The San Francisco call., 1896-07-09
DEM0CRAOY'S PURPOSE.

The speech of Senator J. w. Daniel, tenn
porary chairman of the convention, voiced
the new doctrine of the Democratic party.
There were other speakers, but their utter
ances were merely sound and fury, signi-
tying nothing. The principles of the party
which had been proclaimed by fifteen pre-
ceding National Conventions as containing
the sum total of the desire of the party's
heart were ruthIessly cast aside and Alt
geld's tale of woe substituted for them.
MIR. Daniel put it well when he said "the
party began with the sunrise in Maine and
spread into sunburst in Louisiana and
Texas" When the sun bursts there is
everlasting darkness, and there is where
the once grand and glorious Democratic
party lies weeping and wailing and gnash-
ing its teeth. How are the mighty fallen
There was cunning in Altgeld's purpose
in selecting Virginia's great orator to pro-
claim that upon coming to the parting of
the ways the Democracy had taken the
left-hand road. The occasion needed Just
such glitteIing generalities and rhetorical
rubbish as Mr.. Daniel could weave and
dig up to divert the mind and cover over
the dastardly work. But will there not be
ga Daniel come to judgment" by and by,
when the spirit of the Democracy of Ief-
ferson and Jackson cries out for rescue
from Altgeld's whited sepulcher? The
principles laid down by the father of
Americas Declaration of Independence.
and which were defended by the hero of
New Orleans, rolled into football by
son of the mother of Presidents for an
archists to kick hither and yonI
1t is not surprising that in sounding the
Keynote" of the campaign Mr.. Daniel
should lay all the troubles that have come
to humanity, including the fall of Adam.
at the door of the money question, but it
is surprising that man of his character
should become such an abject slave of Alt
geld. Mr.. Daniel stated to the convention
that the commercial failures, industrial in
activity, idle workmen and general de-
preston in recent years all came as the
legitimate consequence of the so-called de-
monetiZation of silver in 1873, but he
knows very we'll that the tone of business
operations of all kinds was generally
healthy and that the wage-earners had
plenty of opportunity to employ their
skill and energy in all the years between
1873 and the substitution OF Democratic
free trade for reasonable protection. He
knows very we'll that it is not the ''silver
question" but the operation of the Wilson
German tariff act that has Kept the busi-
ness interests OF the country in the en-
brace of disaster the past three years.
Mr.. Daniel made no reference at all to
the operation of the tariff law which his
party enacted, except to roundly abuse
the Supreme Federal Court for not decid-
ing the income act constitutional in def
ance of what the constitution distinctly
declares. He skinned on the crest of the
Populist silver wave. and crowded his
speech full OF bold and broad assertions,
but not one of his suggestions was fortified
with logical reason. But then the new
leaders of his party are masters in the art
of deception, and in ratio TO their ability
to mislead the people will they succeed in
laying hands upon the machinery OF the
Government.