The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-07-17

lucTc Will III all Piop"pi'y ~
another Democratic TICKET in tn
field, for which those who believe i
neither free coinage nor in monopol
tariff can cast their votes in obedi
ence to their freeman's oath. Thos
Democrats who believe in the histori
principles Of the party, who see tn
need of the maintenance OF thos
principles against plutocracy on tn
one side and against the excuses ant
the revolutionary tendencies which
plutocracy, has provoked on the other
have no right to take the side o
plutocracy rushing to support of Nc
Kinley. The doctrine of doing evil t
accomplish good or even of proven
ing other or greater evil, has ne
righteous standing place in the worlt
OF morals. Besides, in this case as
in all others, under the Eternal law
such action would fail of its sophisto
cal purpose.
The popular swept the
Chicago convention was not in it,
ultimate elements an expression
IN erely on the silver question. 1t was
the bursting of long and deep seated
discomfort, whose causes are those
for which VIM. Mckinley and Re
publican policies stand-policies that
have perverted in large degree the
beneticent purposes OF our institutions,
that in EXCESSIVE protection rofits,
in railroad subsidies, in corporate dis
honesty, in stock watering, in the or
ganizaion of trusts, and all these mani
fold ways for which wrong legislation
has provided the way or the aid, have
built up in 30 years more great for
tunes in this country than 30 centuries
of aristocratic privilege, priomgeniture
and all the rest, have built up in Eu
rope.
All this evil has been wrought, as
Democrats have believed,
by violation of Democratic principles
in the nation and in the states alike.
The essence of the Democratic phil
osophy is the utmost possible limit Of
functions, and especially
1oes it oppose the delegation or the
out, under whatever pretense,
Of these functions to private interest.
But these are the things that have
"a used the conditions against which
he south ana west are in revolt, The
crime of this long course
VI wrong was the yoking together, by
me of the corrupt bargains which are
ver spawned by the principle of leg
station for selfish interests, of the Me-
linley and the Sherman silver pur-
base acts, inevitably bringing the |
isaster and depression from which |
he country is still suffering severely |
nd for which these and kindred poll |
les had long been preparing the way.
The silver men say that demoneti
alton, doubling debt by halving the
honey of ultimate redemption, was
art of this program of legislating for
be few against the many. There is
ruth to the charge, though with a
God many notifications and though
!, is to be remembered in candor,
nat decentralization was also to a
lrge extent an error of judgment in
ealing with very complicated prob
m, into which many other. nations as
ell as ours fell. The trouble is, not
it'll the essential justice of their com {
laint but with the remedy the silver
en- purpose, which, we fully believe,
ust fail to accomplish what they
ipect, must at least put business
trough another terrible strain and s
I'd in making things worse instead OF
,tter by giving us system of silver 4
onometalism and ranking us in this /
spect with the second class nations of r
10 world, instead of the genuine and =
able bimetalism which can only be t
cured by the united action of the S
eat nations and to which those ma Y
lns, that need it as much as we do, L
III surely come if we do not by ILL., O
vised action relieve them of the A
ed. t
The situation for conscientious Dem a
ats is something like that which q
the high minded Girondists {
the French Revolution. Shall they c
De with the oppression that has
evoked the revolution, knowing that n
successful it can only pile up fur b
er wrath for the future? Shall |,
ey on the other hand so with the N
collins, with whom they have been t;
agreement up to this point, but m
10 are plainly bent on rash, and al
and self-defeating &C W
N? Or shall they, standing firmly h
clear ground of right, true to the fo
lat faith which involves so much II,
mankind, that has come down from II
ferson and Jackson and Tilden, al
peal to reason and moderation and M
'tice? 1t may be that they will 20 la
wn, in political sense, as the as
did in mortal one. But an h,
3 of enlightenment bids US hope for &C
tier things and faith in free govern gi
mt itself requires it. IT
n such crisis the argument that a of
bird ticket is hopeless, is not "
rtn moments consideration.