St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1891-03-14
Wall, Street Reformers.
Washington %. c. Sentinel, Feb. q

y
The so-called Reform Club of New
York to which Mr.. Cleveland address
ed his letter against free coinage of sill
yer, is composed mainly of mugwumps
disguised as Democrats of the Cleve-
land brand. During the long and fierce
contest over the bayonet bill and the
gag rule to destroy freedom of speech
in the Senate, this club never uttered
a word of encouragement to the Dem
ocrats and Independent Republicans
who were patriotically laboring day
and night to save the Union from one
OF the greatest perils it ever confronted.
Neither did Mr.. Cleveland exhibit
the least interest in that critical strug-
gle until he wasssharply and Justly crit
icised for the failure, when he injected
a few lines into self-gloryfying speech
in Philadelphia. He was not only de-
liberately silent in the campaign last
November, but he absolutely and re-
peatedly refused urgent invitations to
take any part in it. When the great
victory was achieved, he was quick to
rush forward and substantially to claim
it as personal triumph.
When the interests of Wall street
are supposed to be menaced by pop
ular demand for free coinage, and the
bondholders, gold bugs, combined cap
ital, great corporations, and the credit
or class of monopolists insist on sin
gle standard of gold, then this Reform
Club, and Mr.. Cleveland as its formal
spokesman, are ardent defenders of the
golden calf.
When our free institutions were en-
dangered by the foulest conspiracy that
beset them, exceeding by far the worst
features Of the rebellion, they could
not be reused to the least effort of de-
fence, and deliberately ignored the cri-
sis as mere parliamentary contest.
The instant however that the pocket
of Wall street might be touched by
pending measure, this Reform Club
and its champion, Mr.. Cleveland, were
filed with zeal and could not suppress
their enthusiasm. They assailed the
act of 1878 which makes silver dollars
a legal tender for all public and private
dues. They denounced silver, though
recognized by the constitution as it does
gold, and they assailed every form of
policy by which that metal should have
any standing in the public finances.
These reformers occupy the ground
that the conspirators did in 1873, when
they demonetized silver by fraud on
Congress and on the country and pock-
eted hundreds of millions as the out
come of that iniquity. The East which
absorbed the bulk of the enormous
profits OF the civil war, which was pur-
posely prolonged for the enrichment of
that small section of the Union, has
held the West in bondage since the
close of that contest by ownership Of
the lines Of transportation, by mortga-
ges on their lands, and by the power OF
accumulated capital applied in other
forms.
After long suffering and base injus-
tice the time has come for the West to
break these bonds and assert its mighty
strength. When the Western Repub-
licans broke away from the caucus and
ena bled the Democrats to kill the bay
onet bill, they served notice to the Eas-
tern machine managers that insolent
dictation and selfish legislation had
had their day. Wall street had better
be careful not to stir up more wrath
than it has already provoked.