Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-03-16
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?

The TRIBUNE, Bismarck, N. D.
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?
Democratic leaders and leading demo-
cratic journals, are, though it is bitter
to confess it, utterly weary and DIS
gusted with the way in which the party
has managed to shift from it's shoulders
every burden which it promised to carry
when it was angling for votes prior to
the general election. The promises of
democracy before election, and their alb
solute failure to redeem them now,
holds the party up to the severest of
censure and criticism, and the New York
Herald arraigns it's party thus:
The democratic party has now been in
control OF the government for a full year,
and thoughtful men who helped to put it
there are asking, "What has it done for the
peoplew The party was elevated to pow
er on its positive promise to correct speci-
fed abuses and enac legislation which
was imperatively needed to maintain the
credit and prosperity Of the country.
The people had risen in revolt against
the republican party when the democrats
held their Lational convention and declar-
ed against the silver heresy and in favor of
a revision of the tariff. They pronounced
the silver purchase law ga cowardly make
shift fraught with possibilities of danger
in the future" denounced the Mckinley
tariff as "the eliminating atrOcity of class
legislation," and distinctly said:-"We
promise its repeal as one of the beneficent
results that will follow the action. of the
people in intrusting power to the demo-
cratic party.
On this platform the people placed a
democratic president in the Capitol and a
democratic majority in both houses of Con-
gress. How has the party kept its
promises? Last summer, when, as a. result
OF the Silver Purchase law, gold coin and
bullion were being shipped out Of country
by tens of millions of dollars, and the
country was in throes of panic. the demo-
cratic Congress, which was called in extra
session to remove thai disastrous law from
the statute book, delayed three months
over the repeal bill and then passed it only
under pressure of an indignant mandate
from the people of the whole country. Ex-
ports of gold then ceased and it was said
that the silver question had been settled
for all time and that no further attempt
would be made to destroy confidence in
the basis of the currency.
But what lave We had? Mr.. Bland pops
up with a bill to create a new silver in
tlation. For weeks the House pottered
with this to the utter neglect of questions
of burning interest to the country, and
last week, with only 40 democrats oppos-
jnp and 40 Aan1Oarafg xynfiYn fnr If aaf1a1-
ly passed this ridiculous measure. The
ink which recorded the vote was scarcely
dry when the cables reflected the distrust
itcreated abroad. Orders to remit gold were
received ~ bankers here, and before noon
next day over a million dollars of our gold
coin was being packed in boxes for export.
Thus at the end of the first year of DEM
ocratic administrator the country is again
confronted with the silver spectre. Truly,
on the1 question Of sound money the dem
ocratic majority has made a brilliant re-
cord!
that the Mckinley bill should be repealed
by the lst day of March. Manufacturing
and business have been held in suspense,
and hundreds of thousands of workmen
stand idle and hungry pending a settle
ulCIC vi Clllo VITAL lSSut. UuG Tie ISL Ol
March has come and the people to-day
have no more idea of what the tariff is to
be than they had when congress assembled
three months ago. Merchants who ap-
proved of the Chicago platform and as
sisted to put the democrats in power, as
they view their stores of unsold goods and
the renewed outflow Of gold are asking the
question which heads this article. Manu-
facturers who supposed they were voting
for a prompt supply of free raw materials,
as they now survey their idle mills are
asking it, and above all, the vast army of
toilers whose ballots were cast for the dem
ocratic party under the impression that it
would speedily remove burdens from the
shoulders of labor, are now, with special
bitterness, asking 1T.
What have the democrats done for the
country? The answer is not far to seek,
and the majority in congress must be deaf
indeed if they fail to hear the ominous
murmurs that are rising around them.