The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-24
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
AGRAPHICDEsCRmTION OFTHE
POLITICAL SITUATION.
Plenty Of Candidates--A Tangie ia the
seventh District.

We used 10 have our politics In the
fall of the year, but II seems TO have
worked back into tho spring. Stump
speaking has begun in earnest Can
didates are looming up all over the
state and every one is ohock full Of pa
triotism and knows exactly how to save
tho country Those who are Ia Office
have saved II several times and viii do
it again il the people will let them.
Five thousand dollars is a wonderful
fertilizer 10 patriotism. And besides
having saved the country man wants
to bo vindieated. lie wants the people
10 rise up and say, "Well done, thou
good and faithful servant" Then
again there is the line OF promotion
that must be observed. In the army
a lieutenant aspires to DO q captain
and a captain TO be a colonel and a
colonel TO be a brigadier. just
30 the young lawyer must go to
to the legislature a few times and get
acquainted with the boys and by and
by the boys will elect him TO the bench
and that brings him in contact with
the people Of his circuit and in course
OF time he climbs into congress and
then maybe into the governors chair
or the United States senate. The pro-
fessional candidate wants to be climb
ing the golden stair all the time and
he could do it if there wasen. some
things in the way. There are some
selfish people in this world who don't
want man to have but little nor have
that little long. By the time a man
has fairly settled down in congress and
learned how to save the country and
has fertilized his patriotism with 49,
600 or $4,000 he hears a voice away
down in his district saying 'Rotate,
rotate, rotate" And by and by he
hears another and another and so he
gets leave of absence and comes home
to mend his fences.
But there is no telling where we are
at down here in the seventh, for poll
tics is in an awful tangle. We have
got two democratic silver candidates
in the field right now and one indie
pendent, who, like DR.. FELTON,, defes
the field, and there will soon be gold
bug backed by the administration and
before long the fusion candidate of
the populists and republicans will give
a Comanche whoop and let loose the
dogs of war and "cry hayock" and the
spoils of Office. OF course, the old
time rock-ribbed democrats will stick
to their party if they can find it, but
there is lot of restless souls who say
they can't we worsted and intend to
vote for whom they dogon please.
They are discordant, discovered, belli-
gerent, and, like King David's little
army, include "all who are in distress
or in debt or.are discontinued. My good
friend, Newt Tumlin, said a long
time ago that the only way to
get even with the republicans
was to zine EN-, and hear some
oldtime democrats say they are going
to do it if our platform don't suit them.
But if the fusion Of populists and re-
publicans does take place then the re-
publican platform won't suit our dis.
affected democrats, for it will be a
straddle both on silver and the tariff
There are a good many protection
democrats around here and more gold
bugs, but it is rare to find democrat
who favors both. Among the Office
seekers the spoils will cover every
thing, for as one told me yesterday
these party platforms are only intend
ed to get in on. Passengers must no
stand on the platform while the trair
is in motion. The way it looks nov
platform cannot be made that vii
harmonize the people Of any party
The cohesive power of public plunde
may harmonic the leaders and the of
flee seekers, but the people will no
follow like they have done. They hav
lostconfdence in parties and platforms
They are better educated POLITICAL,
than they have ever been and will no
go it blindly. This is an age Of snr
prises and nobody can foretell wht
will be the next president nor repre-
sentative from the seventh district
We have not forgotten that DR.. FELTON,
an independent, carried this distric
three times, nor that the populists nov
elect their representatives. to the legis
lature from this county, nor that thi
county went republican when Garfield
was elected and there is more politica
dissatisfaction in these parts now thar
ever before. The people have goot
cause for their discomfort. Take
man who four years ago bought a goot
little farm for 81, 900 and paid so, OOC
down and gave his notes at one
two and three years for the rest O
the purchase money and still owe
it with interest and he can't sci
the farm for more than 80, 600 now
That man is holding somebody to blam,
for his desperate condition. He il
like the Irishman who said he did no
know what party he belonged to, but
begorra, he was agin the government