Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-11-20
ension Claim.
Cleveland at Columbus.

The following is taken from the ad-
dress Of Ex-President Cleveland at the
Thurman banquet last week:
~ find no fault with the aecumula-
tion Of wealth, and am glad to see en-
ergy and enterprise receive their fair re-
ward. But believe that our govern
ment, in its natural integrity, is exactly
suited to the frugal and economical
people; and believe it is safest in the
hands of those who have been made
strong and self-reliant in their citizen
ship, by self-denial and by the sur
roundings of an enforced economy.
Thrift and careful watchfulness of ex-
penditure among the people tend to se-
cure a thrifty government; and cheap
and careful living on the part of indi-
viduals ought to enforce economy in
the public expenditures.
when, therefore, men in high pla-
ces of trust, charged with the RESPONSE
bility of making and executing our laws
not only condemn but fippantly deride
cheapness and economy within the
homes of our people, and when the ex-
penditures of the government are reck-
less and wasteful, we may be sure that
something is wrong with us, and that q
condition exists which calls for vigor-
GUS and resentful defense of American
ism, by every man worthy to be called
an American citizen.
when the promoter of party meas
ure which invades every home in the
land with higher prices, declares that
cheap and nasty go together and this
whole system of cheap things is badge
of poverty; for cheap merchandise
means cheap men, and cheap men
mean cheap country we Indignantly
repudiate such an Interpretation of
American sentiment. And when anoth-
er one, high in party councils, who has
become notorious as the advocate of q
contrivance to perpetuate partisan SUI
Fpremacy by outrageous interference
with the suffrage, announces that the
cry for cheapness is un-American,' we
scornfully reply that his speech does
not indicate the slightest conception of
true Americanism.
The people have been taught for one
hundred years that in the distribution
of benefits their government should be
administered with equality and justice.
They had learned that wealth was not
indispensable to respectability, and that
1t did not entitle its possessors to espe-
cial governmental favors. Humble
men with scanty incomes had been en-
couraged by the influence and the spirit
of our institutions to practice economy
and fragality, to the end that they
might enjoy to the utmost the reward
of their toll. The influence of the
American home was still about them.
In their simplicity they knew nothing
of new dispensation which made
cheapness disreputable, and they still
loved the cheap Goals of Lincoln and
Garfield, and hundreds of their coun.
| trymen whom they held in veneration
And thus these unsophisticated Ameri-
cans, unconscious of their wrong doing
demanded the redemption of party
pledges and clamored for cheapness, in
order that they might provide the nee
essaries and comforts of life for them
selves and their families at the lowest
possible cost.
"The leaders of the party, which was
caught in the act of robbery and which
was arraigned by the people for viola
tion of its trust, were forced by their
sad predicament to desperate expedi-
ent. To attempt to reverse the current
of true Americanism and discredit the
most honorable sentiments belonging
to American manhood, were the dis
graceful tasks of those who insulted our
people by the announcement of the
doctrine that to desire cheapness was to
love nastiness, and to practice economy