The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1896-08-26
WHO SPEAKS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS
THUS NAMED.
But He Who Champions the Cause
Of PIutOcraCy Is a Statesman.
0bloquy Always Heaped
On Those Who Value Humanity
Higher Than Wealth.

EatlOnS OF q pOcketDOOk ana uenOunCe as
demagogue any one who dares to lis
ten to the heartbeat of humanity
William j. Bryan in House of Repre-
sentatives.
Eternal truth gives to this epigram
its telling force - truth that shines
brightly from the records of men at all
times since the people were given q
share in government, truth which may
be discovered today in the columns Of
rabid newspapers that denounce as an
archists and demagOgues the men now
enlisted with Democracy in the battle
against plutocracy. Always in the his
tory of the world the men who have at
tackled the possessors of special privi-
leges, the leaders who have ranked hui
mainly higher than wealth, have met
the charge of demagogy. Cromwell aud
his followers were demagogues in the
estimation of the lords and gentlemen
of England, and the cavalier of that
time 1idiculed the closely cropped head
of the Puritan much as the brilliant
journalist of today entertains himself,
if not his readers, with shafts of wit
aimed at the flowing hair and whiskers
of what he is pleased to describe as the
typical free silverite. Hirsute fashions
change. but the style of argument en-
ployed to defend an indefensible cause
is the same in all ages. jefferson met
bravely the reproach of demagogy when
as a member of the Virginia house Of
burgesses he checked, as he believed
for all time the development Of an
American aristocracy by prohibiting
laws in recognition of entail and pri-
mogeniture. The world has never har-
bored more conspicuous demagogues
than William Lloyd Garrison and Wen
dell Phillips, nor in the crisis of today
are the prosperous Tory merchants of
Boston more tremendously united in
antagonism to the men who are fighting
for the freedom of all labor than were
they in 1858 to those who preached
from dingy printing Offices and on street
corners the revolutionary doctrine that
black men should not be enslaved.
How many of our politicians have en-
joyed sudden apotheosis and become
statesmen by virtue of their quick at
tention to the pulsations of a pocket
book Is it worth while to enumerate
them? Have the masses of the people OF
New York yet forgotten how suddenly
the wealthy classes, who had for years
vituperated and denounced David b.
Hill, became his fervent adulators and
hailed him as the greatest exponent of
true Democracy when he rose in the
United States senate as the chief oppo-
nent of the income tax? The present high
esteem of Thomas G. Platt is typical. 1t
covers the whole case. He is spoils
politician, the builder and the operator
of corrupt political machine. By his
control of country Legislators he mis-
governs New York city at his pleasure.
He invades the rights and liberties of
the citizens. enriches his own son by a
shrewdly devised scheme Of legislation
and for years has stood as the type of
all that the citizen who believes in hon.
est politics and good government holds
abhorrent. Suddenly Platt is put upon
pedestal. He is no longer described as
the "boss," hut as statesman. By
few days work in behalf of the gold
standard at the st. Louis convention he
has blinded the eyes of all the possessors
of special privileges to his record and to
his political character. His sins are
forgotten. He has done penance TO the
pocketbook and is absolved.
The men who are enlisted this year
ON the side of the great uncounted mil
lions striving for justice and for wider
measure of freedom may well bear with
indifference the reproaches of their adj
versaries. They stand in good company,
for the most shining names OF history
became immortal in the face of just such
obloquy as they have now to bear. The
statesmen responsive to the pulsarions
of the pocketbook have raised for us an
issue greater and more stimulating than
any reform of the currency system.
They have welded together in solid pha-
lanx the forces Of capitalism and the
agents of monopoly. They have raised
the question whether men or money
shall govern this nation. They have Of
fered to the people of a self governing
nation, nation founded upon the prin-
oiple that every man shall be protected
in his right to vote as he will. the spec
tacle Of employers striving to control
the votes Of their employees, of credit
ors seeking to coerce their debtors in the
tAciOlno VI tiic AiShto VI OAbAohnhip.
The vulgar and overbearing Hanna is
no exaggerated symbol Of the issue
which today divides the people. Pre-
oisely as he has denied to his workmen
the right to combine for mutual proteo-
tion against his exaotions. SO the party
of which he is the ruler--a party which
has ceased to be Republican and has
become plutocratio = strives to make
money usurp the powers Of men and
deny to the people the right TO protect
themselves by their votes. As he made
presidential candidate with money. SO
seeks he now TO make him president by
tho Same ignoble means. AS 10 his aid
has come every monopolist, every trust
magnate, every tax eater and every par
asite upon our economic system, so must
the people, who toll and are lean that
Hanna and his kind must be far, rally
IN opposition.
II to battle for the self respect Of the
individual. for political independence,
foi wider and juster diffusion Of the
good things OF earth. for the rights OF