The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1900-07-19

1t may happen that our exclamation
will not prove so clamorous and so re-
sonant as the moro confident and emo
tionNl among our compatriots would
have it, We may lack something of the
sublimity of ieryor and confidence
which inspires those who fancy that
elections are carried by sheer force of
ardor and that votes may be left to cast
and count themselves. But we take it
that even Gov. Thomas, much as he
hates evasion and truly as he would
scorn a victory achieved at the cost of
humoring those who do not wholly
agree with him, does not covet defeat
for its own sweet sake; nor court the
crown of martyrdom as first choice;
and, as some votes need to be secured
in the coming election that were want
ing in that of 1896, it may be that the
Courier-Jomnal will come in handy
down the home-sretch
Doctrinol quiddities apart and we
take leave to doubt both their efficacy
as party weapons and their virtue as
political prescriptions-the actual line
of battle presents the same array of
forces, which from the days of Jeffer-
son to this good hour, has divided the
country. On one side are the morgan
lied masses of the people seeking the
greatest good to the greatest number.
GA the other side are theregular troops
of the governing classes, admirably or
gained and thoroughly equipped. The
leaders Of the people who take upon
themselves to direct the battle assume
a terrible responsibility. Upon their
wisdom, or folly, their success, or fail
ure, hang the hopes and fears of mill
ions Of noble men and women, who in
vest their all upon the hazard of the
die; simple, faithful, toiling men and
women; who earn their bread by the
sweat of their brow and ask only Of
government an equal chance in the
cruel strife Of life and labor. There in
front Of them stand the armored legion
aries Of prerogatiye and power; stall
fed oxen of the 5teel-cla trusts sleek
race-horses out of the Augean stables
of political corruption, each mounted
by trained jockey fresh from the
school OF Platt and Quay and Hanna;
an omnium gatherum of gamblers with
limitless treasury of Doodle to draw
upon; and, waving over all, the milk
white flag with which the pirate has
time out of mind lured the lambs of
commerce. Mr.. Bryan and the leaders
behind him can afford to make no mis-
takes. They must win, or else they
are lost, and yet, worst Of all, with
them will go down the cause of that
equal and exact justice to all, exclus-
i've privileges to none, on which the
eyes of the people, the hopes of good
government, are fixed as upon the day
staf OF pOlltlcal regeneration; ana, set
now, it may be many a year before that
star shall rise again
So, clear the way for action, We
shall regard all that obstructs it as rub
bish. What we think, and why we
think it, we have fully and clearly ex-
planned. From now on to the end let
the word be forward, and be he an en-.
envy and not friend who would limit,
or hinder, the freedom of anyone who,
whatever his individual preferences,
would in good faith support the ticket.
What it will need on the day Of cleo
ton will be votes, and he shall approve
himself the best democrat who gets it
most of these. Courier Journal.