Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-05-10

Iho Nbich OF tho Soutns
"There has been great din Of scream
ing and laundering yociferation here
and there in the south for the silver
phantasms Of the BANDS, the Reagans,
the Morgans, the Pughs and the Till
mans, says the Galveston Meas, but this
Is because "people madly intoxicated
with an idea or stimulant can always
make ten times more noise than people
who are duly sober And the Neus
adds:
The trouble is that the sober majority
have not been sufficiently explicit and de
cided in prpnouncing against the follles of
the Intoxicated minority and in rebuking
the politicians who sought TO profit BY
humoring and contributing to the intoxi-
cation For this reason we have so often In
politics, and more or less in legislation,
riotous regime of lunatics and speculat-
ing demagogues to the grief and lumilia-
ton Of q too silent andtoo patient majority.
That the people Of the South are so
greatly misrepresented by the attitude
of many Of their representatives in
Congress upon the silver question is
matter which mono deplore more sin
cerely than the victims Of this misrepre-
sentation, and we may look confidently
/ for them to make their dissatisfaction
| plainly understood in other places as
they did in Montgomery recently, when
Senator Morgan presumed to attack
President Cleveland from the back of
his free silver hobby. His audience re-
sented the proceeding by leaving the
room in such numbers that the Senator
was obliged to bring his speech to an
abrupt close, and the press of the State
has condemned the attack in terms
which leave no room for doubt as to
the weight Of public opinion. So ii was
in Florida last fall, when from every
board Of trade there went forth protest
against the attitude Of the Senators Of
that State on the repeal Of the Sherman
bill and one heard everywhere among
the plain people-the farmers, the mer-
chants, the mechanics-the declaration
that Senator Call would better make the
most Of his present term, because he
would never get back to Washington.
The question naturally comes up
How did men so out of tone with theil
constituents get into the Senate from
southern States? The most plausible
explanation is that they were chosen al
time when the spectre of Populisn
was alarming the Democrats and before
the financial issue had become live
one among the people at large. Thu
silent and patient majority" was tenn
porarily overridden by the "riotoui
regime of lunatics and specializing
demagogues;' the idea of "cheaI
money was an abstract consideration
to the practical meaning of which thu
plain people had not been educated, al
they have since been, and the impcnd
ing wave of Populism had becomt
magnified in apprehension, into regula
tidal upheaval in place of the mere rippl
on the political southern sea that tn
event has demonstrated 1t to have been
But, since then, the object lesson Of las
summer in favor of sound money ha
been learned and digested, and tn
voice of the people and of the press i
influential everywhere for the mainte
nance of sound system of nationa
finance, and that voice will make itsel
heard in the national legislature shout
the occasion grow sufficiently urgent.