The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-06-10

eamut, from absolu.ism to anarchy. Some insist that government shou.dbe
sufficiently paternal to provide babes with nursing bottles, while others
would abolish it altogether. Their heads are full Of windmils with cobweb
attachments ever jangling out Of tune. They have picked up a few econom-
c phrases from orators and editors IS ignorant as themselves and these they
reiterate with the stupid Wndstene Of a poll parrot discoursing of crackers.
They ire all slf-Nyed "renrmers, ;" and any party which attacks prcscnpt-
i've right intrenched in brutal wrong is at once accused Of representing these
hamb0yant damphOohs. And therein lies the strength Of the shrewd con-
spiratoes against. the welfare OF the people these noisy Ignorant and enc
mics Of order are employed to frghten the honest and law-abding into act.
ing against their own best interests. There are in this country millions Of
men OF average intelligence who have neither time mol inclination to make
an exhaustive study Of economies OF the personnel Of political parties. They
zee IN the n hand a cotereo OF bankers and successful business men approy.
Ing a certain line OF governmental policy. They know that these men arc
we'll informed and intelligent, but doubt their dsinterestedness. They are
aware that people have been known to carry their souls in their purses, that
there is a strong affinity between a political conscience and hard cash. They
see that under the regime approved by these elegant gentlemen wealth has a
tendency to concentrated Dives grows ever more gorgeous while the
assets Of Lazarus us a steady increasing assortment of sores. Day by day it
is dinned into their ears however that the opposition is but a disreputable
omniumgatherum Of demagogues, empires and regulators. The great
dailes and wealthy magazines assure them that it is even So PSeudoecon-
omists Of the Edward Atkinson stripe arr employed to pervert history, gar
BILE statistics and prove" that the proposed reform would mean universal
wreck. But still the people are not satisfied, for they have but to contem-
plate their own hard condition to realize that there's something radically
wrong. They are determined to hear what 'the other side may have to
say. They pick up the Twentieth Century, Coxey's Jabberwock, the South.
ern Mercury, or some other soi-distant 'refom' sheet, and find it pouring
aforesaid, and proclaiming in pigeon English the ranket tommyrot. They
see 1t trying to save the country by science of definition without having ever
been introduced to a dictionary. They find that half of its premises are
ignorant mistakes and all its conclusions Intellectual miscarriages. They
are not deeply versed in economies, but possess sufficient sense to know it
were suicidal to commit the country to the care of such ridiculous doodle.
bugs. They ire given to understand that of such is the opposition ia the
policy Of the utra.respectable, conclude that it Is a choice between the COR
morant and the commune, and elect the former a the least OF two evils.
Take a recent utterance of the Twentieth Century as a sample of the econ
|omic idioy solmenly accredited by the plutoratc press to every earnest re.
form effort A correspondent having asked Fl labmer who owns a spade
is capitalist to the extent of a spade, and if capital is ought else than that
part of wealth employed in producing more wealth, it pompousy replies:
at is impossible to understand what a capitalist is without forgetting
the various metaphysical nothings Of Adam Smith, Ricardo, MN and the
Is entt, ss , TO- VINO ros somebody M IN snort sa T.. l IN C., capitalist .sn n ros the laborer;
A laborer who owns a spade is a capitalist when he cheats somebody
The Twentieth Century advcrtsesi itself as a. radical magazine" lisa
trihe too radical; for it would abolish not only capitalists and the great ex-
Founders Of economics. but Websterls unabridged as well. According to its
definition, the heggar who obtains a dime under Misrepresentation is a cap
itslist, while the longshoreman who receives a fair days wage for a fair
days work is not a lab~er. What political orhammc my contemporary
floats l know not, having concluded that further exploration of its pages
were labor lost; but l do not know that all such goosegabble as that quoted
is cheerfuly charged up to the entire party aligned against the despoiers of
the people that such ridiculous drivel is promptly Tabled "Bryansm'' by
the putocratc press, regardless of whether OF no those responsible for it
supported the eloquent Nebraskan. All who presume to question the wis.
dom and equity of the single gold standard arr classed toeetber-no d,stipc.
ton being made between a Johann Most and Roger 9. Mills, between the
careful "tterances o. a ba"y ana the irresponsible cacke OF a haitcrazed
Coxey. Mr.. Bryan is Judged, not by the best element in his own party, but
by the worst element opposed to law and order, to thrift and honesty, no
matter what flag it flies. Thus the fuglemen of Dives assert that he stands
for all that rs most absurd in pApmlism, despite the fact that the utra-pops
declined to support him and contributed Intentionally to the election OF Nc
Kinley: that he represents the illieracy Of the nation, notwithstanding the
ngger, assisted emigrants and criminal element of ar great cities were
against him almost to a man; that his platform is dangerous emp'rlcism'
when its every plank bears the trademark of all the standard economists,
and is indicated by the philosophy of history. But Of what avail was argu.
ment last autumn?-of what avail is 1t now? The putocratc press has but
to point to the mouthings Of such sheets as the Twentieth Century and
Southern Mercury and exchim: "Behod the fellows who would teach old
John Sherman nnance.-look upon these Wise Men of the West who sneer
at the erudition NJ Smith, Ricardo and Mill, and propose to build an Utopia
dJCDIuUk " VuCu WI VVuuSilh iuS"' """"" "N'hpSoihiS
deceived by this deliberate calumnyo fthe regular democracy "a calumny
which seemed to find confirmation in the foolish utterances of the people
should hasten to exchange the pen for the pow-accepted republican
ism with a sigh. Among the latter was William Marion Eeedy Of st. Louis,
the foremost literatus Of the land. Like many others welded to art and
In The dream Of things. he had not made a searching scrutiny of the
practice Of natural politics. BY nature a Brahmin, he gave ready ar to the
arguments Of the 'emlnenty respectable y and permitted his splendid
genius 10 he played an engine on the struggling people. He is the Cervantes
laughed away the workmans chiyalry and sent him back to his in-paid
irutgHy, shamcd but sunen. False logic may be confuted with plain facts
and bninsgate met with abuse; but the gods themselves cannot withstand
the shafts Of satire, MOI Titans wear with unrufhed dignluy the NeSus shirt
VI rjdcule. Now, disguised withthe OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES he helped to elevate
10 once he IA seeking 'middhe ground" between what he conceives to be the
-has Of Organism and the dry.rot of McKneysm. He would uplft the
and god.bug brand Q. democracy" as Nehushtan in the econ.
wilderness upon which the industrial Israel stung by the fiery serpent
need and greed, may look and live-fogetfulo of the fact that this same
bastard democracy has already been weighed in the balance and found
wanting. The panic Of 1899 was its flower and the present industrial dis.
trs Il It's frunage. Mr.. Cleveland is gold-bug democracy" incarnate, and
Mr.. Cleveland IL q political corpe-a boaed hasben, grooming for burial,
The party which Mr.. Reedy relies upon is not of the uture but Of the past
sdead and damned, hence we must look elsewhere for a redeemer. But wen
this political Benedict Arnold breathing. by what intorted reasoning
1t be accredited with that middle course which our Old Latin gram.
assure Is safest and best? Did any republican president do more than
Cleveland for the GENERALIZATION OF power? Was any more completely under
he thumb Of q back.Aai. cabinet Of spectators more Indifferent to the
will Of the people? Did he not decrease the revenue to increase the
snded dcbts II Bryan represents the extreme OF American radcalism does
rot Cleveland represent the extreme Of English conservatism, with McKin.
ey In the middle? The fact Is that the party represented by Mr. CLEVELAND