The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-11-03
SOME SERIOUS THOUGHTS.


changing his views deserves thorough
attention, especially by those who are
not yet sure of their party principles
here i'm Hawaii.
-Four years ago. points out Mr. Platt,
the country was startled by the utter
anccs of the Democratic National Con-
vention as embodied in the Chicago
platform. At no prior time in its his
tory had the United States been in so
deplorable a condition. An industrial
depression covered the land like a pail
For several years the unemployed had
been growing in numbers, in want, and
in despair. Factories We're empty, fur
naces were cold, and mills had ceased
to grind. Banks were closing their doors
and depositors were losing their savings
Railroads could not pay their interest,
and were passing into the hands of re-
ceivers. The only armies that paraded
the land were disorderly mobs of idle
workingmen. Strikers in almost every
department of labor threatened the
stability of the government. Neighbors
were friends or foes as want or wealth
united or divided them.
To meet this conditions of things the
Democrats or rather the Bryanists sent
Bryan abroad as a populistic aspirant
for the Presidency and authorized him
TO preach class distinctions, to stir up
bitterness on the part of the many who
had not, against the few who then had;
TO cry out against the fortunate, the
frugal the prudent, the successful: to
put premium on failure and a dis
count on success; to threaten the indie
pendence of the judiciary; to invite the
people to financial dishonor and GER
tain bankruptcy; to contradict every
doctrine of economies and 90 endeavor
TO bring about a financial impossibility
the stability of the double standard
of gold and silver at a fixed arbitrary
ratio of sixteen to one, independently
of every other nation.
The Republicans answered all this DO
litical and financial madness with a
platform that stood for sound. honest
money, for an independent judiciary.
for protection to American industries.
for union and not for disunion. for
peace and prosperity, and not for dis
aster and dissension, and upon this
platform they placed William Mckinley
Mckinley predicted that Republican
success would mean prosperity in
place of poverty, work instead of VIC
lence for idle hands, wealth at home,
honor and respect abroad.
Mckinley was elected. and all the
fog and dust of Organism disappear
ed and the country stepped out of
the shadow and into the sun.
z Now person or a policy must be
judged by the results. Bryan's pre-
diction in 1896 was that IF McKin-
ley and the Republican party are
successful and put in power for the
next four years, wages will be de-
creased, hard times will come upon
us, mortgages on our homes will be
foreclosed by the money-lenders.
shops and factories will close. We will
export no goods and we will import
from foreign lands all the goods we
use. Thus will ruin, want and misery
be with us"
Has this been realized. The period of
the last four years has been one of
marked prosperity. None of the dire
results which Bryan prophesied have
come about. Hard times did not come
out the times have been so good that
the bulk of the people have been at
tending to business not to politics,
The farmers of the West have NOT had
their mortgages. foreclosed, they have
peen able to pay them off. Shops and
factories have been in full working
through out the full twelve months Of
the year. The prophecy about wheat
ana silver which occupied so much at
tention during the campaign of 1895
has been proved an utter fallacy. If
free silver were defeated wheat was
to go down. What are the facts?
When Bryan was nominated in 1896
wheat was 60 cents a bushel silver
was So cents an ounce. Six months
thereafter wheat was $1O4 and silver
was 90 cents. In May, 1898, wheat was
$l.SO and silver was 561a cents. AT the
date Of Bryan's second nomination
wheat was fifty per cent higher and sill
yer twelve per cent lower than at the
date of his first nomination.
Take the trade argument. AT the
end of Harrison's administration the
balance of trade in favor of the United
States was $212,OOO,OOO. At the end of
Cleveland's administration, through a
Democratic tariff and the shadow of
free trade, the balance had sunk to
$lO2OOO,OOO. At the end of McKinley's
administration this balance will exceed
S544OOO,OOO What better proof of ma
tional prosperity is wanted. What
more convincing argument to show the
advantage Of the Republican versus
the Democratic administrations.
quotation from Samuel Gompers,
President of the American Federation