The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-19
RIVER AT s A. NJ.
THE GOSPEL OF DEMOCRACY.

No words could better convey the
thoughts that lie deep in the hearts
of all true Democrats today than those
spoken by Postmaster General Wilson
at the annual banquet of the New
York chamber of commerce. We have
been waiting for some one so eminent
in station that his voice could not be
ignored, to seize or make an opport H.
nifty for proclaiming anew at this time
the Veritable gospel Of Democracy.
Here it is, with its admonition to Dem
ocrats and Republicans alike, so sound
Alld so needful that we wish it might
be held before the eyes Of every voter
for the four years next to come
II would be as untrue as it would be IRA
tlOnal to suppose that all the millions of
american voters who were massed behind the
flag of free silver were conscious advocates
of reputation and disaster or were less patri-
otto than the mass of their countrymen
Strange as it may SEEM the question of
mains lining the financial integrity of the
country, of keeping good faith in public and
private dealings was confused in the minds
of many citizens with the policy Of defending
a plutocracy, imaginary real whose in
terests were the interests of a class and to
that extent hostile to the interests of the
masses of the people
In the honest belief of a section of the
voters, is becoming fixed the idea that gov
eminent is so administered and that laws are
so framed as to make unjust distribution of
social benefits; to make more difficult the
upward path in life and to narraw the gate
way of opportunity for that vast majority
of youth whose sole dependence is individual
merit and individual effort
If this points to a weak point in our politi-
cal fabric, it is our duty to look fearlessly
and carefully that nOiOt IN m
1t as best we may. IT, on the other hand it
rests on any real basis in our laws or in
the present working of our industrial or
'ganiZation, those laws should be reformed
and that industrial organization should be
brought into harmony with Democratic gov
eminent. If we are to escape in the future
the cries we have heard in this campaign of
the power of plutoeracy, of the classes and
the masses, of the antagonism between cap
ital and labor, and of the gulf between the
rich and the poor, all wrongs or abuses that
breed and foster such ideas must be
patiently and honestly obliterated.
Here is the whole truth; and not the
half-truth which the Bryanites insisted
upon, or the half-truth that the sound
money men are wont to look at with
so earnest a gaze that nothing else
can come within their range of vision
These two elements must be harmo-
il4ZC0 Ny bIlC oOlilS u COlIlP1Ol6 anu
equal justice, if we are to escape all
that we feared during the last cam
paign.
The great body of unrest and dis
campaign was made up, as we have
often said, of honest and patriotic men.
To them the money question was a sec
ondary affair. They did not fully I'M
derstand it, or they could never have
taken the position that they did They
We're led away by the sophistries Of the
silver leaders to imagine that the
things.-of- which they complained were
be remedied by free coinage. In that
they were lamentably in error But
their mistake does not change the fact
that the grave abuses against which
they rose in mutiny, exist, and must
be corrected. If the party which has
been voted into power shall consider
that theslast campaign settled all out
standing issues with the settlement of
that it has now only to go ahead with
raising 1.-The tariff, and letting other
things remain as they are it will be-
tray its own fortunes and bring calam-
ity upon the nation. For this idea
OF millions OF voters that there is
something wrong in our state; that
there is not absolute equality for all;
that the great combinations of capital
exercise an undue influence, both in
the world-of politics and in the world
Of business, is firmly fixed, and is not
without its foundation in fact Be
cause free silver is not a remedy for
the trust ana it's extortions, it was
as inopportunes in this campaign as it
was improper in itself considered.
But the trust and its extortions re-
main. What are we to do with them?
What are7we to do to make the mean
.Se.,.yfss~a