The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-25

delivered would, in a large measure,
indicate the policy Of the gold wing of
the Democratic party in the next
presidential campaign. John Dewitt
Warner presided. At his right sat ex-
President Cleveland, and on his left
was ex-Postmaster General Wilson.
Mr.. Cleveland was the central figure
in the dining hall and his speech was
the chief feature of the occasion.
The toasts and those who responded
to them were as follows Present
Problems Grover Cleveland; Sound
Currency" John G. Carlisle; Tariff
Reform" William L. Wilson; Munich
pal Administration, Edward M. Shep-
ard; THE New South" Donelson Caf-
ferry; National Democracy William
D. Bynum; THE Political Outlook"
Henry G. Turner, and Andrew Jack
son and the Restoration of the Gold
Currency, Josiah Patterson. Five
hundred and eight persons sat down to
the feast. They were distributed about
ten tables. Ex-President Cleveland was
loudly cheered when he rose to re-
spond to the toast, Present Problems.
He spoke as follows:
We are gathered here tonight as patriotic
citizens, anxious to do something toward re-
instating the prosperity of our fellow country
men and protecting the fair fame Of our
nation against shame and scandal. On every
side we are confronted with popular depres-
sion and complaint. These are largely due
to causes of natural and certain recurrence,
as the inevitable accompaniment of all hu-
man endeavor, and perhaps they are as large
ly due to the work Of agitators and dema-
gogues who have busily sowed the seeds of
discomfort in order that in the harvest
nicfr
ing ills, real and imaginary, have been so
constantly and luridly presented to the minds
OF honest men that they are tempted to
cept without taking counsel of reason or
judgment, any noStrum cunningly offered as
a remedy for their low cosdition. But even
so promising field as this has not satisfied
the designs OF ruthless ag1tators. While
scattering the seeds of discomfort, they have
also cultivated a growth of sectional and
class suspicion and distrust which threatens
to choke or destroy that fraternaI feeling
which leads to considerate counsel in the
day of common misfortune and which is alb
solutely essential to the success of our plan
Of government. The fundamental truth that
our free institutions offer opportunities to
all within their influence for the advance
ment and improvement of their condition, has
been so far denied that honest accumulation
is called a crime and the necessity and
habit Of individual effort and struggle which
are the mainsprings Of sturdy Americanism
are described as unjustifiable burdens while
unwholesome paternaiism is presented in
in this crusade of discomfort and passion
proclaiming themselves friends Of the people
exclude from that list all their countrymen
except those most unfortunate or unreason-
able, and those whom they themselves have
made the most discontented and credulous.
These forces and conditions have for years,
with greater or less distinctness, hovered
about our national life, lacking effective or
ganiZation and concentration neglected by
those who deprecated their existence, and
unheeded even by those who partially appre-
ciated their dangerous tendency. In the
meantime there has laid in wait behind them
all an impatient power, ready to marshal
them in effective activity, when depression,
misfortune, neglect and passion had done their
work. This power born Of sordid greed, and
maintained by selfish interest and partisan
ambition, has at last assumed command, and
infaming those inclined to be patient with
tales Of an ancient crime against their rights
to be avenged, by encouraging the restless and
turbulent with hints Of greater license, and
by offering to the poor a smooth road to
wealth and to those in debt as a plan for
easy payment, and to those who from any
cause are unfortunate and discouraged as a
remedy for all their ills, the free and unlirn-
tied coinage of silver at the rate of 16 to l.
with deprecated currency and cheap money.
ut was a rude awakening for the negligent
and over-confident, and day Of terror for
sober and patriotic men, when the bold pro-
meters OF this reckless creed captured the
organization of powerful political party
and seizing its banners. shouted defiance to
the astonished conscience and conservatism
loyalty, gathered behind the party flag they