The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1897-01-21
BEFORE AND AFTER.

The song after election differs materi-
ally from that before on the part of our
Republican friends. Before election MIR.
Mckinley was the advance agent of
prosperity, so paraded and proclaimed
everywhere. Now the organ says "The
President.elect does not wave magic
Alladin wand over tie head Of the
millions and instantly bring pr iosperity."
Before election Mr.. Mckinley was the
very magician to bring prosperity If
elected. His election would restore
confidence and business would revive at
once. Workmen in shops Were told this
and urged to vote the prosperity ticket,
and did so under this delusion. The
organs do not claim that the President
elect can instantly stop "the continue
ton of the panic of 1892, ,and the breaking
of banks in the West and the increasing
deficit in the treasury and the continued
struggle of injured factories END the
idleness of millions of men and women. {"
This was not the song before the
November election. Then it wGs elect
the "advance agent" and everything
will be lovely. The charge now is that
Clevelandism has run the country in debt
The organs make no allusion to the
performances of Mr.. Harrison to help
this thing along, The Harrison admins
tration got away with surplus of over
a hundred millions and left deficiency
for which Secretary Charles Foster had
prepared bonds, on which to borrow
money to run the government. They
finally left all this to the Cleveland ad.
ministration; but in fact the Harrison
administration must, in justice, be held
in good part responsible for the increase
of the public debt
The overthrow of the Republican
party in 1892 showed the disgust and
disappointment of the people. Protec-
ton had been the rule and gold stand
ard had long had its way, and labor and
honest business had come to grief and
still continues there. The false Republi-
can prophets with their false promises
are about to assume power without hav.
ing forgotten enything or learned any.
thing. 1t is the same gold standard and
protection, the same agents of wrong
and ruin,
The Republican organs sometimes
claim there was no scarcity of money in
1892, and that then "peace and plenty
and prosperity were everywhere" This,
of course, is to credit the Mckinley
tariff law as salutary measure. Under
the Mckinley measure the revenue fell
of, and under the present law the reve-
nue. is improving. In all fairness it
should be sufficient to remember that
for long years protection has been The
policy and gold standard the rule. The
continued adversely with very little
variation, tells woeful tale that should
disgust any American citizen with the
Republican party. The organs of pro.
missed prosperity now say wait. They
say "under Republicanism the country
prospered as never before" These peo-
pie seem to forget the panic of 1873 and
the tramp period there inaugurated. The
facts are that under gold standard and
protection decline in values and hard
times have been continuous in the main
and these men we'll know it. The follow
ing extract from Judge Blandin's stir.
ring address at Columbus on the eighth,
his subject being "The Democratic
Party" is right to the point in this
connection:
at was most truly said by Mr.. Bryan
in his speech at the Chicago convention,
in that great specimen of American elo.
quence that has not been surpassed
since the age of Athenian and Roman
eloquence, that if protection has slain
its thousands, the single gold standard
has slain its tens of thousands BY this
device, the countless debts, state, county,
municipal and private, were doubled,
and the property and accumulations of
the common people confscated and, by
a piece of jugglery, handed over bodily
to make fortunes for those who toll not,
neither do they spin. Industry perished,
exchanges stopped, prices fell and then
ensued the appalling conditions around
you which excite the pity and tears of
all whose hearts are not made of stone
by the possession of property earned by
others. Like the protection infamy,
this was also by corrupt machine kept
for years from popular consideration
and popular condemnation. There was
no escape, no relief, but in the political
slaughter and death OF those who long
had led the Democratic party astray.
The slaughter at length came and the
Chicago convention will be no less cele-