Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-08-26
The Cause of Disrontent.

ard seeks for the cause and origin of
the popular discomfort which culmina-
ted in the free silver craze at Chicago.
He says truly that "a system of plum.
der by taxation has created a national
distress for which reputation and ruin
are supposed to be remedies. He ar.
CUES that the operation throug twenty
years and more Of the system now
known as McKinleyism produced wide
spread distress among the farming
classes, with the inevitable result Of
breeding discomfort which now
blindly turns for relief to remedies that
are. in his well chosen words. "radi.
cal, impracticable, illusory and danger
Gus.
All this is true enough, but it is only
part of the truth. II we are to search
out the genesis OF this revolution, for
instruction and guidance, we must seek
not one but all the causes and condi.
ton that have given it birth. Mr.. Bay.
ard reminds us that he said four years
ago all that he says now. There has
been four years failure, then, to ap-
ply remedies, to correct abuses, to
avert danger by righting wrongs.
This is the lamentable fact. The
World also four years ago pointed out
the potent causes of the growing dis
content, and it has not failed at any
point to warn the administration, the
legislative branch and the money power
OF the disastrous consequences of the
blunders they were making, and which,
in spite of its warnings, they have mde.
The lamentable event at Chicago, and
the disordered condition of the popular
mind out of which that event grew as
necessary consequence, are unfortu
nately literal fulfillments of The
Worlds oft repeated prophecies.
As Mr.. Bayard must also know. the
existing Administration came into be
Ing by virtue of a great popular up
rising against long endured misgov.
ernment. 1t tcame into power specially
pledged to reforms that it has strange
ly refused even to attempt. If any one
doubts that this failure has been one
OF the chief factors of the discomfort
which finds so dangerous a manifesto
tion in the Chicago platform, he has
only to read that platform in order
to satisfy himself. He will find the
greater part Of its arrangements direct
ted not against the political antagon
lists of Democracy, but against the sit
ting administration of the Democratic
party itself.
When this administration began ali
the reins of power were in its hands
the reins of government as we'll as the
reins of party direction. Mr.. Cleveland
was not only President; he was the en-.
Enthusiastically chosen champion of his
party, its absolutely trusted head, its
Moses, who had assumed the task OF
leading the people out of the wilder
ness of plutocracy. "plunder by taxa
tion, class legislation trust extortiou
and government by corporate influ
ence. The people had given him O
Congress Democratic in both branches
with which to carry out the reforms
promised by Democracy and by him
self. How did he use his great oppor
tunities?
The Chicago platform of 1909 prom
ised policy of bimetallism by inter
national agreement, and pledged the
President to seek such agreement by
every means in his power. Yet even
when Congress by resolution called
upon him to invite another conference
to that end he refused to fulfill his owr
and his party's pledge, or to grant the
obvious desire of the great body of the
people. With that extraordinary con
tempt for all opinions but his owr
which has come to be a conspicuou,
feature OF his character since he fell
under Wall Street influences, hi
calmly put aside the Congressional
demand without.so much as word ol
explanation. A sincere effort on hi
part to carry out the pledge, such a,
Congress suggested and The Worlt
strenuously urged, would have render
ed the present silver craze impossible
The people, even those of them who
were most impatient, were satisfied t
wait If only they could see the prom iset
efforts being made. 1t was only wher
they saw all promises broken, al
pledges contemptuously ignored, ant
the leader chosen to free them from
the thrall OF plutocracy fallen unde
its control, that they went mad ant
gave ear to the preachments of Popul
ism.
Again, as Mr.. Bayard must know, an
other pledge of the party, and on,
which secured enormous support for /
in 1892, was that it would enforce tn,
antitrust laws, which had been pu
upon the statute books in answer to
universal popular demand, but which
the Harrison administration had left
dead letter. To this pledge Mr.. Cleve
land additionally bound himself b,
voluntary utterance in his inaugura
address. Yet, before the people VIII,
listened to that address had lett Wash
.ington, he put at the head of the De
partment of Justice the favorite attor
ney of the trusts-a man who ha,
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