The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-04-25
TiIlman's impending Crisis. -

Senator Tiilman appears to think
his impending crisis will bring as
important consequences as did that
which Hinton II. r. Helper heralded
nearly forty years ago. The gulf be-
tween rich and poor, he believes. is
broader now than it ever was before,
and is rapidly growing broader: cor
poratiOns have a death grip on the
country: public officers are corrupt:
the press is blind and venal. Some
thing is going to happen, he says.
Certainly something" ought to
happen. and happen right off, if
things are as bad as Tillman tells.
Yet here is where Tillman disappoints
expectation. He says he does not
predict war. but 1.-THE conditions are
favOra BILE for some kind of q revOlu-
tion in the next five years. The
"cl.isis. then, is not going to be as
cataclysmic as that which Helper pre-
dicteG Therefore the dramatic unities
are 10 lie violated. and the country
will not ieel much concern about it.
ii Is me political crisis which Till
man also fOreteils, and not his social
crisis that the people will have an in
terest in. III the Chicago Conven-
ton favors the gold Standard" he
said TO Il Denver audience, watch
what / will do. This is Il menace
ot revolt. Il threat of secession. As
anything short of an out and out dec
laration for free coinage at Ii to | by
the United States Immediately and
independently would, in Tillman ;
view. be an Endorsement of the gold
standard. and as the National De
mocracy is hardly mad enough. even
in this year OF its desperation and
folly. to make any suchdeclaratiOnas
this. Democratic split like that of
thirty-six years ago is announced.
We say go your way and We will 20
ours. said Glenn. the spokesman OF
the Mississippi delegation TO the
Northern delegates. when the South
eIn members were leaving the iateful
Democratic National Convention at
Charleston in 1860. But the South
leaves not like Hager driven into the
wilderness friendless and alone for
in sixty days you will find a united
South standing shoulder TO shoulder. .
\ illumination as picturesque and
portentous as this may be expected
from Tillman when he and the rest Of
the IL to ] men withdraw from the
Chicago Convention in July. That is
to say. it will not be entirely safe to
predict that none OF the free cOiners
will Withdraw. The seceders intend
ed from the beginning to rule or
ruin. wrote Alexander II. Stephens
shortly after the Charleston Conven-
tiOn. referring to the Southern dele
gates who left that body: and when
they find they cannot rule. they will
then ruin. They have about enough
power for this purpose: not much
more" 1t is the misfortune of the
Democratic party. with all its wealth
of able leaders of great traditions. to
be sometimes placed at the mercy of
gangs of political brigands in crises
when statesman should be in control.
and when sense Is inperatively de-
manded. The men ike Stephens,
Douglas and Pugh ont numbered the
Yanceys. SOules and TOombses forty
years ago. as the Clevelands. Carlisle
and Palmers outalmber the Tillmans.
Altgelds aud Harrisses to-day, yet
the conspirator minority. as Steph-
ems said, sometimes have enough
power 70 ruin. However. the alterna-
tives for the Democracy in 1896 are
these: Resistance TO the wreckers,
with a bolt and overwhelming defeat,
and&he chance of rally in few years:
surrender and annihilation. Between
the two courses statesmen would not
be long in making chOice.-Globe-
Democrat.