Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1897-04-29
A Movement Of .ths Masses. .

A Movement Of 'sths Masses"
Last Saturday night-the working
mans night-the magnificent Hotel
Waldorf of New York, favorite Sat
urday night resort of the horny hand
ed SONS of toll, was the scene Of a
gathering of 1.-THE masses" Grover
Cleveland had thrown down his sledge-
hammer, taken off his overalls. and,
after washing up, had come to attend
the meeting. John g.. Carlisle had
thrown down the miners pick, extin-
guished the lamp on his hat. and after
removing enough coal dust from his
face to disclose his features, had gone
to the meeting. VIM. L. Wilson had
let go the pillow handle, unhitched the
horses, and stopped the spring plow-
ing long enough to meet his fellow
toilers. There was to be talking as
we'll as eating, and when we say that
the three gentlemen named were to
speak, we as good as say that it was a
great night for the workingmen, the
wage earners, and those other humble
people who compose the masses. Mr..
Cleveland who is the Walking Delegate
for the National Bankers and Trust
Assembly No. ID, characterized the
man who received Six Million, Five
Hundred Thousand votes for Presi-
dent, as one of a band of ''agitators
and demagogues" to whom is largely
due the present popular depression, -
they having "sowed the seeds of dis
content in order that in the harvest
they may reap personal advantage"
He thought the South was particularly
infested with these agitators and dem
agogues, and gave it as his opinion as
Walking Delegate that some mission
airy work should be done in this sec
ton. It was not to be expected that
Mr.. Cleveland as a Walking Delegate
for the Banks and Trusts should re-
peat his former allusion to ''the com
munism of pelf;" nor did he. Nor
did he think it worth his while as an
encouraging example to the humble
American workman, to allude to the
fact that while working hard at his
trade in the White House, he had In
eight years accumulated more than a
million dollars.
Strange as it may seem, the mission
of these humble friends of Mckinley
at the Hotel Waldorf Saturday night
was to descant on the ''True Democ.
racy," and point out the way for its
success in the future. We do not see
that ducks were on the bill of fare al
this queer banquet, but whether they
were or not there were enough politi
cal Dead Ducks around the table to
make up for their absence.
In an experience of life time in
politics, we cannot recall such an ex
hibition of pure, unadulterated cheek
as that given at this Saturday night
banquet at the Waldorf. That three
members of an administration that in
four years had done all it could tc
wreck the party that elected it; that
had plunged the country into more
suffering than it has experienced for q
generation, and the end of which is
yet far off; that had added a quarter
of a billion dollars to the public debt,
and that was universally damned both
by it's political enemies and it's politi
cal friends. should, without provoca-
ton, assemble to give their views OF
the future of the Democratic party
and the country, is an excess of gall
never before reached in American poll.
tics. Our only regret is that at this
assembly of Pail Bearers of the "True
Democracy" those decrepit old ghosts,
Palmer and Buckner, were not present.
Buckner was present. He had gone to
kill two birds with one stone, attend
the dinner and the Grant parade.
The presence of these venerable Nc
Kinley stool pigeons, would have in
spired the applauding bankers and
corporation employees around the
board with additional enthusiasm
1t is with feeling of intense relief
that one reflects after reading the
speeches of this Saturday night ban
quet, that the men who made them
are at last out of power, and that their
opinions can no longer plunge the
country into greater depths of suffer
ing. And to reflect, too, that the men
who spoke could not carry Demo-
cratic State, county. or precinct in the
whole United States if they were put
up tomorrow.