The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-06
A Legislative Nightmare.

Washington Post
 The sudden death of ex-Govsrnor Davis II. no more of a stir than the demise of an or- diniGy citizen. In the Eastern press the news and the event WIS passed by without com ment. Yet less than ten years ago Waite country, and no executive of State achieved more sudden rise to notoriety than he His administration during 9s3 and 6e4 was ex- twice called out the militia stating that he would enforce his orders against the corpora @ SIood eTs9 II the brdis in this he earned the sobriquet of Bloody Brides wsite which GIunE tS him long as he lived Governor Waite was dismissed conveys a deeper lesson than the trte one which points of the foremost representatives of a party which at one time threatened to sweep White House. It elected Governors of States and sent members of both Houses to Wash ington It proposed to eradicate all economic evils by placing on the statute books laws de- claring them abolished It's success was so sudden. so decisive. that many keen observ- national life what was only a feeting phase.
 In the comparatively short life Of the nation there have been many strange political up attended the mushroom growth of Populism. Never before did many men leap from The gospel of discontent was preached in the prairies of the West by hundreds who adopted tne role or John the Baptlst, telilnS wiling
 under the banner of reform" The effect was
 electrical. Never did RienzPs Romans rally more loyalty to the cry of 'Popoio. Popolo, !" than these embittered farmers responded to the slogan of 'The Peoples Party The strange enthusiasm communicated itself to sober business men. and whole communities were deluded by the promises held out by mis- guided or interruptions leaders.
 This was indeed. the golden age of the demagogue. few sophisms on the rights of the plain people," half a dozen catch phrases and fha Nrf1ID tA0f rafu SO f1na Atar
 nifty of a statesman. A misft of a farmer, whose earthly possessions consisted of mort gagged land and a tattered copy of Progress and Poverty" was elevated to the pedestal of a party Moses because he could talk fiuently about the ''unearned increment" Men who from their country stohekeeper were chosen to administer the affairs of sovereign States simply because they had vocferously declared their hatred of corporation cormorants.'
 The fierce and reckless tcmerity of these men when once installed in office was equaled only by their ante-election pledges. Legisla- tion ran riot, for to these newly created law makers statute was all that was needed
 to remedy existing ills. Extracts from bills
 offered \ in sober earnest gave the Eastern
 humorist never-failing text for joke and kept the hnancier in a state of nervous terror. But the failure to keep impossible prom
 ises soon awoke the people from their night
 mare. It was seen that even a law, the pro duct of both houses of the legislature and ap- proved by the Governor could not rise above | had been regarded as a messiah appeared in | his true light as stuffed prophet and the | dream over A few fragments of the 1 phase remain, and in their drowsy moments
 more repeated, but by and by even they will | wake up.