The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-09-06
Homemade uersds
Imported Slander.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York SUM-
~ UR esteemed contemporary, the
nl London Saturday Review, has
I'LL been making some of those gen.
UJI tie and discriminating criticisms
~ for which II is remarkable. 1t as
serts, with its habitual anability that
this country is "sordd to the last degree;
its courts Of law and all its civil institu-
tions are corrupt" and so on. II Is only
by saving something especially zanylSn
that the Saturday Review succeeds In be-
ing quoted at all, and by unremitting IN
dustry on the part OF Mr.. Frank Harris
and his juvenile choir II Is now often
quoted. 1t is without influence or respect
in England, but commands in the United
States the derisive interest which the
Americans, a race of subtle humor. can
not deny to extraordinary manifestations
of folly and the shrewish tongue. But
suppose that the Saturday Review were
capable of knowledge and wanted to ac-
quire some about the United states and
consulted certain American sources, what
would 1t find?
From the Mugwump cucking stools
shrill chorus of depreciation and abuse
of the United States, its people and in
| stitutions, its history and its hopes. goes
up continually. These scolds would con-
firm the Review in It's opinion that Amer
lea has shown the world to what a
depth of public depravity civilization is
capable of descending" Everybody ana
everything In the country Is corrupt ex-
cept the Mugwumps. A foreign inquirer,
| ignorant of the fact that slander of the
| United States has become not merely an
| irrepressible habit but a progressive and
| incurable disease among number of ap-
parently human bipeds geographically
classified as Americans, might be led TO
accept In good faith calumnies as great as
| those which the Saturday Review emits
| for purposes of advertising. Tho ingen-
| ious foreign inquirer cannot be expected
| to know that the Mugwumps are only
perpetual querulous whine, not a force;
and that the sense of their own impo-
| tence in politics backens their bile and
| inf1ames their language.
| But suppose the ingenious foreign in
quirer has come over here and cut his
| eye teeth and is no more to be moved by
| the caterwaulng of the Mugwumps. He
| sees that these arc few and that most of
| them are either disappointed politicians,
| embttered "refotmers," or college pro-
| fessors whose world lies within the tinkle
| of the chapel bell. Surely such notions
as theirs must be confined TO them, and
there can be no political party that cares
| or dares to assail the honor of the United
| States Then some collector of curiosi-
ties puts into his hand the platform
| adopted by the Peoples party at it's ma
| tional convention in Omaha, in 1892. And
| here is the surprising way in which that
| Populist declaration Of principles begins:
The conditions which surround us best
justify our cooperation. We meet in the
midst of a nation brought to the verge Of
moral, political and material rum. Cor
ruption dominates the ballot box, the Leg
islature the congress, and touches even
| the ermine of the bench. The people are
demoralzed Most of the states have
been compelled to isolate the voters at
the polling places to prevent universal in
| tmidation or bribery. The newspapers
are largely subsidized or muzzled, public
opinion silenced, business prostrated. oul
homes are covered with mortgages labor
| Impoverished and the land concentrating
in the hands of capitalists. The urban
workmen are denied the right of organi-
zation for self-protection; imported pau
perized labor beats down their wages; a
hirelng standing army. unrecognized by
our laws. is established to shoot then
down, and they are rapidly degeneratine
into European conditions. The fruits OF
the tolls of millions are boldly stolen tt
build up colossal fortunes for a few. un
precedented in the history of mankind
and the possessors of these in turn de-
spise the republic and endanger liberty
| From the same prolific womb of govern
mental injustice we breed the two great
classes-tramps and millionaires."
In vain you tell the ingenious foreign in
quirer that these Populists had xhetoriC
on the BRAIN and that they are, Tor the
most part, prosperous persons, who don
cut throats but coupons "Why do they
talk in that way?" he will ask. "Do they
think that it is popular to slander one:
country" Continuing his study of Sian
der he finds in the Democratic platform
of 1896 talk about "the enrichment of tn,
mopey-lending class at home and abroad
prostration of industry and impoversh
, ment of the people" "the profiigat,
waste of money wrung from the people
by oppressive taxation" arbitrary in
reference by federal authorities In loca
. affairs" a new and highly dangerous
. form of oppression by which fedora