The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-25
PATRIOTS AND PESSIs7ISTS.

When President Mckinley went over
| from Washington, where he and con-
gress are doing their very best to shut
exports in by shutting imports out to
| Philadelphia where the National AS
| ISOLATION Of Manufacturers were assem-
| bled to devise ways and means of get
ting exports out, content, however to
have imports shut out he made a
| speech, Of course. 1t was for that he
was invited and it was for that he
from his lips sundry sentences which
his admirers called "pearls of thought"
I and gems of oratory" Among them
was this: ga patriot is better than a.
pessimist" We note that this simple
| sentence is taken by his devoted fol-
| lowers as being especially wise, for
there is hardly a paper of his party
! that comes to our exchange table that
has not quoted it with more or less
| adulatory comment.
The sentence suggests reflection
! Words of wisdom always do to the
thoughtful. The opposition in which
| the president placed patriots and pessi-
mists plainly indicates that, in his opin-
| ion, the one cannot be the other What
! is patriot? 1t is always the person
who makes sacrifice Of some material
| good for the welfare of his fellows or
! the good of his country The element
of sacrifice, loss. voluntarily made, is
inseparable from patriotism. What is
pessimist? He is one who '1ooks
on the dark side of things" who sees
| degeneracy universal, men and women
| getting worse instead of better; in pol
! tiles he scerts corruption everywhere:
| is positive that the opposition are
| either knaves or fools, and their success
as being the triumph of either rascal
ity or of ruinous legislation. With
their victory the march to the ''demni-
ton bowWoWs" will Immediately begin
The inference intended by the presi-
dent, and accepted by his following
was, that he and they were the patri-
OTIS and that those who disagreed with
them were pessimists and that, there
fore, he and they were better than the
others. AS those who disagree with
him and them nOw-hOwever many of
| them may have been led to COOP
! crate with him and them last year
! outnumber him and them, it follows
| that in his and their opinion, a minor
| ity of the voters of this country are all
| it's patriots and that the large majority
are pessimists. This is complacent, but
doubtful. It depends upon the mean
! ing given the word better" If it sig
nifies merely that a patriot is better
| companion than a pessimist we are in
clined to grant it. 1t happens
sometimes that your patriot is a pestif-
erous, irritating fellow, while your dark
! dyed pessi1nist is one of the best of
good fellows; but each is an exception.
If it has the meaning obviously in
tended and accepted then it is not diff
| cult to accumulate the proof that
neither the president nor his rapt
|
patriots and must be classed as pessi-
mists.
In fact, the whole mass of Republi-
cans were made the gloomiest kind of
pessimists by their national convention
only last year. That body declared
that the record Of the Democratic
administration was one of ''unparallel-
ed incapacity, disnonor and disaster"
that Democratic accession had precipi-
tated panic, blighted industry and
trade, closed factories, reduced wages,
halted enterprise, crippled production
| and brought dishonor on the nation at
home and abroad. Mr.. Mckinley in
dorsed all this in his letter of accept
ance and amplified it in the speeches
he made to the delegations Of pessi-
mists Hanna drummed UP to go to
Canton and tread out the grass on the