The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-10
A COSTLY OBJECT LESSON.

Eighteen months ago the country was
in condition of the highest prosperity
it had ever known. There was employ
ment and good wages for all. Money
was abundant, and whatever any one
had to sell was in demand at reasonably
good prices. 1t is true that these were
not always as good as the sellers wished,
but they were infinitely better than any
offered since. There was every encour-
agement for entrance upon new enter
prises and men had no hesitation about
embarking capital and energy In them.
If any student of American history
were asked to point out the time IN
which every condition in the country
was most satisfactory he would have no
hesitation in indicating the year 1892
as that time. There did not seem any
where single cloud upon the horizon
of our content, not a menace in any
direction.
AS is usual in the serenest times, dis
aster came from a totally unexpected
quarter.
The Southern politicians, who have
always been dangerous to the well-being
of the country, had long looked upon
this prosperity with jaundiced eyes. Its
existence was reprobation of them and
their methods. They matured their
scheme to wreck it all. It has succeeded
only too we'll. An elaborate campaign
Of infammatory demagoguery was in
augurated to convince the people that
they were being oyef.taxed and bled of
the fruits of their labor by the operation
of unjust laws. All the falsehood, soph-
istry and cunning misrepresentation
possible to Inscriptions men were re-
sorted to to impress the ignorant and
unthinking with this belief. The vic
tory of the plotters of disaster was over
whelming and the country was turned
over to them to do with as they liked.
What has been the result?
We find the answer In thousands of
idle factories, in business stagnation from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, in millions
of unemployed men and their hunger
ing families, in fear and distrust cank-
ering every mans mind, in banks and
vaults filled with money that the owners
dare not risk in any business venture, in
palsy and paralysis, where less than two
years ago there was all the vigor and
confidence of life, in the rich seeing
their fortunes crumble while the poor
beg for bread.
The hypocritical pretense of the South
ern conspirators was that they would re-
lieve the burdens of taxation from the
shoulders of the poor. They have re-
duced the poor to the condition that
they cannot even buy bread, much less
pay taxes.
What an overwhelming revenge it
has been for Approximately Gettys.
burg and Vicksburg: In Is months
the men who surrendered to Grant and
Sherman have reduced the wealth of
the loyal portion Of the country by more
than the entire cost of the war for the
Union. They have been able to do this
at small injury to their own section,
since not over one-ffth of the wealth Of
the Nation is in the South, and not more
than an eighth in the States which went
into the rebellion.
Was there ever such retaliation Of
the conquered upon the conquerors?
We now bitterly remember JEFF
Davis's confident assertion that though
his cause was lost on the field of battle
it still lived and would soon triumph.
The freless furnaces, the rusting mill
wheels, the idle narts, the millions
clamoring for work. and bread, attest
how true that prediction was, and how
worthy the men upon whom Davis's
mantle fell were Of carrying on hi
malignant mission of hatred and ruin
to the freemen of the country.