The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-05-14
THE NATIONALS.

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have been entirely satisfactory TO many
of those who do not belong to the party.
This is probably not unnatural. Those
who failed 70 control 1t intimate that 1t
was boisterous, riotous, idiotic concern.
1t is sometimes easier to condemn than to
comprehend an important movement. a
party which polled $4,000 votes in SIM
gle state last year, and is perfecting Its
organization throughout the Union,
may not be- easily sneered down or rldi-
culed out of existence. Those who AZ
tempt it are repeating the mistake made
by the old parties, when similar lnchoate
and crude elements were christalyzlng
into what afterwards became the all
powerful Republican party. New par
ties are apt to have among their pioneers
some visionsries and uneasy folk, with q
sprinkling of demagogues, but the very
fact that they are devoted to one idea,
and that ides desire TO right base
wrongs perpetrated upon well-nigh
helpless but suffering people, makes them
formidable.
We have heretofore noted the ''ideas"
taught by the new National Party. One
Of them is the National bank system, and
the substitution of Treasury notes for
| National bank bills. The Nationals fall
to see the necessity of paying the Ma.
tional banks such heavy premiums and
giving them such enormous privileges as
they now have Tor doing what the Gov
eminent can do directly at trlhing eI-
pense. They maintain that the Consti-
tuition requires the General Govern.
ment to provide currency for the coun-
try, and that it is neither economical nor
constitutional to hire mOneyed corpora
tious TO do the work. 1t is easy to sheer
at this proposition and call 1t green
back delusion," but if the national bank
system were not already IN existence, no
sane man in America would dream OF
creating it to do what the General Gov
eminent can do vastly more chesply and
quite as well. Everybody knows that
the greenback is the best paper currency
the country ever had.
The Nationals protest against the Gov
eminent giving any class Of creditors the
preference over any other, and insist
that silver shall occupy its old place IN
the monetary system of the country on
an equal footing with gold. They de-
mand the abolition of useless offices, that
the public lands shall be regarded as the
property of the people and net given to
corporations, and that all private pro.
perty shall bear its fair share Of taxation.
They call for the establishment of postal
savings banks, the education Of labor, and
an adjustment Of the tariff to the
actual needs Of the industry Of
the country and those OF the Govern
ment. It's obvious tba. their ideas are
neither revolutionary nor startling.
They are essentially the ,ane the great
body of Democrats in the country hold
and maintain. But back of these ex-
pressions there are two elemental factors
of this movement which deserve especial
attention, The first of these is & pro-
found distrust of both the old political
organizations; the second IS q profound
lear Of the aggressIons and tyranny Of
gigantic corporations. 1t is easy to see
how and why people ell over the country
are sick Of sc-called "politics,"
and dlstrust political mana
gers as class. The Repub-
lican party to-day is an organized
hypocrisy snd sham, and the frauds its
leaders have been guilty Of, the protes-
sions they have made before elections to
break Immediately afterwards, the
swindling they have wInked at, and the
privileges and subsidies they have given
to railway and other corporations, have
disguised the people with political COM
bina.ions. Many Democrats have I'M
questionably shown themselves unworthy
of popular confidence BY betraying the
interests and trusts o! tho people and the
party owes it to itself to shelve some Of
the men who have made deal OF
noise and brought disgrace on the
organization by their selfish ambition
and chicanory. And the leaders Of
the party, in Congress and everywhere
else, should hold it rigidly down to the
level of the great interests and wants Of
the people, and make 1t the organ Of
popular sentiment and the instrument OF
tho public welfare. And there is no
question whatever that the public inter-
est requires the heading In of railway
and other corporations with restrictions
net now imposed upon them. This
country does no. exist for the sole benefit
of corporations and moDopolies. 1t is
nation of working people, and their
rights, interests, liberties and welfare are
paramount, ard must be protected and
promoted at whatever cost. At the bot
tom Of this National movement are these
elements, with which all true Democrats
must heartily sympsthize.
HoN. GARRISON n. POTTER, Of New
York, has introduced bill IN the House