The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-05-25
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.
the Lesson of Coxey's Army.

true in your day, but it isn't up to
date any longer?
Think of it! A few hundreds of
unknown men, with no money to
speak of, unarmed, representing no
one but themselves, variOusly de-
scribed by the press as hoboes,"
tramps,n and mountebanks,"
with two leaders protesting to be
reincarnated sons of God, start on a
tramp for Washington. Almost at
once a great nation of seventy mil
lions of people a nation which in
its infancy successfully waged war
with the most powerful country
then in existence nation which
80 years ago suppressed the most
formidable revolt ever recorded in
history-this great nation begins to
tremble with apprehension at the
sight of these few hundreds of half
starved and half-clothed men
marching on to Washington. The
narrative seems almost incredible,
but we all know it to be true.
Was the nation afraid of these
men? Hardly that, for squad of
policemen could rout them in five
minutes. Was it afraid of CoXey
and Browne? Certainly not that.
But the nation was afraid of the
slumbering discomfort, the wide
spread sense of injustice, that lay
beyond and behind the CoXey
movement, and afraid of these only
because of the general consciousness
that they are too well justified. In
short, what made this great nation
tremble with apprehension at the
sight of handful of tatterde-
nations marching on a FOOLS GRAND
was IT'S OWN CONSCIENCE.
Every man knows that injustice,
favoritism, corruption, have played
a terrible part in the legislation,
State and national, of this country
as carried ON by both old parties
during the last ten or twenty years.
Everybody knows that the sense of
injustice, blind though it may often,
be, which slumberS in the souls OF
large classes of men to-day, has its
justification, even through the per-
ilOus aud passionate remedies they
propose have none. 1t is this sense
of wrong, this loss of confidence in
the integrity as well as in the wis
dom of lawmakers and partisan
leaders, this feeling that public
interest has been eclipsed by per-
sonal and partisan jobbery, that
has made this mighty nation trem-
BILE with alarm over CoXey's move
vent as the mightiest beast of earth
trembles and trumpets before tiny
mouse.
The true lesson of CoXey's move
ment is that the rotten political
conditions lying beyond both par
ties, lying beyond Congress and our
State legislatures, lying beyond the
ballot box, finding their very source
and center in the American gin
mill-these political conditions
must be changed, and changed
soon, or the strength and glory of
the American republic must dis
appear. The saloon is to- day the
most active and dominant factor in
our politics. Before its bar, instead
of before the bar of public opinion,
the legislator stands to answer for
his course, and from it seeks his
vindicatiOn. To court the saloon,
to curry favor with it, to secure at
the very least its neutrality, if not
its positive assistance, has become
the first political task of those
seeking political advancement in
two-thirds of the districts of our
land. 1t is in the saloon that every
corrupt ''bossn finds his true
strength. 1t is upon the saloon
that the jobbers and corruption
lists rely to bring them safely
through the storms of public prOtes-
tation. 1t is to the saloon, where
public interest is defined, where
patriotism is jeered, where virtue
and integrity are secuted, where
conscience and duty are Missed,
where manhood is debauched-it is
TO the saloon as the source that the
wholesale corruption; and favor
itism, and unjust jobbery may be
traced. The ginmill is the heart OF
tho whola vile business and the