The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-03-11
a REFORM YEAR.
a General Review of the Trials and Tri
umphs of the Democracy.

Cieveland's term of office is near at
hand. 1t has been busy year and one
fraught with great consequences. The
manifold difficulties in the way of the
first Democratic Administration upon
a return of the party to political power
after lapse of quarter of century
can scarcely be appreciated by the
country. 1t only comprehends results.
Mr.. Cleveland himself was year ago
an unknown quantity. The country
knew what Governor Cleveland was;
of what President Cleveland would be
it knew nothing. That it believed in
him and trusted him was evidenced by
his election and installation as Presi-
dent. At the very threshold he was
confronted by two facts: that large
proportion of the Democratic party,
composed of ante-bellum material, eX-
pected him to resume administrative
power where Buchanan left off; that
! larger proportion, composed of the new
Democracy, expected him to establish
! his Administration on the basis of re-
form The frst-named element con-
tanned the old line politicians, the sec
ond 4 new generation of voters. Long
accustomed to feats of political leger-
demain and Injured to falSehood, the
politicians met the new Administra-
ton with the assumption that ante
election promises were void and that
now that professions of reform had
served their turn they would be cast
aside as useless.
Having vainly striven against fate
and Grover Cleveland, the corrupt ele-
ments of the country fastened to make
their peace with the new regime. Jay
Gould, the worst of the lot. was the
first to congratulate the new President.
Before the ink of the operator who an
nounced the recount in New York was
dry Jay Gould, controlling the ma
jority of the newspapers of New York.
the Western Union and the Associated
Press gave in his allegiance to the new
Government. Those combinations that
could not see their way sat down and
waited. They were led by their cor
rupt and venal press to expect an early
disruption of the Democratic party un-
der President Cleveland. They saw
his difficulties at once and waited an op-
portunity to take advantage of the first
split. Their hired organs fostered the
spirit of bitterness between the two fac
tions; encouraged disSensions, because
in the weakness of the Administration or
its total failure their interests might
survive unscathed. Their common
energies were devoted to an effort to
force the President from his reform
platform into the gutter of his pred
ecessOrS. 1t was to this end the dis
content was magnified and urged on
to open rebellion. When it became
apparent that the attempt to create a
diversion must fail, the disappoint-
ment of the jobberS was intense. As
day by day the President grew
stronger with his party as well as with
the country, and the success of the re-
form Government was inevitable, the
horde of rascals became alarmed and
desperate. The Administration mad
begun to reach out for them. The In
terror Department had begun to press
the Pacific railroads for their dues;
the Post-Ofiice Department had re-
fused to divide four hundred thousand
dollars SIS a subsidy to steamship lines
for carrying the mails; the Navy De-
partment had destroyed the jobber
Roach at a single blow and, finally,
the Department of Justice stepped in
and ordered the telephone monopoly
into court. At each successive step of
an honest Administration the jobbers
howled with rage. They have now
Joined forces in their hostility to the
Administration and the war has at last
openly begun.
The Land Office thieves are against
the reform Administration.
The Mormon gang of polygamists
are against the reform Administration
and are willing to move heaven and
earth for its overthrow.
The lottery swindlers are against the
reform Administration because it is
preparing to move Immediately upon
their works.
Finally, name any wicked and cor
r1Ipt combination, a corporation for an
illegal purpose, set of jobbers of
whatever character, the aiders and
abettors of the same, or those who
sympathize with them, and You will
find them opposing the reform Admin
iStratiOn of President Cleveland.
1t will not do to treat lightly the
combined influence of all these inter-
ests. For it is now evident that they
have in certain sense pooled their is
sues against honest government. They
represent millions, ten of millions and
hundreds of millions of dollars of cap
ital, real and watered stock. They are
in possession of franchises which are
principalities in resources and which
extend their corporate influences to the
remotest corners of the country
wherever wire is stretched or rail
laid. They own newspapers and con-
troll, to a great extent, the metropolitan
press. Their salaried agents swarm
about Washington and occupy seats in
both houses of Congress. If the COM
bination of jobbers embraced no polit-
ical interests they would be pOwerless
20 produce results. Their hue and cry
would fall upon the public ear like the
signing of mighty pines of the forest,
weird and unearthly, but harmless.
But these rings of monopoly and SUBJ
sidy and contract and polygamy and
jobbery of every kind have apparently
effected combination with the politi-
cal elements of hostility to President
Cleveland. During the past few weeks
the lieutenants and captains and COM
manders of the Blaine wing of the Re
publican party have been in close con-
sultation in Washington. They have
come in pairs, singly and in detach-
ments, to avoid the appearance of col
lusiOn. Their presence, however, has
not escaped the lynx-eyed correspond
ents, who have promptly announced
that the Blaine boom for the next
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