Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-08-28
Prospective WHENCE COMES IT?


Our Popocratic friends are now busy
asserting that the advance in the price
Of wheat is an interposition Of Divine
Providence, in that competing coun
tries are short on wheat while we hold
the long end Of the rope. Such an ar
gurnert is rough on Providence as it
savors of partiality. If Providence
gives us good crop and others an in
ferior CROP must be because we have
merited it-have done the right thing
at the right time. In other words, the
recent Republican victory must have
been pleasing to the Almighty. There
is no other conclusion, on the princi-
pie that Providence helps those who
help themselves. AS further proof of
our position, we might assert that
during the four years preceding
of Disaster Providence was displeas-
ed. Can it be that the sins of our po-
litical foes have become so noxious as
to be stencil in the nostrils of benef.
icence itself?
Seriously, this appeal to or pretense
Of giving credit to Providence for the
prosperity that has come, is, upon the
part of the Pops, the sheerest twaddle.
They, like the prophets of Baal, in
dulged in all manner of ridicule of the
idea of better times. They said-not
only said but vociferously asserted
that conditions could not improve UNI
til the "crime of 70" was atoned.
They staked their reputation as polit-
ical prophets on that tenet, and now,
since prosperity is here, frightening
homes, making glad the waste places,
whirling the wheels, lighting the fir
mament with the flames of the fur
naces, like the fire from heaven which
consumed Elijah's offering, these false
prophets rise up and with elongated
countenances and drawing tones,
whimper, in the language Of the Mar
tinsburg Statesman
To kind Providence that has open
ed the heavens with abundant rains
and wholesome condition in every
natural way, is the American farmer
under obligations for larger incomes
for his unremitting toll; and, second,
to uniavorable conditions in the great
wheat producing regions across the
seas.
That kind Providence" is bless
ing and a curse-kind to us but dew
il incarnate to the other fellow. Shame!
If only the wheat-growing regions
felt this prosperity, there might be
some reason in their theory. The
Eastern States which produce little or
no wheat are fully as prosperous as
those of the Middle or West. And
the South. which buys wheat, is SIM
ilarly affected. What has caused the
advance in the price of cattle? Oh
horses2 OF cotton? OF a thousand
other commodities of which no one
heard of a scarcity abroad?
The steel-hard facts are that the
people-the commercial world-have
confidence in the ability of the Repub-
lican party to properly manage gov
ernmental affairs and the Pops need
not attempt to effect a copartnership
with "kind Providence" in the hope
that they will better their condition,
or receive dissolution for past offenses.
The unholy alliance of last year was
sufficient to disgust everything in
heaven above and on earth beneath,
and the only way now open for them
to regain favor is to acknowledge in a
manly manner that they were wrong;
that they are sorry they tried to de-
ceive the people, and that they pro-
pose to mend their ways.