Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-07-21

that sort of alarmism has found its
sympathizers, and is used by the pro-
fessional ''bears" for disturbing con-
fidence. These however are mainly
the conclusions of shallow observers or
hasty judges of events; who have not
fairly weighed the question whether
the millions of.loyal citizens of the
South and West have degeuerated to
the type of reckless revolutionists pic
tured in the lurid resolutions of the
Chicago platform. These alarmists
have not seriously weighed the alterna-
tives whether such mass of people
have become suddenly transformed
into red revolutionists, or whether the
men who got themselves surreptitious-
ly chosen to represent them as delegates
have sought to make them such for
their own despica bly, selfish purposes
If the sentiment,of sectional and class
discomfort is as unanimous among the
millions of Western and Southern vot-'
ers aslit was among the delegates from
those States, it is inconceivably strange
that the fact should have been so little
known, and should have been SO little
expressed through the representative
press. Such sudden transformation
from order-respecting citizenship to
the bold anarchic attitude expressed in
the Chicago platform is something of
which we are not prepared to concede
our fellow citizens of other sections to
be capabl 1t is quite conceivable
that the embarrassment arising from
the general decline in the prices of
farm products may have created dis
content and led to a demand for mis-
taken remedies But, among Alueri-
cans, discomfort and repudiation and
anarchism stand very widely apart;
they do not join hands in day; nor
are there any grievances for which our
people haye eyer been wont to seek
satisfaction through robbery and ruin.
Our politics and our politicians, how
ever, are less pure than our people.
There are few things which they al
low to stand between them and power
or spoils. If they haye lost the con-
fidence of the people, they know how
to raise false issues by false representa-
tions in order to win the support of the
masses most liable to be misled and
most susceptible of being excited by
infiaming issues. Pre-eminently that
was the game played in the Chicago
Convention. The leaders of that gath
ering had no case on which they could
appeal to the sober Judgment of the
country; they therefore created a fcti-
tious one, expressly constructed to ap-
peal to the masses of our least educat-
ed population. They boldly resorted to
the desperate expedient of raising
campaign of passion and revolution;
and the Chicago platform is the out
come of that daring scheme. Probably
few will be more surprised at that out
come than the very people whom these
delegates were chosen to represent. |
No doubt, many of the farmers and |
planters will be captured by pro- |
gram appealing so hatteringly to their
cupidity: but it may surely be safely |
assumed that there is a much larger
who will resent the gross
imputation upon their loyalty and
good citizenship which this platform
casts in their faces For one, l am far
from being able to admit that this
Union is made up of men who thus
suddenly can be tempted into traitor
ship to it's sacred bonds. | haye too
much confidence in the morals of
and in their faithfulness to
their flag to believe that they can be
thus misled, until their own votes have
openly convicted them of lack of
fealty. HENRY CLEws.