The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-21
SOWING AND REHPING.
The Chicago Platform the Logical
Outcome of Democratic Policies.

Outcome of Democratic Policies.
To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
Whoever gave attention to the proc, ID
ings Of the late National Democratic con-
vention must have been impressed frs.
with the marked ability ana high stand
ing of all who composed 1t, the ward poll
tician and the party heller constituting
so large part of the Chicago convention,
being wholly wanting; and, secondly, with
the tone of serious alarm every speaker
manifested. 1t was called for convenience,
sound-money convention, but it was
plain to see from every utterance that the
mere matter of the free coinage Of silver
with all it implied was quite secondary
with every speaker. While unsparing in
their criticism of that project as an eco
nonlic measure, every man who spoke at
all said. in substance, that such a blunder
could not be fatal to our country for, with
our recuperative energies, might adapt
ourselves to any system of finance aud
yet live; but when the avowed purpose of
the Chicago convention, To override the
courts and to elect "a President who 1youid
not enforce laws, sho1ld be an accom-
plished fact, then anarchy would take
the place of law, and neither life ncr
property would be safe, and the boodiest
days of the French revolution would fol-
low.
No thoughtful man will eontrovert this
but would it not nave been well for these
eminent men to have frankly confessed
that the alarming words and deeds of the
Chicago convention, its platform and it's
ticket were only the logical outcome of
Democratic doctrine Cor two-tkirds of q
century? They themselves hal every one
participated frequently in conventions
which had uniformly taught precisely the
same political dogmas. with only this diff
ference they did not propose to immedi-
ately put their theory into practice;
for until then the element of the party
for whose delectation such doctrines he'd
been taught were expected to figure only
in ward meetings and municipal ele, ,icns.
serving only as contingent in national
affairs it was only when it could capture
and control a national convention and
plan the entire overthrow of law they
took alarm. This was more than they
Not many are now living who remem-
Der the insdious manner of the nitro
American politics. but it Is matter CT
history. 1t had existed, of course. in
degree IRON hee the 6degnnng o put no matt ai
about 1890, when General Jackson, then
President, established his personal organ
the Globe, at Washington, SYSTEMATICALLY
defining its position by a displayed leg
end as a part of the head of the paper
1.-The world is governed too much" The
effect, if not the intent. of this was to
create unrest among those who needed
the restraints of law, and to turn them
to the Democratic party for relief from
the tyrant called government. Almost i'm
mediately an attempt to apply the doc
defy the law in South Carolina; but Gen.
Jackson had intended no such an early
application hence ne prompI;tliy crushed orand
But notwithstanding this, that seed
thought Of anarehem vas 3, in corp,
written. that of 1885. in, the words, THE
idea is quite ungrounded that on entering
right ri5sh and it has been been repeated in one
form or another in every Democratic plat
form from that day to this. except by the
party was too much employed in the
second attempt to apply abstract Dem
case case being in sympathy with the doctrine
and the proposed application; and, except
which was justly alarmed at the method
of application proposed by the Chicago
convention. The germ, of anarchy, the
deadly microbe which breeds disregard
for law and a contempt for courts and
demand for President who will not inter
fere with the march of Coxey army, but
publicly ncite it. with the violence OF
a mob is found in these two forms of ex-
pressing the same thought. In the later
same spirit and sentiment have found form
in invectives against all forms of concen-
trated wealth which are NECESSARY TO the
building of railroads. or mills, or factories,
or the carrying on of commerce. and in de-
rnands for personal liberty without which
no Democratic platform has ever been con-
sidered complete except those two men
toned. To all these necessary concentra-
lions of wealth the odious aDnelation OF
monopoly has been applied, and by plain
element now called by Mr.. Bryan the
masses" has been taught that II was
patriotic duty to hamper, # not to destroy
them. The only difference between the plat
form of 1896 and all preceding Democratic
platforms is that, having readopted the
tinne-honored Democratic principle they
proceeded to demand Supreme Court and
a President who will apply 1t, and that the
owners of the silver mines of the world
are the only corporations that are not
monopoies, and that therefore they are
exempt from Democratic maledictions-
That these able men do not overestimate
the danger which turks in the election to
the presidency of such an unbalanced and
incompetent man as MIR. Bryan no one will
dare assert. That they ought not and will
not vote for him is certain but do
they not owe more to their country and to
themselves than this merely negative ac-
tion? Ought they not at once, and in the
most public and emphatic manner, proceed
to revise so much of the Democratic creed
as claims for it's party special regard for
1.-The Masses More than half of the vot-
Il for sixty years by the false plea that
il is in some way the special friend of the
common people. By this false pretense they
have captured nine-tenths OF the unedu-
Gated and unmana gsable foreigners who
have sought our shores for plumber or seek
ing homes.
IL is DdItty POoDAp4N S-NiANiiH
which SO easily captured the Chicago con-
yention will not elect their candidate. If
they do and all the probable horrors of an
archv follow which these able men depict
ed in their speeches, they must accept the
situation. rejecting that they sowed wind
hoping only for a gentle breeze that would
watt their political bark into port but they
are reaping the legitimate and devastating
whirlwind 1t is a clear case of wind SOW
ing and whirlwind reaping. u. l.. SEE.
indianapolis. Sept. 49,