Daily inter mountain., 1900-12-21
TIME TO BE MERRY.

newspapers are putting out these days.
People with healthy brains and cheer
full dispositions are learning to avoid |
them as though they eXuded moral
poison Since November 9th. no demo-
cratic paper in the country has printed
a good tempered article or emitted a
ray of editorial sunshine on any subject.
Each has seemingly been marked by
melancholy for its own. Everything is
wrong: all men are fools or frauds; every
promise is a lie; every hope a delusion
and snare. according to the democratic
prints. They are trying to spread de-
spair and dyspepsia all over the land.
To them Mckinley is a weakling. the
republican party a conspiracy against
humanity and republican statesmen
iii candidates for Jail. The Bryan or
gans oppose everything and quarrel with
everybody. They are sure the army bill
is the first step toward monarchy: that
the ship subsidy bill will bankrupt the
nation; that there will be no anti trust
legislation: that the administration is
taking it's orders from Lord Salisbury:
that the people have no voice in legisla-
tion though they have Just elected
national legislature; that existing
national prosperity is a myth because of
the telegrapher's strike on the Santa
Fe; that the rich are getting richer and
the poor poorer; and. finally. that things
are not what they seem and whatever
is. is wrong. What dreadful outlook.
Pessimism, skepticism, cynicism, doubt
dstrust disunion, class hatred. envy,
scandal, falsehood. dishonesty. lawless-
ness. treason-all these are basic prin-
ciples of the modern democratic faith
if the democratic press be a trustworthy
criterion. But what good American. be he
democrat or republican, likes to read in
his newspaper constant carpng. con-
stant calumny, constant criticism? What
sensible citizen, himself thrifty and am
bilious, likes to read that every success
full man is thief, that every company
doing business is a grinding monopoly
and that every corporation engaged in
developing the state is a trust deserving
only to be suppressed and despoiled of
it's plainest rights? What satisfaction
| is there in reading that the laws are
, made for the benefit of the few while
the welfare of the many is ignored; that
the people are poor and oppressed and
without hope of progress or prosperity;
that education, religion. freedom, are all
empty dreams beyond the possibility
of realization: and hat the sole purpose
q "a n iS tn t,a
people of happiness and independence,
to rob them of their dearest rights and
to compel them to work as long as pos
sible for as little money as they can live
on?
Yet that is the tone of the democratic
press in all parts of the country. 1t
was the cultivation of that spirit in
Montana which carried the state for
Bryan and elected a fusion legislature.
The wailng is still going on. Men with
! money enough to pay their debts are
| being pictured as oppressors. American
citizens who work for living are being
told that they are about to be robbed
of their political rights. Corporations
that have the capital to float great en-
terprises and give work and wages to
an army of miners and artisans are mis-
| represented as tyrannical combinations
bent on monopoly and spoilation. The
laws and the courts are brought under
suspicion and Bryans chief purpose
was, if elected, to reorganize the supreme
court itself, that it might interpret the
law according to his notions. Then, too
the army of the United States is being
slandered. The idea of having one sol
dier to each 800 of the population is de-
clared by the democratic organs to be
subversive of human liberty in this
country, and the story is repeated thai
military forts are to be erected near the
large cities to overawe the workngmen
What an insult to the workingmen!
The people are tired of democrati,
fault finding. Newspaper readers wan
the news They want cheerful news
They delight in bright auguries of peac,
and plenty. They like to hear of sue
cessful enterprises, of well paid indus
try, of the triumphs of justice and th
enforcement of law, of the encourage
nent of capital, and the resulting pros
perity, happiness and independence o
deserving men and women.
This is the time for good cheer. TIL
l season of congratulation. Let the peo
! pie recognize the republican party an
: it's policies as the causes of changed con
ditions and let them read republica
l newspapers if they would view the worl
: as a good place to live in.
. THE PEOPLE AND THE PRESS.
There is no more infallible indicatio