The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-01-14
THE MocKERY OF PUBLIC pRoBIrY

|
as a pastime and stood the Goddess OF
Liberty on her head for vulgar show.
The sarcasm of public opinion at such
times niggles the loftiest resolves of the
patriot, and jibes with the gleek OF
the burlesque his least unselfish and most
pralseworthy efforts. There are times
in the histories of all peoples
when harlequins are worshipped, dema-
gogues crowned and benefactors immo-
! lated.
Kansas is not less popular and well
known abroad for the two elements
which have in the past ordered her polIt-
| ical conservation-the old soldier and the
farmer-than for the brilliancy of one of
her sons, upon whom has been conferred
| the highest honor within the province of
the United States senate to bestow. The
unquestioned delight of Senator ingalls,
for eighteen years has been to champion
the claims Of one of these elements, and
to defend the cause Of the other. As
chairman of the pension committee he has
in the advocacy of all the advanced legis-
lation proposed for the pa riot in blue
roasted the opposition as none of his
compeers could, while in the interest of
the owners and delivers Of the free soil
of his adopted state he has never lost an
opportunity to courageously meet with
voice and vote his responsibilities, and
to meet them Just as the people of his
state would have had him meet them.
Yet, Notwithstanding these incontroverta-
bile facts, revolution of politics, brought
about as much by the delinquency of
the skies that would not rain as by the
overt acts of individuals, comes, in the
end, to be directed, and by these two
prominent elements, of the state,
against the ve'y man who measured
by the written official record, never failed
these clements, and never proved false to
himself or TO their wishes. In this, their
hour of sarcastic triumph, and sovereign
spurn, all his rectitude constancy and
fidelity of the past, is to them but the
sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal.
In his case it has been the very irony
of fate emphasized.
Among the greatest, probably the two
greatest efforts ever made before the
United States senate by Mr.. Ingalls,
were, one in behalf Of the pension de-
serving, patriot soldier, which was based
on the demand of eternal justice, and
the other a constitutional argu
ment which involved oleomar-
garine, cottonseed-oil lard and
other infamous authorizations intended
to beat the farmer of his own and of
other western states. In addition, and
later on, he made a speech for free lum-
Der in which he demanded a reduction
of the tariff schedule and its adjustment
on all articles not produced by this
country. And in this fight he went just
as far as he could without stepping out
side the pale of his party. And without
doubt some of the very men who will
vote against his return, now blame him
for not deserving his party and going
over to the enemy, when it Is fact
that these same fellows will not even
dare themselves desert their little legis-
lative caucus, much less defy the ALI
ance party, which elected them.
But what is more important still, so far
as any logical demand yet made by the
Alliance is concerned. at a time when
these men who are now calling
for the blood of John
James ingalls, were asleep or
too dumb or dull to understand
what allied them, when the gold-bugs
and their representatives were endeavOr-
ing to defeat the reconciliation of silver
this same Ingalls,, years in advance of
his party, and in advance of the social
ed Advance, made one Of the strongest
speeches ever delivered in the United
States senate for the free coinage of sill
yer. in which he denounced in unmeas-
ured terms the robbers of the poor who
held to the single gold standard.
Ii is not true, then. that Ingalls, is to
be beaten in radical Kansas because of
any want of radicalism upon his part;
not true that he is to be beaten because
he coul have possibly done more for the
ex-soldier. or because he had not at all
times and under ali circumstances, stood
by the agricultural interests OF his state
as against every other interest. or that
he has proved either political or mental
failure; but rather because of an inaus-
picious correlation of failing skies and
bursted markets; because, in short. of
the logical penalties encountered by the
people in reaction from an era Of ex-
travagance and speculation, who in the
hour of their discontinue demand the
most valuable victim within their grasp,
as a sacrifice of appeasement.
-------
RED, WHITE AND BLACK.
The dismissal of the unarmed artist