The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-06
RIVER AT s A. NJ.
THE PITY OF 1T.


Now that the election is over, and
we are relieved from the overmaster-
ling fear which it's issues carried with
II we cannot forego an expression OF
daanest and sincerest regret that so
much energy, so much courage, so
much enthusiasm, so much OF real re-
gard for popular rights and popular lib
erty have been expended in vain. For he
would be not only blind to facts, but he
would be disloyal to his country, who
should deny or doubt that there was
masse6 behind the cause of Mr.. Bryan
a large body of voters whose motives
were of the best, although their meth
ods were wrong and their purposes
unwise We do not speak Of Altgeld
and TilIman and the like, who repre-
sent all that is worst in human So
ciety, wherever it may be found. They
were the men who beat Mr.. Bryan.
They were the men whom Democratic
committees in the various states did
not dare to invite to make speeches
anywhere outside Of the slums and
criminal quarters of the great cities
We dc speak Of the great body of
voters, who feel blindly that something
is wrong with our governing system,
and that it is time that it should be
righted. We know that monopoly lays
its powerful hand upon great and small
alike We know that commerce at
4e ,af 10
that the production Of wealth is ham,
pered by a distribution of wealth that
is not just. We know that the rigors
of the law are more frequently exer-
cised against the weak than against
the strong. We know that excuses are
made to prevent the punishment Of the
wrong doer who has influence behind
him. We know that justice, probity
and love are not the rule in the admin
istration of our affairs. Over and above
all, we know that these things must
not be endured. Government must he
kept true to the rights Of the people
or it will cease to be Of the people, and
when that happens nothing can save
us or liberty for long.
The heart-breaking pity Of it is that
millions Of Democrats all ever the
country, with whom we are in the
heartiest accord, have felt the weight
of all these considerations pressing
upon them during the weeks and
months just passed, all of them impell-
ing them toward the cause which
did at least represent opposition to mo-
nepoly ana advocacy of equal rights
tC all. Yet the men who stood for it
had committed the colossal blunder and
the stupen6ous crime of INTERVENING
ineXplicably the fortunes Of these great
ends with both folly and wlckedness.
E They had set in the forefront of their
battle the impossible issue of free coin
age of silver at the ratio Of 16 to 1.
They had left standing behind it the
grim figure Of anarchy. These became,
necessarily, the overmastering issues
of the day. But the very men who
voted to put them down were over
whelmed with the stupidity and wick
e9nesS of subordinating to a century
OLD Ialtacy aSOuC money the great is
sue Of the people themselves When
one thinks of all the inspiration and en-
thusiasm of this campaign, of all that
it might have accomplished of how
freely and gladly hosts of men have
spent themselves, through impulses
that We cannot do less than honor.
IN behalf of nothing better than the
proposition that the government can
legislate value into things, it seems al
most too cruel to be true. And we have
seen and felt the real evils of the times;
We, who have watched the swift steps
Of the encroachment of power and privi-
lege upon the common rights; we, who
would so gladly have set lance in
rest in behalf OF the common people
of this republic, have been forced, by
the selfish crime Of these wis stole
their leadership to help protect them
against themselves.
This great campaign has been made
negative one. II has been devoted to
4 burying a corpse. 1t has been used tc
carry out of the way the wreckage
and refuse of blunder that the CEN