The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1896-10-15
THE ISSUE is CLEAR.

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The politicians, eminent and other
wise, who have holted to Mckinley
appear generally TO be of the modes
| opinion that tie Democracy must e
to pieces for want Of their leadership
Because of their narrowness and ego
tism they are incapable of compre
hending the present situation. The rea
cause of their detection is that the
Democratic party has become too dem
ocratic to suit them.
There is a wide difference between
the average bolting politician and thc
citizen who, believing in the gold stand
ard, has resolved to cast his ballot fol
| the Republican candidate. The politi-
clan as rule finds small difficulty in
accommodating himself to any plat.
| form so long as compliance holds out
| the prospect of personal reward, but a
platform which cuts the Democratic
party loose from the plutocracy and in
vites the hostility of the predatory rich
is one that seems insane and suicidal
W lut w hSiS
are campaign funds to come from if
wealth is antagonized? Principle and
devotion to the interests of the common
people are all very well for oratorical
purposes, but party without Il full
war chest offends every native and ac-
CURED instinct Of the practical politi-
clan.
The Democratic party of the United
States knew what it was about and
knew what it would have to face when
in national convention it declared for
free silver and gold and a stable dollar.
1t knew that it would have to meet all
the tremendous power of the whole
privileged class, who have come to be-
lieve that they possess license to prey
upon the masses. A nation of twenty
six millions was taxed to starvation to
maintain the two or three thousand
aristocrats who glittered around Louis
NV. and Antoinette at Versailles, and
those gorgeous gentlemen and ladies
were not more profoundly convinced
that Providence had created France for
heir benefit than are our own money
grandees that their special interests
are paramount to all other conditions.
That they should rise in body against
the Democracy when it has the cour-
age to declare war upon their unjust
privileges is only natural. 1t is only
natural, too. that all the faithful re-
+ai ir Of tho ulIItnrrortr c1, Ir,,
the sword ana charge upon the DemOc-
racy With fury superior even to that
of their masters. 1t has ever been so
with retainerS. There are multitudes
of dependents on the wealthy who are
more capitalistic than the capitalists.
Such of these dependents as have call
cd themselves Democrats obey the law
of their parasitic being by going over
to Hanna, advance agent of the plutoc-
racy. who is wallowing in money.
But as the United States happens to
be populated chiefly by men, not coolies,
the Democratic party asks with conf
dence for the support of the plain peo-
pie whose battle it is fighting. The
contest is between those who make
things and those who take things. The
issue is too clear to be obscured. On
the Republican side are ranged all the
men whose hands are habtually in the
peoples pockets, all the men who seek
to use the power of the Government to
further enrich themselves all the shear
ers of the wool of the labor sheep, all
the men who understand and practice
the art of getting much for little.
These are the kind of enemies the
Democracy is and ought to be glad TO
fight. They are the natural foes of the
Democratic idea, and their success in
this campaign would advance prodig-
iously the movement for turning the
republic into an oligarchy. The plain
people are not to be deceived. They
the interest of the country. lies in this
great struggle for the supremacy of
manhood over money. As for the lead
ers who have gone, let them go. Gen
erals who deem it wise policy TO be
friendly with the enemy are not the |
sort of generals who win victories that |
tell for Democratic principles and the |
welfare of the masses. The party is |
better off without them.
Every man who owns himself and |
stands by the doctrine that the ma
iOi ity of citizens should rule the re-
public for the common good will vote |
for Bryan. equal rights for all, privi-
ieges for none; that is true Democracy. |
San Francisco Examiner