The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-08-13

tlllers, the workingmen, the unpreten-
tlous but substantial citizens, in other
words, the producing classes Of the
United States. It's proceedings were
regular, orderly and peaceful. Every
delegate, every state and section was
accorded a respectful hearing. The
delegates from this great com
monwealth, chosen in the usual man.
ner to represent the Democracy of
Pennsylvania, participated throughout.
They were no better and no worse
than their brethren from other states.
But now these men, delegates of the
millions Of Democratic voters, to.
gether with the farmers, laborers and
the great multitude of the industrious
well-to-do people of our country,
transacting their business in regular
form according to the rules and tradi-
tions Of the oldest political party in
the Union, are denounced by the Or
gans of intrenched monopoly as for
tuitous assemblage Of ignorant ia.
natics and redhanded anarchists. If
this indecent and insolent charge
should be accepted as true by the
civilized world, it would produce a
more decided injury to American
credits, public and private, than all
the evils Of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver predicted by its op-
ponents, though those evils should be
thousand fold greater than they
pretend to foresee. But fortunately
it will be accepted nowhere. The
American people are honest and law
abiding. They are not turbulent.
They are not rioters. They are not
anarchists. The masses have gov
erned this, their own country, wisely
and well for more than a century, and
its Republican institutions, its fnan.
cial honor and all its interests of every
kind will be far safer in their hands
than in those of the arrogant few, who
now as ever denounce the people as
unfit for selfgovernment, and propose
to build an aristocracy of wealth upon
the ruins of the republic. 1t is well
to recall at this close Of the century
the similar rawlings of the "monocrats"
when Thomas Jefferson led the people
back to the possession of their own in
1900. At that time Jefferson, Mad
ison, Gallatin and the honest and
sturdy Republicans, who stood for
constitutional liberty, were reviled
almost as bitterly as are the Demo
Gratis of to-day. The language in
which the favorites of government
under the Federalist administration
"the rich and the we'll born," as Col.
Hamilton described them, the owners
of the public debts and the applicants
for tariff protection and bounties-
assailed the decent people of the
country at that time, was nearly the
same as that in use by the same class
! to-day in their vain attempt to shame
and terrorize the abused masses from
proper reassertion of their undoubt-
ed right to the control and manage
ment of their own government. But
it is hackneyed and outworn; it has
done service too long to be effective.
The people understand its purpose
and its only effect will be to arouse
them further and to increase the enor-
nous majority, with which they pro
pose to seat their brave young leader
in the chair of Jefferson.
What shall be the part of the De
mocracy of Pennsylvania in the law
| full, peaceful, but not less glorious,
political revolution which is so plainly
in progress2
Now that the issues are clearly pre-
sented, is there any just reason to
doubt the patriotism of the voters o.
this state more than Of others9 We
do not think so. On the contrary we
know that, with thorough organiza
ton and earnest and united effort
many legislative and congressional,
districts now held by the monopolist:
may be redeemed, and we are moi
without strong hopes that the electora
votes of this great industrial common
wealth may be placed with those O
the majority-for Bryan and Sewall
The great popular tide, rising ant
rushing from all quarters of the union
has not broken and turned aside upor
the boundaries of Pennsylvania. L
is sweeping through this state as well
Our reports are of the most encourag
q, ing description. The interests of thu
people here are the same as the inter
ests of the people elsewhere. All W.
= shall need to array majority of tn,
voters of Pennsylvania against tn,
common enemy, that is to say, tn,
trusts and monopolies, syndicated up
on the other side, is an efficient or
ganization which will reach the peopl
in their home districts, appeal to thei
manhood and patriotism and brin.