The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-06-21
WHO Is TO BLAME2

One of the planks of the dem ocratic
platform or address issued Saturday
last, and the one which gives hem
more trouble than anything else, reads
like this:
We denounce the hyprocrisy of that
portion Of the republican press and
party, which 1nfamously endeavors to
charge the effects of the legislative
errors of a third of century upon
party which had but Just entered into
power when those terrible evils over
spread the country. The logic which
argues that effects precede their causes
is fit reasoning for party which af-
firms that the foreigner pays the tariff
tax on the imported goods purchased
by the American people.
The republican party came into,
power in the good year of 1861. They
commenced business with big war on
their hands. We are not inclined to
Grraign them on but one point Ill the
conduct of that great war and that is
the fault which has steadily dogged
the footsteps of the party ever since.
That is the wasteful extravaganza
which distinguished every department
of the army and navy, and which be-
Queathed a debt to the nation larger
by several billions than there was any
earthly honest excuse for. If the party
had stopped there and not carried this
same wasteful and dishonest extrava-
gance into the civil administration af-
ter the war, all would still have been
well. The war fault begot scale Of
expenditure which all the resources of
the government on a peace basis could
not afford. The fell spirit of waste
stopped over and private business
enterprises and individuals drank in
the spirit from the government. The
result was inevitable and we had the
credit mobilier, the whisky trusts, ETC.,
without numbers and without bounds.
Into this dirty vortex was.qdrawn
illustrious men, or men with illustri-
GUS names. Schuyler Colfax, the vice
president of the United States, the
head of the great order of Odd Fellows,
and a christian Of exalted virtues. So
fearfully was he involved that he was
driven by the returning sense of de-
cency into exile from public life and
soon into an unhonored grave. After
him came such names as Congressman
Oaks Ames, General Belknap and q
whole army of lesser names. Green
backs were as the sands on the sea-
shore as if there was never to come
day of reckoning.
These evils were but part of the
fruits of their thirty years of legisla-
tive errors. The enforced resumption
of specie payments before the country
was ready for the measure was
the commencement of their dan
gerous, premature and unwise sys-
tenn of contraction of which the demon
etization of silver was later product. |
In whose interests were these enorm-
GUS spolistion measures taken? Not |
the poor, not the small operators, of
course. Whose then? None other
than the men who gathered gold while
the country was bleeding at every pore,
and who grew rich while strong, hon. |
est men grew poor and poorer still and |
gaunt poverty and unbearable misery
swept in black waves over the wrecked
and ruined land.
The black wave was surely and
threateningly approaching and it broke
IN full force upon our shores about the
time the distressed people resolved
upon change. The resulting demo-
cratic president, without congress or
senate to project measures of relief,
could do nothing. The angry waves
roared and surged about him for four
years and the only wonder is that
things were not worse at the close of
Cleveland's first term than they were.
Strong man as he was he could do but
little to stay the tide, but what little
he was able to accomplish was, still Of
great service to the country. But for
his wise policy things had been far
worse than they actually are today.
The honest efforts of the democratic 4
administration today to pass measures
Of relief are thwarted and obstructed :
by whom? None other than the party :
which has led the nation to the bleak I
shores of ruin and would complete the
work by giving the plutocrats a whole g
nation of white slaves in exchange for
four millions OF black ones. The Will
son bill had been passed two months +
since but for the distractions offered h
by the men of '73. A free coinage law f
would be in force today but for the
pets OF the republican party in New Il
York, who are the allies today of the
gold sharks of European policies. u
The paragraph has deeper reading q
han the republican papers of Utah be.
ieVed when they read it Sunday morn. D
ng last,
THE Herald mercilessly fays the
ribune in its editorial of the 2Oth u