The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-10-23
The Hastings Meetings.

thusiasm which manifested itself yes
terday at every point along the line of
General Hastings Scranton reception.
From the moment of his arrival to the
final word at last evenings immense
mass meetings, his visit has proved
spontaneous and a significant ovation,
telling eloquently iof great personal
popularity and no less demonstrative
of the popularity of the political prin-
ciples which his candidacy typifies to
the patriotic citizens of this peerless in
dustrial commonwealth. From first to
last, it was an honest uprising of the
people against the party and the policy
which have, in the brief period of two
years, plunged prosperous nation into
unprecedented panic and then jeering-
ly congratulated it upon it's ability to
recuperate.
It has been charged that General
| Hastings Is prophet of calamity.
Who, let us ask, are the persons who
utter that charge? Are they the men
who have at any time during the last
three decades endeavored to ward Off
calamity when it has threatened the
business interests of their countrymen?
| Are they the men who have consistent
| ly sought to protect American labor
against the deprecated values of free
trade times? Are they the men who,
| by wise and conservative legislation,
have inspired the investors of our coun.
try with confidence and hope? Is their
record one of broad and systematic
craftsmanship, fitted to the needs of
the nation in which they live? Or are
they the men who have uniformly and
| persistently done the very reverse of
these things; the men who rode into
power upon the wave of falsely-be-
| gotten prejudice, engendered at the eX-
| pense of thrift and enterprise and
subtly planned to enlist the sympathies
of socialists, Populists and tramps? 1t
would occur to any but Democrat
that the least said by the party now
| in power to the discouragement of
calamity crying, the better for that
party's own chances at the polls 1t
would occur to any but Democrat
that every syllable uttered in present
condemnation of the Republican cita-
ton of actual and painful fact carries
with 1t whole sentences of reproach for
Democracy's own stock argument of
the past-the argument which cried
calamity when there was no calamity;
and which, by persistent and merciless
reiteration, finally brought on the very
panic that 1t never expected to wit
ness.
But the Democrat Of today is unper-
picked by considerations either of con-
sistency or of common sense. Unde-
tered by the frightful havoc which his
warfare on protected industry has al
ready wrought, and careless of the
danger attending prolongation of that
strife, he springs jauntily into the
arena with lance poised for a fresh on
slaught, and only awaits the re-assem-
bling of congress to ruthlessly carry on
the war. Crying peace when there is
no peace, he sharpens his knife in Sc
cret for a new dig into the vitals of
business stability, and cries out in hypo-
critical fervor when alert Republican
ism discovers and exposes his treach-
erous design. In aiming the present
campaign directly at the heart of this
second ebullition of Democratic false
pretense, General Hastings exhibits
good generalship and superior tact
There Is at this movement only one
real issue before the American people
1t is the issue of living wages versus
idleness; of profitable investment ver-
sus stagnation and loss; of the Ameri.
can protective standard against the
economic quicksands of clumsily imi.
tated foreign free trade.
Upon an issue Of this momentous char.
acter, Pennsylvania ought to give 6
verdict that shall permit neither mis-
representation nor doubt.
, Tie Democratic party, as at present
constituted, cannot command the conf
dence Of the conservative business ele
ments Of the country. A party which
cannot do that Is not fit to have contro
of the povarnmant