The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-09-07
"a Most Prosperous Nation"

Oh OH lHCHl, WIZ SSclu uSllShlSu W hSdl
such things, some of their pleasing
sophistries.
On.Friday Congressman Stone occupied
the stand and was pronounced by the
plutocratic paper which reported the
proceedings, as the "star" orator of the
day. Mr.. Stone is an old line republican
and of course chose the tariff for his
theme. Had he been an old party DEM
ocrat he would have chosen the same
hackneyed subject, which when put into
the politicians kaleidoscope, is capable
of exhibiting SO many brilliant colors.
''Mr. Stone prefaced his remarks" the
reporter tells us, with facts that showed
the marvellous growth of this country from
1880 to 1890, as the last census shows,
and the deduction to be drawn from this
is that we have been most prosperous
nation and bore out the conclusions oil
President Harrison as he retired from his
prosperous administration that we have
been the most prosperous pation on the
face of the earth. He then said, this
condition of affairs and degree of pros
perity has come under the policy of pro-
tective tariff. But change has come,
and no one can question or dispute it.
However much they may differ as tc
cause everyone admits it as fact
Well, there are a good many persons
who do not admit Mr.. Stones "facts. -
No Change has come" but all unbroken
wave of distress has steadily approached,
overshadowing the people, eliminating
after President Cleveland mounted the
executive chair which President Harrison
vacated, fastened in its destructive march
to overwhelm the business of the country
by a cold blooded conspiracy of the
bankers for the purpose of forcing a COM
plete decentralization of silver by the re-
peal of the Sherman law.
Where shall we search for or find the
evidence of this marvellous growth" and
of this being the "most prosperous nation
on the face of the earth," of which Con-
gresham Stone boasts? The farmers
are not blessed with this prosperity, that
is certain the mechanics have no signs
about them indicating marvellous pros
perity;" the three million idle laborers
walking up and down and to and fro on
the earth seeking i'll vain for employ
ment, do not carry i'll their ragged cloth
ing and hungry, drawn faces any sign of
prosperous nation" All these signs
which should indicate prosperity are
against Mr.. Stones boastful claim. In
order to find out that we "have been the
most prosperous nation OH the earth," we
must search among the bankers, the mo-
trusts, syndicates, combines,
boards of trade, stock gambling ex-
changes, where millions of bushels of
wind wheat, and billions of pounds of
cotton, which never whitened the fields,
fabulous quantities of invisible farm pro-
duce used as gambling stakes and with
which CORNERS" are worked, but which
never existed. Here is found the wealth
that President Harrison boosted of and
which Congressman cuckoo Stone mocks
the farmers with, repeating after him.
The protective policy" sung of in
moving tropes" never produced grain
of wheat, pound of wool, cotton, beef or
pork nor single blade of grass. 1t assist
ed in directing this wealth into the hands
of the favored few after the industry of
the farmer had produced it. And it were
better for the nation had every dollar of
this boosted wealth been sunk to the bot
tom of the sea than to be where it is
With it crime has been fostered in high
places, congress has been bribed and de-
bauched, the ermine of the Judge has
been soiled, the church has been polluted,
and the administrators of the trust con.
fided to them by the people have become
cravens, kneeling at the feet of Mammon,
forgetting the people who invested them
with the power they abuse.
No protective policy" ever created a
single dollar of this wealth which Plu-
tocracy's bonbastic herald held up on
that day before the eyes of the gullable
farmer, to which, the reporter says, ''the
audience of farmers gave applauding
approval"
The farmers created all of this fabulous
wealth which was passed like panorama
before their eyes with the assurance that
"a protective policy" had been the source
of it all. Before the swelling buds of the
spring peeped from the earth the farmer
was afield i'll the gray morning and until
the rosy evening sent him YEARLY home.
Through the emeral tints of spring he
toiled while a kind Providence reached
down His two arms, the sunshine and the
rain, to help him i'll his toll on through
the glow and heat of summer with those
loving arms about him, encouraging him
to persevere, as he beheld the crops burst
ing into pillows of living green over the
fields, while the same great Creative
Power which walked beside him added
leaf to leaf, twig to twig and bough to
bough, building up the groves where the
birds came and whistled and sang to
cheer him while at his lonely toll the
farmer toiled on through the long golden
days of summer as they glided into the
russell autumn, when he began to gather
i'll the reward of his toll. By his side