Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-13

! plant and discomfort. And what Is the
| explanation7 In the first place, the big
buyers and packers combines are able to
| fix the prices, regardless OF the law OF
supply and demand. depressing them for
the producer aw initiating them for the
| consumer. Then, In the next place. the
| large reduction made by the present tariff
| law In the former duty on foreign cattle
has introduced a form OF competition that
| Is ruinous to the home producer. The cheap
| cattle OF Mexico are a predominating guam
! tity in all OF the leading western markets.
| IL costs little or nothing to raise them,
and the owners are able to pay the COM
parativcly small duty that is now imposed,
| In addition to the cost OF transportation,
| which Is usually special rate and still
| sell them in st. Louis or Chicago at prices
| below the actual expense of raising the
! native cattle.
The farming class is not the only one that
has reasons for unrest and anxiety about
the future. Like conditions exist in other
| Industries and other lines OF honest en-
delvor. The greatest incentive to diligence
and perseverance on the part OF the wage
Garner is the hope OF some day being him-
| self an employer and having a business OF
his own; but the chances in that respect
have become so limited as hardly to be
worth considering any more. The restricting
and defeating influence of the trusts and
monopolies Is felt everywhere. II q cumpe-
! tent and enterprisng mechanic sets up a
| large concerns will not let him thrive and
so he Is forced to go back and be a journey
man again. The small dealer In any kind of
merchandise is undersold by his big com
potitors to such an extent that he has to dis
card his dream OF independence and become
clerk AMI an underlng in order to earn
| -to-mouth living. 1t Is no wonder that
men thus circumstanced are discontented
and they are not likely to be put In a salts
| fed mood by being told that their complaints
~ hat AhnNs 1tNstne In of
great aggregatiole; that the true logic of
| lie is resignation to the inevitable, and all
that sort of stun. They know what hurts
| them, and they know, furthermore, how re-
lief can be given, If the lawmakers care to
take hold of the matter in an honest and
determined way.
There is nothing nebulous about these
causes of discomfort They are plain, pal
pable, unmistakable; and the republican
party can not afford to ignore or trine with
them The men whom they vitality concern
are not Insurgents against the institutions
or society, demanding a new heaven and a
new earth. There are seditious and pesti-
ferrous individuals among them, unques-
tionably, but the great majority of them
would shoulder their guns at the tap of the
drum in defense of the government or the
rights of property. And there are a good
many of them, II Is we'll to remember-so
many that the idea of treating them as an
accidental assemblage of fantastic elements
that has been dispersed and forever silenCei
by tho defeat of free silver is an absIrdity.
Nothing is to be gained either by misrep-
rcsentation or by self-deception. The prob
lens to be solved, the evils to be remedied,
can not be superciiously sneered away.
1t is not merely those who voted for Bryan
that are to be considered. but also a large
proportion of these who voted for McKin-
ley We have reason to believe that the
lucky rise in wheat during the last days
of the campaign was worth more to the le-
publicans in critical localities than all of the
arguments for the gold standard; and one
would not hazard much in saying that with
out the influence of the protection sentiment
the general result might easily have been
different. The people have voted
to restore 1t to the control of the govern
mont, not simply to keep the currency in
good order but to grapple with the various
evils that produce distress and prevent pres
pority. 1t is a party with splendid past,
and the possibility of an equally splendid fu-
ture. The hope Of the country is not in
its resources of evasion and postponement,
but in its courage and its straightforward
ness; and its success depends upon its strict
adherence to the truth that Justice is ever
the best of all excellent things"