The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-07-11

about McKinIey-the little Major-and
when you have finished you must Ia
a lower opinion of the little trickster
and demagogue than o have ever en-
tertained of him. He is incomparably
small and a political trader, and
plot of conspicuous success and mean
ness. As an exercise in journalistic
~excoriation and %invective We suggest
this article. It is positively so overflow
ing with quotable passages that it is
very difficult to know what to take and
what to omit. 1t bristles from first to
last with barbed points, and the slash
ing is done with a scimitar Of wondrous
keenness and brightness. Mr.. Lewis
tells the small man that he believes all
he says OF him. He says to him: mo
man may lie concerning you, but all
may tell their thoughts. And why?
III you do as president is
not you business, but theirs. The Of
flee vol hold is public. not private
property. And because your work is
h peoples work,every citizen may dis
cuss your methods. u motives, and
your labors, as freely as he might the
record Of his coachman."
He then subjects him to a surgical
gaze his s~hallownesS, his narrowness,
his v~iciousness, his political lubricity
and greed, his s~upleness, his pliable-
ness, his ho1lowness, his s~ubserviency,
his actual corruption. We give an ex-
tract near the opening Of the pros
perity' that Mckinley has brought the
country. We give but a part OF what
isssaid on this head, but it will serve
to show o what is the sort Of physic
that is administered:
You named yourself the advance
agent of Prosperity cought the polls,
inc by money corrupted Success n
secured the presidency. What has been
your conduct? and what hav been
conditions since? There has, boldly
that hectic sort which was born Of the
Spanish wal and based on blood and
borrowed money. With what you got
with bonds, and added revenue laws,
and what the country faces by a Of
deficit, an extra billion Of dollars has
been spent. This has started a list Of
factories OF wool and cotton and food
and powder and steel upon which Span
ish carnage leaned; and thereof the
proprietors have pouched a fortune
Yes; there vas work for the mill hands
Of these factories, but at what wages?
Nothing more than basest sums, be
sure! To put it rOundly, whether 1T be
a beef ring, a coal ring, a railroad, or
a steamship line, it is only a clique of
the very rich Who has had any satisfy
ing draught Of that prosperity of which
you were the prophet. Poor folk no
where by office act of yours are better
paid, or fed, or housed, or clothed.
Some CLINT of a days wages might be
had when the other day in New York
city-which is the most prosperous
present spot in the land-the work-folk
on the street railroads threatened to
strike. For what? For $1.25 per day.
That's a round sum to tread the d
Gus ~Winepress from ten to fourteen
| hours for, isn't it? And yet, compared
with labor generally, these street rail-
way workers are esteemed well off!
One dollar and a quarter a day; with
deductions for sickness and lost time.
That's a brave sum to face a future and
rear a family on! Would o call
yourself prosperous on a like stipend?
The other day you repaired to he
Virginia springs to boil the poison Of
tobacco from your veins. You had been
smoking thirty cigars at a cost of SIS
daily. Between bed and bed you suck
ed in and blew out in smoke a value
it would take the twelve days wages
of a laborer to mate and match"