The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-12-23
THE REFORM CLUB BANQUET.

Last Saturday night was great night
for the Democratic party. With real
Jeffersonian simplicity the Reform Club
celebrated the Democratic victory in
banquet at Sl2 plate. The president
elecO was the chief speaker of the occa-
sion. His remarks on the necessity of
frugality and economy and his denuncia-
ton of the money power in politics were
hailed with enthusiasm by the assem-
blage of Democratic milliOnaires. But
the greatest applause of the evening Oc-
cured when Mr.. Cleveland solemnly con-
graduated his hearers on the fact that
after many failures they had at length
won signal triumph over the tariff
policy that has increased the average
wages of labor in the United States 40
per cent. in the past ten years. When
he declared that in its hour of victory
the Democracy would hold to It's princi-
pies and traditions he undoubtedly spoke
the truth. A fundamental principle of
the Democratic party for the past forty
years has been that labor should be
'cheap." In order to maintain an in
dustrial system which relieved tho Dem
ocratic employers in the South from the
necessity of paying any wages whatever
the Democratic party inaugurated war
since that war the Democracy has per-
sistently endeavOred to lower wages and
degrade labor.
Mr.. Cleveland's declaration that the
cause of Democracy is that of "purest
patriotism" will be hailed with delight
by the host of Democratic patriots
whose vOciferOus demand for Office drove
the president elect from his home in dis
may few days after his election. 1t
will command the entire approval or the
| Southern Democrats whose unseliiSh de-
vOtiOn to their country compels them to
| stuff ballot boxes and murder Republi-
cans who attempt to exercise the fran
chise. The ardent Democrats who want
! the country to pay $400,000,000 for the
| property of confederate sympathiZers
! destroyed during the war, the ex-cOnfed-
crate officers who yearn to represent
abroad the nation they tried to ruin, the
Democrats who describe the Union
veterans as "paupers, who denominate
the pension list "a National disgrace"
the representatives of foreign mOnopo-
! lists who seek to control the American
market-al these will cordially agree
with Mr.. Cleveland that his victory is
'the brightest light of triumph our gen.
| Grafton has seem" Mr. Cleveland allus-
ion to the spectacle of popular rule near
| ing the fatal rocks of debauched
suffrage" was Il masterpiece which the
! immortal Pecksniff could not have sur
passed. In view of the enormous cor
ruption fund raised by Tammany black
mail on tolerated vice and disbursed in
his behalf, this highly moral reference
was distinctly ungracious to the individ-
uals who gave him the thirty-six cleo
/ Of No
But if Mr.. Cleveland was ungrateful to
the Tammany bosses, what shall we say
of Mr.. Carl Schurz, who followed him?
Addressing Mr.. Cleveland personally,
Mr.. Schurz said:
mo man and no set of men has claim
upon your political gratitude, for the up
rising of the people fOr'your cause and
| yourself was so spontaneous aud over
whelming that there is no man and no
set of men whose efforts in behalf of your
election might not safely have been
spared"
This was nothing less than notiflca-
ton to Mr.. Cleveland, delivered in the
most open and emphatic manner, that
the Mugwumps expect him to repudate
utterly the famous understanding
which was the outcome of his conference
with Messrs. Croker, Murphy and
Sheehan at the Victoria Hotel, and which
resulted in the Jealous support of the
Democratic candidate by Tammany Hall
and the Mclaughlin ring. Mr.. Schurz
has the Mugwump char acteTistic of not
knowing when he is ridiculous. His re-
mark about the spontaneous and over
whelming" uprising of the people for
the Democratic party is puerIle absur-
dity. The election figures show that in
forty-Gve rural counties of this State Mr..
Cleveland received q, $50 less votes than
he received four years ago. His total
vote outside New York and Brooklyn
is II 900 less than in 1888. Mr.. Cleve-
lands election was secured, not by a
popular uprising" but by the fine work
of Democratic bosses in this State, the
forcible suppression of Republican votes
in the South and the fusion of the West
eIn Democrats with the POpulists
After Mr.. Schurz came that champion
of unterrified and unadulterated Dem
ocracy, Roger Q. Mills. The senator
from Texas is an honest Free Trader.
| For Mr.. Cleveland's feeble protest that
1--WE should not enter upon our work in
the least spirit of resentment NORM heed
less disregard of the welfare of any por-
ton of our citizens" Mr.. Mills manifested
| llduh COuJOLlpV, IlO uCOltiCu NiOh Ohi-
phasis that it was the duty of Democracy
TO follow the principle of Free Trade mo
matter where that principle goes"
Democrats must show the people, he
affirmed, that 1--WE were sincere when we
said that taxation should not believed for
the purpose of protecting anybody
against competition" No less eXuber-
ant and voiferous was Congressman
Thomas l.. Johnson, who declared with
genuine Democratic fervor;
There has been enough of the parrot
cry, Tariff Reform. but no Free Trade
enough of the attempt to conciliate Pro-
| tectiOnsts in the belief that Free Traders
would vote the ticket anyhow. 1t is now
time to think of conciliating Freerraders.
If we we right in declaring Protection a
fraud, incidental Protection is incidental
| fraud"
1t was a great night for Democracy and
Free Trade; and it afforded the working
mon of this country an instructive indi-
cation of what they have to expect.-N.