The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-03-07
CLEVELANDlSM'S FRUITS.

If the houses adoption Of tho Bland
ssigniorage bill has not completed the
awakening of American business m,n
TO the parils of Democratic re-ascend-
ancy, it is difficult TO conjecture what
could, Elected mainly through tho
efforts Of business men, because
OF their belief that he was
pre-eminontly tine representative of
sound politics and evel-headed
legislative action upon questions Of
finance, Mr.. Clevelsnd's first year Of
absolute control has witnessed such n
sbrinkage in values and such
widespread and intensified loss to
labor as had never been known
before. In the place of that
firm conservatism which they had
boasted so exultantly was Mr. Cleve-
lands basic Characteristic, they have
seen him repeatedly 80 to the Populists
with offers of fusion and dicker; they
have learned with chagrin OF his ap-
pointment OF the Popuistio Gresham
to the chief place in his cabinet; and,
finally, they have had the crowning
lesson Of his helplessne5s to thwart the
tariff .smashers of his own party in their
persistent precipitation Of the greatest
industrial reverse in the history of the
American p9ope.
1t is instructive to note the coin
cidence of calamities wrought by Dsm.
ocratiC incapacity. a coincidence ap.
parently justityiug the old adage that
1T never rains but it pours," First
we had the bankers panic, FASTENED,
ii not wholly caused, by the Populistic
demand for free silver coinage with
silver a constantly declining commod-
ity. As If tho $9,OOO.OOO, 900 thus
swept out of circulation in the depre.
citation of American securities was not
enough, we next had the working mans
panic, or the industrial stagna.
ton that followed the economic ramp
age of Democracy's southern briga1iers
Here WAS another calamity, the
aggregate effect of which, upon the
home-life of our people, was worse and
more destructive than would have been
fiercely- fought civil war 1t was
blow that fell, not upon the wealthy,
or creditor classes, although they had
suffered, too, but squarely and cruelty
upon the great poor or debtor classes, up
on themen whose only resourse was the
daily wage that they could earn. The
loss to them, on an average Of twenty
per cent. in wages meant, not the diff
ference between flashing opulence and
a slight, almost imperceptible curtail-
ment, but the difference between mod
eat competence and direct struggle,
poverty, hunger and even bodily suffer-
ing
Bnt last of all, at n tim> when the
country is yet in the throes of these
two prior infliCtions and while courts
of bankruptcy and corporation receiv.
erships are busy with the work of in
quiry, adjudication and readjustment,
we have the third and most vicious
blow of all, which ia the blow Of the
rebel brigadiers and the western inf
tionists combined. at the national cred
it, That it must fail seems certain,
because as a nation we have done moth
ing to deserve it, But for its ultimate
miscarriage we shall owe no thanks
to Grover Cleveland, whose cultiva-
tion of this political fusion, was
it's direct incentive. invitation and
opportunity. II it shall finally fall
short of its vital mark, there will be no
debt of gratitude owed to the Demo-
cratic party, but rather ono Of sup rems
gratitude to the kindly overruling
Power which shall have given it to our
people to rise superior to the party
which has had destructiveness Of
wealth, industry and medium Of OK
change as the triane purpose of its
partisan existence.
Clevelandism is at last barring its
true fruits. How do you like them2
Ala, Too True,
Wilmington Nstrs