Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-09-06
WHO DID TIP WHAT DID 1T 2

WHO DID TIP WHAT DID 1T
No one denies that we are having good
times now. No one denies that we were
having very hard times four years ago.
Then there was difference of opinion
as 10 what had occasioned and what was
prolonging the hard times. The great po'
litical parties-the Republican and Demo
cratic-divided on the question of cause
and the remedy for the existing troublous
conditions. There was no denial then
that certain policy of government would
bring relief. Both parties declared that
was the way to get 'relief-they only differ
ed as 20 the method. One said the free
and unlimited coinage of silver and free
trade would relieve the situation. The
other contended that the only proper rem
edies were gold standard and a protec-
tive tariff. The people decided between
the contestants, and favorably to the Re-
publicans. who we're for sound money and
protection.
1t had been confidently predicted by
MIR. Bryan and his adherents that the
election of Mckinley on the platform Of
his party would prolong and intensity the
hard times, or that general disaster would
come to the business interests of the coun'
try, if the Republicans won. The Repub'
licans won, and the Democrats did not at
first try to escape from the responsibility
they had assumed in prophesying disaster
as consequent to Republican victory.
But as soon as prosperity began to return
they began to shift and dodge, first claim
ing there was no actual prosperity, then
that there was temporary prosperity, and,
last, that there was general, substantial
prosperity, the result of no human cause,
the outcome of no change in the policy of
our government.
1t seems to us that when our Democratic
friends undertake to deny that the pros
perity which is so prevalent throughout
the country has come from Republican
legislation, or confidence in the Mckinley
Administration, they place themselves in
very ridiculous position. 1t is equivalent
to denying that prosperity or good bust
ness conditions are not dependent upon
and do not flow from wise legislation, but
that the desired conditions come either
from accidental or Providential causes.
When that position is taken-and great
many Democrats are now trying to hold it
it is an assertion that human agency has
nothing to do with the production Of good
or bad times; and that the great struggles
that come every four years upon the po-
litical field over the adoption of a govern
mental policy for the succeeding four wears
are nothing but the merest humbug. In
other words, it amounts to saying that good
times will be enjoyed under unwise legis-
lation and that bad times will exist under
the very wisest policy that can be adopted.
Ifthis be true, why should men divide on
party lines, and why contend for certain
principles with an earnestness which fire.
ouently seriously interrupts social and bus-
mess relations, yea, even relations that are
more sacred than these
We are of those who believe that human
agency is not entirely powerless in produc-
ing prosperous and happy conditions, or
in bringing unprosperous or unhappy con-
ditions. We are not disposed to yield our
convictions on that line and adopt those
contended for by the fatalists or even those
who claim that Providence is the only
active agency in human government and
temporal affairs.
The Democrats are now trying to deny
human agency and have resolved them
selves into a band of fatalists, and unquali-
fed predestinarians.
We believe that Republican legislation
and confidence in McKinley's Administra-
ton have brought healthy condition of
prosperity. When the Democrats deny
this they admit that all party divisions are
foolish and useless, and that all legislation
conceived by human minds and passed by
men in representative capacity is waste
of time and wholly inert.