The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-01-20
A FALLAC1ous ARGUMENT.

A FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT.
Our usually intelligent contempt.
rary, the Minneapolis Evening Jour-
nal, had the following editorial para
graph in its issue of the 10Th inst:
There are hundreds Of thousands of me-
In this country who have got an argumen
that beats all the talk in which Mr.. Bryal
may see fit to indulge-and that's lot
1t Is the jobs they have now, but didn'
have in &c. and couldn't get till after h
was defeated.
We readily agree with the Journal
that there are hundreds Of thousands
of men in the country who may use
such shallow sophistry against the ar
guments of Mr.. Bryan, who undoubt-
eddy has lot of them. We even ad-
NIT that times are better than they
were prior to 1896, and yet we cannot
admit that the Journals mode of ar
gument is logically sound. Arguments
are different in their effects upon diff
ferent minds. Granting that thou
sands will accept the argument Of the
Journal as valid, that is because they
are unable to detect the fallacy and
expose it. What has mans job, for
instance, to do with the republican
policy of imperialism against which
Mr.. Bryan argues so strongly? Such
an argument as that used by the Jour-
nal may capture the votes Of ignorant
and selfish men who stick to party
for the sake of a job, but it carries
no weight with the independent Amer
lean citizen who places country above
party and adheres to the time-honored
principles of the constitution and the
Declaration of Independence. What
are good times to the lofty principles
of Americanism which have made the
republic the refuge of the oppressed
for Il hundred years? Because men
who had no jobs in 1896 have jobs
now, it does not follow that they are
willing to govern other people beyond
the confines Of the United States
against their consent, in accordance
with policy which Mr.. Mckinley
himself aptly called criminal aggres-
sion."
Because men who had no jobs in
1896 have jobs in 19O0 therefore thou
sands of men disagree with Mr.. Bryan
in his opposition to financial and in
dustrial trusts. Who ever heard of
such an unwarranted conclusion or
non sequitur as that? And yet that is
the style of argument used by the or
gans of plutocracy to bambooozle their
unsophisticated party readers.
Whatever good times we have just
now we owe to the plutocracy, and If
we want q, continuance of good times
we must allow the plutocracy to rule
the country without let or hindrance.
We must have plutocracy and not
democracy. We must have govern
fnent of the trusts, by the trusts and
for the trusts instead of the popular
government which Abraham Lincoln
referred to in his famous Gettysburg
speech, and for no reason than that
thousands of men who have jobs now
did not have them when William J.
Bryan ran for president and was de-.
feated by the candidate of Mark
Hanna. If good times depends upon
the capitalists of the country, then
God pity the men who depend on them
for their jobs. 1t is notorious fact
that the republican party in the cleo
ton of '96 received their campaign
fund from the trusts and combines,
and that thousands of workingmen
voted the Hanna-McKinley ticket
through the intimidation of their en-
ployers. Whether the same tactics
will be resorted to this year of our
Lord time only will determine.
Granting for the sake of argument
that we have good times, nay pros
porous times, ut the present moment,
how long are they to continue If finan-
cial and commercial corporations d.
rect the affairs of state? Is this re-
public to become an oligarchy? Is the
party of liberty to become one Of slav-
cry? Are the people to bow their
heads meekly at the feet of imperial
ism for fear they may lose their jobs?
If republicans have brought good
times, they have brought them by I'M
republican methods. They have cor
rupted and debauched the public con-
science. and If retained in power they
will ultimately build up an empire on
the ruins of the republic. They are
now paving the way for it at ire
mendOus strides.
THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.
| In the words of Arthur l.. Clarke,