St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-08
WALL STREE MISTAKE

QeQueQ.
WALL STREETS MISTAKE.
The veto message which President
Cleveland leveled at the seigniurage bill
was brave, manly and patriotic. With
out rhetorical flourish or literary bum
combe of any kind the president went
straight to the mark, and gave III the
clearest and most common sense man
ner his reasons for declining 10 ailix his
signature to a measure which he be-
lleved TO be against the public interest.
Wall street is diSplcaseu with the
message, and the newspapers represent
ing the patriotic methods OF the New
York fnancierS strongly reflect the
august diSpleasure of that purse
proud tnoroughfare. Mr.. Cleveland Is
criticised because he failed to
launch his anathema at the crankS
anu hoOdlums i'm congress who dared to
pass that financially obscene measure.
Apparently the president of the United
States was expected to lash the two
houses OF congress into spaSm of CON-
mon sense, or at least to adopt the
function of the fishwife, and scold the
senators and representatives of the
people into state of mind where they
would be enabled 70 appreciate the
awful Importance of the moneyed cen
tiers of the world.
The financial thoroughfare of New
York city will manifest much wisdom
when it begins to school itself in the
virtue of modesty. The fiscal province
OF modern society is beyond doubt the
most important section of the worlds
life. Great financiers in modern times
have taken the place of great military
leadersln the so-called barbarous periods
of history. Money is today the most tre-
mendous single material agency known
among men. But there are great
many other social forces, which, com.
bined, are more powerful than money.
Remove, for instance, the sentimental
instinct OF justice, the moral force of re-
ligion. from the mental makeup of man
kind. and money melts out of the affairs
OF llfe-dlsappears like frost before the
sunshine Of the morning.
There is strong suspicion prevalent,
even if it be unjust, among the mere
vote their lives to handling and acquir-
ing the circulating medium are liable TO
fall into the habit of taking more than
their share of the profits of labor. The
passage of the seigniOrage bill by the
representatives of the people is symp-
tom OF discomfort among the masses
which it is not wise for financiers to
overlook. This is a government of the
people. When there is any general mani
festatlon of discomfort among the work
ing masses. their chosen agents are
bound in honor and conscience to place
their ears close to the lips of their con-
stituents and listen patiently to the
whispered story of wrong, or of sup
posed wrong.
There are large sections of the cOun-
try now insisting upon change in the
nations financial policy which would
amount TO revolution. The men who
are demanding this change of policy
are not fools, nor cranks, nor anarchists.
They are men with homes and families
patriotic citizens who are not only
willing to render up to the Caesar of law
what may be his due, or even more
than his due, but are also civ.
ing generously to God and His poor
from stores daily growing more scanty.
These men are not trained political
economists. They know only that their
labors are perpetual and grinding, but
that, Notwithstanding the daily dis
charge of every known duty, they and
their wives and children are at times
suffering from the want of commonest
necessaries of life. Is it singular that
this class is striving to learn why SO un-
fortunate a condition of affairs is per-
mitted TO exist? Certainly it Is not at all
strange that they strive to influence the
representatives of their sovereign will;
that some sort of change is demanded
in the social and economic conditions:
and 1t is strongly to their credit that
they are willing and anxious to right ali
wrongs by peaceful legislative methods,
rather than to enter upon The bloody
paths OF brute force.
In Mr.. CIeveland's seigniorage mes
sage he used the arguments of right
reason calmly. but none the less
strongly and vigorously. In that able
state paper he showed the people that
he was not averse to any legislation
which seemed to him to be for the
actual and permanent advantage of the
country. He strove to show how
strongly and ineXtricably the interests
Of the poor were interviewer with those
of the rich, and to impress upon his
countrymen the danger of that specious
nd fott LOT hi.at,
aside the lessons of all experience and
starts to recklessly carve out new paths
through trackless wildernesSes.
The presidents plan is better than
the fashion of Wall street. In any
event, it is not the province of the chief
executive of the United States to read
lessons of reason and common sense to
the great masses of his countrvmen.
His function is higher one than that
of common scold. Kind words under
all circumstances are better and espe-
cially so to the blind Sampson whose
shorn locks are growing, and who some
day may once more be tempted to pull
down the temple where oyer-fed lust is
holding its high carnival of unbrldled
selfshness.
Even common dictionaries give trans
parently the meaning of noblesse
oblige, and Harmonious blending of
all classes in country based upon uni
versal manhood suffrage is largely con-
ditional upon the manner in which the
men who are rich meet and salute in
daily intercourse their fellow citizens
who are poor.
VOCATIONAL MISFITS.