Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-06-06
Common Sense in Maine.

Common sense IN Maine.
That Maine is a good State to live iii
has become an axiom. Nevertheless, it
is pleasant and profitable to OCCASION
ally review the fact and refresh our
knowledge of the conditions that have
brought it all about. Now that the
handful of Populists in this State have
thrust upon us a diagnosis which dis
agrees with general opinion of the sit
uation of the country; have insisted
that the only two alternatives are, on
the one hand carnage rivalling that of
the French Revolution. on the other
free silver at a ratio of 16 to / and $50
per capita of greenbacks.it seems an APP
iropriate occasion to congratulate our
selves that the number of such ex-
treme Missionaries as these are few
within the confines of the
good State of Maine. They do not
seem to thrive in this climate. The
people of Maine have for generations
absorbed and inculcated respect for
their credit, have learned that some
thing can't be had for nothing. AS ii
people they have taken pride in paying
their just debts, have done so and laid
up something besides for a rainy day"
They have had thrift enough to ac-
quire a good living and self respect
enough when they borrowed a dollar to
repay it, not with fifty cent piece but
with a dollar just as good as they Dor
rowed. and they have common sense
enough to know that if they cheat their
creditors they will lose their power to
borrow in the future and eventually
cheat themselves. There are a few, a
lamentable, who think they are far and
| away superior to other men in the mat
ter of statesmanlike foresight when
they advocate a limit of $50 a head in
greenbacks but would not limit the
| fiat coinage of fifty cents worth of
silver into what would purport to be a
dollar; who attribute the good times"
during the Civil war and Immediately
following to greenbacks, entirely over
north of the Mason and Dixon line be-
came non-producerS at the same time
that they became abnormal consumers
of material, to make which gave work
to the remaining n-producers. They
call those good times when this govern
ment was spending S3.500,000 a day,
leaving it to another generation to pay
) the bills.
| There doubtless are others in this
State, who while not avowed Populists
are tainted with such ideas. But the
good, sturdy common sense of the vast
majority repudiates such doctrine.
While the Democracy of the nation is
passing into the control of just such
Missionaries, that party in Maine, we be-
lieve, will have strength enough to re-
sist, Notwithstanding it is apparent
| these views are entertained by not
few within the ranks of that organiZa-
ton in this State. They have not how
ever. gone mad as has the party in
Kentucky. When the Democrats of
that state met in convention Wednes-
| day the delegates went wild for free
silver and hooted and jeered any men,
ton of the names of Carlisle or Cleve-
land. All through the South and in
are going about telling the people that
the Rothschilds hold this nation by the
| throat; that the President, the secre
tary of the treasury and John Sherman
have sold themselves to the money
power and have acquired in that way
fortunes amounting to millions The
people hear and believe, it is said. At
least q good many of them do. al
though the new converts make such a
noise that minority of them can now
out howl the majority. We are not
convinced but that in some states
nominally given over to the free
silver lunacy the majority Of people are
for sound currency Yet the fact re-
mains that large numbers believe all
the exaggerated and utterly false and
nonsensical utterances of the most
Tillmanesque oratory and go home to
brood over imaginary wrongs they
never suffered and to plan for revenge,
what will virtually be cutting off their
: noses to spite their faces.
Down here in Maine, the Tilmans, the
? Buffers and red headed roosters of the
Rockies" would be laughed out of
political existence and would be rotten
!, egged from the stump were not Maine
people courteous as rule. Maine has
already done very much toward leaven-
J., ing the national lump and If bit of our
!, leaven were put into the executive de-
partment of the nation next March the
u country would have much to be thank
0 full for.