Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-07-14
CLEws, THE LONG HEADED,
Tells His Ideas on Matters of Finance, and
Especially what lie Thinks of the
Chicago Convention.

patriotic sentiment in the heart of our
people 1t is the sort of temper out OF
which comes lawlessness, conspiracy
and revolution. The classes whom the
planks are intended to infiame know
| nothing of the real ends of their lead
| ers. The more infaming and revolu-
tionary the party program is the better
it suits the militant mood into which
these unrehecting masses have been
worked. There is no installing the
real tactics of the party leaders. Con-
scious of the danger that their selfish
scheme of making a home market for
silver may be overw helmingly voted
down at the election, they marshal a
host Of side issues out of which they
may excite popular discomfort and
awaken the mob spirit and frighten
the orderly supporters of sound money
into surrender Their game is trans
cites no concern among the classes
against whom it is directed. They
stand unmoved upon the foundation of
common sense and common honesty
which has never failed to shield the
country from the shock of civil discon-
tents. The more open the temptations
or the threats of demagogic leaders,
the more ready our people have ever
| been to come to the rescue: and the
spirit and the dictation of the Chicago
Convention were just the incentives
needed to rally the friends of Ameri-
can principles and institutions for over
whelming defense. Hence the public
readily perceive that the Democratic
| Convention has made certain the cleo
tion of the party of sound money and
honest finance in November. In this
sense, the political situation is both
clearer and safer today that it was a
week ago, and confidence is more solid.
| The greenback craze twenty years
ago had many features in common
with the silver furor of the present
day. 1t appealed to the weak spots in
human nature, and it's crafty managers
played upon the feelings and preju-
dices of the working man, and the poor
artisans, and the skilled laborers par
ticularly, who are very easily persuad-
ed that they are greatly underpaid for
their services. The promises of abund-
ance of money and higher wages with
employment for everybody willing to
work, were the alluring bats held out
to every man who had vote. How
the fiat money was to be got into cir
culation after it left the printing press
was part of the subject too remote
for inquiry, or was regarded as an i'm
pertinent question presumably put by
hard money crank. The idea of
something for nothing always appeals
forcibly to the Imagination of those
who have had to struggle for every
dollar they have obtained.
So far as the fat money is concerned,
the enterprise of the old green hackers
had some points of superiority to that
of the modern silverites In the latter
case, it is part fat and part intrinsic
value; and the Solons of the modern
silverites propose to create an inverted
pyramid and expect the lower part to
sustain the entire weight of the top
heavy structure. The scheme of the
old green hacker was more scientific;
for he made the nation at large the i'm
mense base of his pyramid, leaving il
limitable space for its height even to
the moon and the stars.
There are some interesting points in
the parallel between the financial man
ayers, the men with the doodle" who
ran the greenback Utopia, and those
who are now supplying the sinews of
war for the promised land of silver in
prospect.
Peter Cooper was easy of approach
and had ready ear for every tale of
woe. Upon this weakness the crafty
tricksters, the needy agents who at
tended to his canvass, played with
never-failing success. 1t was pitiable
to see, as an eyewitness of some of
those scenes during the green back
campaign has told me, the grand old
man being heeced by those political
harpies through the relation of some
story of distress in the West, until the
check was Forthcoming to relieve it.
Jones of Nevada, am told, is very
similar in his yielding propensities to
Peter Cooper, and will give up" quite
as easily, with this difference that he
may become utterly oblivious after
wards as to where it has gone, or to
whom he has given it.
1t is said that Silver King Stewart is
is almost of the same stripe as his royal
brother Jones. / allude to these facts
in no unfriendly spirit, but simply to
show the enticing field that is open to
these modern adventurers in politics;
these parasites of the SILVER Kings
whose great anxiety is to make use OF
tho uplip1itad rasouroac of tho mill;on