New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-07
DENNIS KEARNEY.

1t is not matter of great public Importance
that Dennis Kearney, of California, is BRAIN
less blackguard With some flashes of w.t.
which the average truckman of New-YOrk
could have matched or surpassed, and with an
unlimited but very unintelligent use Of
epithets, Kearney wasted one or two hours of
time for himself and for an audience IN Bos-
ton, without expressing single idea-unleSs
it be that the workngmen Of Massachusetts,,
if they are to win at all, must "pOOl all
tissues into a single pot !" that is to say,
translating Kearney into English, must care
nothing for ideas, principles, or objects, ex-
cept to get power. Several parties have been
started with the same aim. Not one, up to
this time, has been frank enough to own that
it cared for nothing except success, and yet
strong enough TO achieve success. IL Mr.
Kearney can "Organze victory" for the men
who have neither thoughts nor purposes, he can
do new thing in politics. There are men in
this country who can give reason for hating
the accumulation of capital in the hands of
those who have the sense to save it. But
Dennis Kearney is not one of them. There
are men who can give a reason for believing
that a bondhOder who draws interest Is less
worthy of consideration than a worker who
makes something for human use. But Kearney
gives no reasons. He merely gives expression
TO the blind and brutal hatred of the men
who have saved nothing for the men who have
saved something. lie hates intensely, as they
do. He reasons not at all, and therein repre-
sents them all the better.
What picture it would make, il ono could
only express to the eye the notions Of Kear-
ney and the ideas of the Socialists who have
besieged Mr.. Hewtt's committed Though
Kearney had ample time, and knew that he
was to speak in Faneuil Hall in the name Of
the workingmen of California, he was not
able to give, and did not try TO give, any roa-
son for the faith that is in him. He hurled
all the epithets in the English language at
men who have any money, but said not a
word to justify the feeling of the tramp
toward the taxpayer That the tramp hates
everybody who has any property OF any kind,
was sufficiently known without any speech
from Mr.. Kearney. What excuse anybody
who is not tramp has for hating anybody
who owns land, or railroad stock, or bank
stock, or bonds, it does not seem convenient
to Mr.. Kearney to explain but he gives vent
TO the hatred nevertheless and in the most
coarse, vulgar. brutal and unreasoning way.
Precisely there is the most ugly fact in all
this business; the hatred exists and is in
tense, and is shared by millions of men better
than Kearney, and yet neither Kearney nor
any individual of the millions has q reason
for it which he daTes to expose TO broad day
light.
If any journal tries TO tell Mr.. Kearney and
his admirers what is the matter with them.
there will certainly be a loud Outcry, and the
daring journal will be named as having been
bribed by capitalists. Yet the obvious truth
is that men who have wasted their earnings
in drinking beer, or in any other way, envy the
men who have not wasted earnings. APP
parently Mr.. Kearney wastes more money in
making foolish political speeches than in
drinking beer, but what does it matter APP
parently the beer-drinker is q little the wiser
of the two. The kernel of the matter with
both is that somebody has saved something,
and is therefore hated. AS to the Chinese,
who are hated by men of the Kearney sort
only less than the bOndholders, they are par
ticularly distinguished for their economical
and thrifty disposition, and the only excuse
Kearney gives for hating them is that they
are willing to live more economically than the
persons styled by him "white men," But the
world will never owe to "hoodlums" or black
guards as much as it owes to the patient, en-
during and thrifty children of the Flowery
Kingdom.
On the whole, it would be a good thing if
this country could have more speeches from
men like Kearney. 1t would soon learn to
despise both the speeches and the half-rascally,
half-brutal feelings to which they appeal.
But person like Butler, appealing to the very
same feelings, and using many OF the same
epithets, can still 80 put the hoOdlum under
cover that there ara decent men in Massachu-
sets who would like to make him Governor.