poli
tics were much more industriously cul
tivated at the south than at the north ,
and absorbed much more of the energy
and ambition of the population. More
over , among the old school of southern
politicians , there was very little of the
commercial spirit which has crept into
our recent politics , and very few cases
of pecuniary scandal. In this respect
there has been a distinct falling off in
southern politics and in other respects
also. It is true that Mr. Wilson was
born and bred in a part of the south in
which the traditions of the slave hold
ing aristocracy had not taken much root.
Bnt he was a good enough southerner to
have served through the war in the con
federate army , and when , fifteen years
after its close , he entered public life , it
was recognized that one such man was a
fair offset , as a representative of the
"New South , " for a good many of the
"scalawags" who had been thrown to
the surface by the social disturbances of
their section. The first national recog
nition of the importance of Mr. Wilson
in spite of his useful and even brilliant
previous service in congress , was com
manded by his speech as the presiding
officer of the democratic convention o :
1892. That speech was really a "key
note" of the campaign which followed it ,
and gave precision as well as vigor to
the platform it amplified. To oompaie
it with the tawdry rhetoric by which
Mr. Bryan undertook , four years later ,
to "save the faces" of the delegates
who had assembled to demand a viola
tion of public and private faith is to
measure the degeneration which the
party had undergone in the interval.
And , as chairman of- ways and means in
the ensuing congress , the author of the
speech did his utmost to make it good.
He labored , with uuweariable energy ,
ample knowledge , and clear and forcible
speech , to redeem the promises of the
party. And when these promises were
broken by "the senators from Have-
meyer , " by the combination of greed
and perfidy that wrecked the democratic
party and began the history of its de
cline , his grief and indignation rose to
the height of genuine eloquence and
expressed memorably what every re
former felt.
It id to bo hoped and to be believed
that the time may come again when a
Wilson and not a Bryan will bo the
representative of the reclaimed demo
cratic party. It is of consequence to
every American citizen of whichever
party that the opposition to it may bo
strong and respectable , and that party
divisions shall not be made unless some
thing plausible shall be pleadable on
each side. But in the meantime the
death of the presiding officer of the
democratic convention of 1802 and
chairman of ways and means in the
fifty-third congress strongly emphasizes
the present degradation of the demo
cratic party. New York Times.
In one of his recent
CROKANISM.
cent outbreaks the
gnnless warrior and matchless mega
phone declared :
"I cannot believe that the American
people , intelligent and patriotic , can give
their support to policies for which the
republican party now stands. "
The American people will not support
all the republican policies but they will
vote for republican candidates this year
as a fitting and just rebuke to
"Orokanism. "
PROPHETS.The spectacle of
FALSE PROPHETS.
Oarl Sohurz and
Eliot F. Shepard speaking from the
same platform with Colonels Oroker and
Bryan , suggests the fulfillment of the
prophecy : "For false prophets shall
rise , and shall show signs and wonders ,
to seduce , if it were possible , even the
elect. " The Savior when he uttered
these words must have looked ahead and ,
with prophetic foresight , anticipated the
coming of Bryan and the credulity of
Sohurz and Shepurd.
