Great Falls weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1894-1???, 1896-08-28
honor to that possessed by ordinary
democrats, Mr.. Villas appears to be made
OF very common clay.
COCKRAN'S PLATITUDES.

; The gold standard press is e%xhausting
the adjectives in lauding the speech Of
Bourke Cochran made at Madison
square in the interest of Mckinley.
That Mr.. Cochran is an eloquent speaker
cannot be denied; that he pleased his
audience is certain, for they hired him
to please them, and they were bound to
applaud his rounded sentences. The
great garden had been packed with gold
bugs for the occasion, and in tho tiowery
description Of the event printed in the
Chicago TimeB-IIoyald VIC read that the
platform was crowded with millionaire
goldbugs Of both parties who, as they
were recognized, we're vociforoualy
cheorel. Especial pains is taken to
draw q parallel between the personnel Of
tho meeting and that in attendance at
the Bryan gathering. In the eyes Of
the Iimes-Herald correspondent those
who heard Cochran were rich, refined,
and powerful, those who heard Bryan
were poor, beggars in purse and
b''HN+1'Sj WIZ HC''H-'0' may
read strange, yet this is exactly the way
the two audiences were sized up. But
the orator, all through his speech, found
it convenient to talk at the interests of
labor, though he talked to wealth. lie
had tears to shed for the poor working
man who would be ruined by a return to
bimetallism, his heart blcd for them,
though his voice was at no time raised to
tell wealth what it's duties were to the
masses. He painted the ills the people
were bearing and babe them thank
Coo they were no worse. Here is a
sample: "What labor has gained, that
shall it keep. The rate of a that
is paid to it today is the lowest rate we
will ever accept" Who made him a
plural and authorized him to say "wc'
in speaking of labor? Does he not know
that, even while he SPOKE so self
compIacontly, all over the land
thel' arc attempts Of employers
TO still further strike down
wages. Had he not read of tho troubles
at the Brown works in Cleveland, at the
tin plate works in Indiana, and many
Other points where the nottingham is
battling desperately for q chance to live?
He closed his eyes to these great object
Lessons, and in the midst Of his million
aire friends, and juggling their dollars in
his pockots, he THEORETICALLY remarked;
while we have in existence a system Of
mutual cooperation, which is but an
other name for civilized society, all are
admitted to A share in every bounty
which providence showers upon the
earth a pretty platitudc, bat, oh, how
far removed from the truth. To what
bounty OF tho earth are the thousands
Of idle half starved operatives of New
England admitted" They are the VIC
tima OF that policy which holds out to
them honied words and in practice de-
cIarea that they are only entitled to an
existence, that they must be kept
starved to be kept in submission, and
that all the bounty that providence
showers the rich will take care of in the
future as they have in the past, IL his
glittaring generalitiea Mr.. Cochran adj
mitted the depression, but be offered no
remedy, save the election of Mckinley
and the continuance in power of the
gold ~monopolists and trusts. This, he
knew was a false promise, for he is as
we'll aware as any one else that the hard
times are due almost entirely to the
single gold standard, and there can be
40 permanent prosperity until there is
q change in the financial system. An
other point he made was "a government
can never be generous, because if it be
generous to one it must be oppressive 10
others. A nice figure OF speech, but
didn't every man in the sound Of his
voice know that the government had
been more than generous TO the pro-
tectcd manufacturers Of the cast, at the
expense Of the great mass of citizens.
They knew and he knew that these men
to whom the government had been
go generous had expended fabulous sums
of money to secure the nomination and
election Of Mckinley under the promise
that once again they would be benefited.
Saturdays dispatches told us that 80
out Of IS mills in Rhode Island are
cloeod and in Philadelphia rs per cent
OF the woodworking machinery lie idle.
Who is suffering from this? The work
ingmen, OF course. The manufacturers
are all right, for in spite of the shut
downs they have money to contribute to
the Mckinley corruption fund and to
hire such high-priced orators as Bourke
Cochran to prostitute their talents in at
tempts to deceive the people. TO sum
up, there has been contributed to the
republican campaign fund at least
$J,000.0O0. Does any sane man believe
that such a sum is needed or would be
put up unless the contributors were ac-
tuAted by personal. eplGah motiveg and