The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-08-29
Democracy and Prosperity Antipodes.

NAA AOoRSAAtJ hhApOdSSs
Labor in this country sought to i'm
prove its condition in 1892, when en-
ployment was general and wages fair,
by using the ballot to entrust power
in the hands of the Democratic party.
Mr.. Cleveland went the second time
into the presidency and a Democratic
majority in both Houses of Congress
was chosen with the expectation that
better times would follow. Can any
Democrat aver, with sincerity, that
the succeeding four years furnished
any evidence that Democratic theories
were conducive to the welfare of the
laboring, farming, or any other inter-
est of the country? Is it not true
that Mr.. Cleveland's second term was
fraught with disaster to every inter
est except, possibly, that of the money
lender? Labor was idle, capital was
unemployed, farm products were
lower in price than ever before or
since, the goods of merchants lay I'M
salable on their shelves and general
financial disaster marked the period.
This condition was relieved when
such a change occurred in the use of
the ballot, as substituted, in 1896, a
Republican President and Congress
for the Democratic Executive and
Legislative departments of the pre-
vious four years. OF that there is no
manner of doubt, since a period of
unexampled prosperity has followed
the change. Labor is generally en-
ployed and at very decidedly more
remunerative wages than marked the
time of Democratic sway, farm pro-
ducts command fair prices, manufac-
lures flourish and all classes are pros
porous.
The difference in conditions in the
two periods referred to has not been
accidental. 1t is the result of well
defined causes. Under the Demo
cratic administration manufactures
languished because manufacturers
feared to venture into an unprotected
field. Labor wa S underpaid because
labor was not in demand. Farm pro-
ducts were reduced in price because
many of the people were idle and
were forced to economic in the con-
sumption of such products, and mer-
chants were unsuccessful because the
people were without money to buy
their wares
When Democratic newspapers.
therefore, advise labor to employ the
ballot to right inequalities in wages
meaning that this can be accom-
plished by investing the Democratic
party with political power-it is only
necessary to contrast the condition of
labor under the rule of the two par
ties during the last decade. If Dem
ocratic rule wrought disaster not only
to labor, but to every other interest
of the country, and Republican pol
icy brought prosperity to the laborer,
the farmer, the manufacturer and the
merchant, it would be the height of
folly to return to the state which
brought the former condition into ex-
istence. Democratic success and pros
perity do not go hand in hand in this
country.
This is the logic of fact and it is
true. Why then should the people
strengthen the hands of Democracy
by investing them with power in local
and State affairs? And then, too,
there is not local interest in Mary
land that did not receive more valua-
BILE assistance when the Republicans
were in power, for a short period,
than it is experiencing from the party
now in the ascendency. The best in
terests of the people were promoted
by Republican success, in State and
Nation, and it would be the part of
wisdom to keep that party in power
in the Nation and to restore it to
power in the State.