The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-06-25

WIN lana, ! UEOUA1 j Jul
credit, or such international COM
merce.
We were better off than any other
people on earth We should have been
satisfied, but we were not. We thought
we could do better-and tried-and
lost.
We were told that it did not make
any difference whether the republi
can or democratic party held the Of
fees; that prosperity did not depend
upon national policies, but on natural
conditions We were quickly aud
painfully undeceived.
cIeveIand's Administration.
The democratic party came into
power. Prosperity vanished and four
years OF disaster followed.
The soil was as rich, the sunshine
was as warm, the rains were as abund-
ant the seasons were as regular, and
labor was as eager, but it was all in
vain
The democratic party was at the
helm Free trade was in the saddle
and capital went into hiding; the mills
stopped, the mines closed, and idle
ness, want, suffering, tramps, and
riot spread over the land
Commerce waned, the balances Of
trade turned against us, revenues de-
clined, deficits occurred and multi
piled until they amounted to hundreds
Of millions.
Issue after issue of government
bonds became necessary to meet gov
ernment obligations, and the national
credit, now SO high, became so i'm
paired that a democratic secretary of
the treasury would not venture to
offer new issue Of bonds for sale
until he had organized Wall street
trust to guarantee market
Finally, as comes the light Of day
after long, black night, came the
year 1896, and brought with it another
for the American people.
What did the democratic party then
do? Did it acknowledge failure? Did
it confess incompetency? Did it apollo
gize for the ruin it had wrought? Did
it beg pardon Of the wage-workers
whom it had turned into idleness by
hundreds of thousands and upon
whose families it had imposed hunger,
want, and misery by robbing them of
millions.
The Campaign Of 1896.
On the contrary, it threw overheard
its old leaders, nominated William j.
Bryan, formed an alliance with the
populists and, with free silver for a
new issue, taking advantage Of the
bankruptcy and despair it had occas-
stoned, with appeals to prejudice,
sought to array class against class,
labor against capital, the poor against
the rich, that it might retain power.
1T was not content to attack the
republican party. It attacked every
thing. and everybody. It embodied in
its platform all the heresies Of popu-
lism, socialism, communism, and an
archy. Property rights, vested inter
ests, law, order,-even the courts
themselves assailed and placed
in jeopardy. No such wild, reckless,
destructive and dishonest program
was ever before entered upon by any
political organization.
The very life of the republic was
involved in the struggle, and conserva-
tive, patriotic men, including hun
dreds of thousands of democrats, raj
lied to the support Of William McKin-
ley, and, by his election, saved the
country, its honor, and its institu-
tions.
There is only one intelligent man in
America who does not see that the
defeat Of Bryan in 1896 saved us from
an irretrevable disaster-and he edits
The Commoner." Had we then add
ed free silver to free trade, the most
brilliant chapter in the economic his
tory Of this country would never
have been written.
The Campaign Of 1896.
Then came the Spanish-American
war with its new duties and new ques-
tions. Bankrupt Organism took q
new lease on political life. Old issues
were gone but new ones were quickly
made.
AS usual they involved an attack
on the dignity and power Of the ma
tional government.
We were told that we had no power
to hold and govern conquered terri
tory except as part Of the United
States; that the constitution followed
the flag, and wherever we raised the
one we must at once apply the other,
and that any other government was an
unconstitutional usurpation which the
inhabitants might lawfully resist;
that Aguinaldo was a Washington and
Mckinley despot; that the Filipino's
were patriots, struggling for liberty
and that we were oppressors denying
freedom and destroying with thesword; /;
that our flag must come down and our
army must come home.
Such were the contentious of 1900.
Once more the people sat in judg-
ment. Their verdict was the trium-
phant reelection of William McKin-
ley and total collapse Of democratic
claims, pretentions and policies.
It seemed as though their day Of
woe had come. Their flag was in the
dust; their columns were routed !;
their Issues were gone; free trade
was gone; free silver was gone; idle
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