Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-04-10
THOSE GOOD OLD DEMOCRATIC

at the Topeka banquet that it would be
the effort of modern Democracy to trans
late the people OF the United States to the
Buren, and Jackson, calls from John H.
Rice. the veteran Kansas editor, an article
for the Fort Scott Monitor in which he
depicts the true conditions as they then
existed. Mr.. Rice tells us that when Martin
Van Buren, was made president. he. Rice,
was IA years OF age and quite able to sit
up and take notice OF things. Jackson,
who preceded Van Buren,. had been an ar
dent protectionist. so much so in fact that
he gladly signed the highest tariff bill ever
passed by congress. However, the period
Of notification set in, South Carolina
threatened rebellion along with other
Southern states. and in a spirit of compro-
mise and to preserve the Union Jackson
agreed to the tariff reduction bills of 1892
1886 and 1888. By the date of Van Buren's
Inauguration the country had become al
most totally paralyzed as the result of this
Democratic tinkering with the tariff. His
first act was to call a special session of
u
devised to bring back prosperity. With
the same blind faulty which has always
characterized the Democratic party he
asked congress to reorganize the currency,
holding that the ills of the people were due
, to Its unsettled condition. when, as a mat
ter of fact. the unsettled condition of the
currency was principally due to bad tariff
10 hafy
In his message to this special session Van
Buren, set forth the woes which had over
taken the country, but in his article Mr..
Rice quotes Coltons history of Henry
Clay as giving the best short description,
one paragraph of which reads as follows:
: Ihe ruin came quick and fearful. There
were few that could save themselves.
Property of every description was parted
with at prices that were astonishing, and
! as to currency. there was scarcely any at
all. In many parts of the country the peo-
pie cut bank notes into halves. quarters
use each piece for its aliquot part of the
value of the BILL
Quoting still another authority, we find
conditions set forth as follows by Van
Buren, DensIow: ..--
This act of 1888 was as dangerous in its
effects as it was simple and childlike in
its provisions. 1t deranged the industrial
future of every man. woman and child in
the United States. What it said could be
written on ones thumb nail. What It did
no human hand could write. Ruin fed to
every freside on wings of cheapness.
Famine stalked into every household. The
sharp pangs of hunger brought tears from
millions of eyes. One food of imports de-
stroyed our manufactures: their sales on
credit ruined our merchants and the mer-
chants then destroyed our banks. and vet
while the whole people were forced into
promising. in the years 1888 to 1872 we were
importers of food"
Drawing on his personal recollections Mr.
Rice tells us that there IL not a truthful
man living in the United States to-day.
who Is over 70 years of age, that will not
confirm the absolute correctness of these
pictures of this period. The world never
knew anything like 1t, and nothing an
preaching 1t, save that OF twenty years aft
erward, brought about by another Demo-
cratic free trade act, passed by another
Democratic congress. By. 1910 there was no
goods, textile or metal, that was not i'm
ported. 1t took six bushels of corn to buy
yard Of calico and Is bushels to buy a
pair OF trace chains, and 40 bushels of
wheat to buy a common pair of boots. On
the contrary. you could buy mich COW
for $3.50. good horse for $40, and a dozen
sheep for $50. Our Importation of goods
that We should have made, and formerly
did make, amounted to over 500. 900 600 an
nually. This ruin was the work of Democ-
racy and free trade. They were married in
1883, and have never been divorced
In conclusion Mr.. Rice thus addresses
himself to the man who boosted that 20.
Ing back to these good old Democratic
days would be like passing from midnight
darkness into the glory of noon-day
SUM-" Il am one, Mr.. Clark. who can re-
member well every Democratic admins
tration from Van Buren, to Cleveland TT
the 100000 voters of the United States
could personally know and feel the priya-
tions, distress, hunger and suffering of
the people from 1928 to 1912, or from 1s47 to
1851, for even one week. there would never
be another Democrat elected to a political
Office in the United States"
EDITORIAL NOTES.