Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-07-18
A BUGABOO EXPLODED.
ing Notwithsta ndias Efforts of
the Discontented.


In his Phi Beta Kappa address "a:
Harvard recently MIR. Wayne Mac
Veagh gave us in substantially its
original form the prophecy of Aris-
totle, now over 1000 years old, as to
the danger to a republic which turks
in a death grapple between the haves
and the have nots. Mr.. MacVeagh did
not trace it farther back than Macau-
lay, and he set Webster's version above
Macaulay's as coming nearer to his
own ideas, citing it as follows:
1.-THE freest government would not be
long acceptable If the tendency of the laws
was to create a rapid accumulation Of
property in few hands, and to render the
great mass of the population dependent.
and pennlless. In the nature Of
things, those who have not property and
see their neighbors possess much more
than they think them to need cannot be
favorable to laws made for the protection
Of property. When this class becomes
numerous it grows clamorous. 1t looks
upon property as its prey and plunder, and
is naturally ready at all times for violence
and revolution"
That differs only in phraseology
from Macaulay's famous passage
sentence: "As for America, we appeal
to the twentieth century, Well, the
twentieth century is here, and the an
swer is squarely agains, Macaulay;
yet, curiously enough, MI, MacNeagh
does not seem to realize tf's. He put
into his address on THE Value of
Ideals in American Politics" the same
prophetic passage on this point that
has appeared in every similar address
for nearly or quite a hundred years.
Things are going on smoothly
enough now, but beware of what may
happen when times are less prosper
ous!" This is the invariable basis for
making it. When that point in the ad-
dress is reached Macaulay and Web
ster are certain to reappear with their
echo of Aristotle, and we are sure to
get modern application of it from
the orator. Mr.. MacVeagh gave it to
us as follows:
"Now, 1t is at least quite possible that in
the not-distant future American politics
may transform Mr.. Webster's warning
into history, for our electorate is already
beginning to be divided, and must in obedi-
ence to the law of socia! evolution, con-
tinue more and more to be divided, by that
sharp cleavage which separates those who
are contented with their lot from those
who are discontented with their lot. Under
whatever DISCUSSES, called by whatever
names, inheriting or seiZing whatever
partisan organizations, the alignment of
the two great political divisions of Amer
lean voters who will sooner or later strug-
gle against each other for the possession
Of the government, will inevitably be upon
the basis | have named. The party of the
contented will be ranged under one banner
and the party of the dscontented will be
ranged under the other, and that alignment
VIII steadily develop increasing sharpness
of division until the party of the discon-
tented, being the majority, has obtained
the control of the government, to which,
under our system they are entitled, and
then they will be sure to remodel the pres
ent system for the distribution of wealth,
unless We have previously done so, upon
bases wiser and more equitable than those
now existing"
Well, have we not just emerged tri-
umphantly from two "alignments,"
two divisions of the electorate" of
precisely that character? Bryan's
candidacy of the "discontented" was
the product of the hard times between
1888 and 1885. Those times produced
exactly the conditions that Macaulay
based ms prediction upon, and they
came on the very threshold of the cen
tury to which he had appealed for his
answer. Neithe Aristotle, nor
MacauIay, nor Webster, nor Mac
Neagh could conceive of a more dan
gerous candidate or leader for the dis
contented than Bryan was. We had
the SHARP cleavage which separates
those who are contented with their
lot from those who are discontented
with their lot" and what was the re-
suit when the count was made? Why.
that the contented outnumbered the
discontented. This was the result in
1896, and it was also the result at the
second cleavage in 1900. Does Mr..
MacVeagh think that there would be
any different result in 1904 if a third
cleavage were to be made then ?--N.
Y. Commercial Advertiser.