The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1904-07-16
WILLIAMS SHARP TALK.
Temporary Chairman of ST. Louis Conven-
ton Makes Special Point Of Exposing
Republican, Claims That party
Makes Prosperity

of paragraphs and In many schedules.
These duties affect vast number Of in
terests which are often conflicting. If
necessary for our welfare, then of course
congress must consider the question of
changing the law as whole or changing
any given rates OF duty, but we must re-
member that whenever even q single
schedule is considered some interests
will appear to demand change in al
most every schedule in the law; a4d
when it comes to upsetting the schedules
generally the effect upon the country
would be ruinous." Verify, two souls
with but single thought; two speeches
that read like one."
And that single thought so harmoni-
ously expressed is not to force a sim
gle special interest to take It's lips from
the public breast for fear the public
finding them unnecessary might shake
them all off.
But to go on to the authoritative ut
terance of the republican party in con-
vention assembled. The platform, like
the temporary chairman's speech, deals
chiefly in the boast that the republican
party is responsible for everything good
which has happened. 1t also deals
much in ancient history. It did well to
go back so years ago. The present re-
publican party needs running start of
fully SO years to enable the Imagination
of the American people to jump over it's
present obstructiveness and it's evasion
of live issues which lie in its pathway
to success in this year of 1904. The plat
form in speaking of the access of the
republican party to power after Mr..
Cleveland's second administration had
expired, uses this language: I'VE then
found the country, after four years of
democratic rule, in evil plight, oppressed
with misfortune and doubtful of the fu-
ture. Public credit had been lowered,
revenues were declining, the debt was
growing, the administration attitude
towards Spain was feeble and mortify-
ing, its standard of values was threat
ened and uncertain. Labor was unem-
ployed. Business was sunk in the de-
preston which succeeded the panic of
1898. Hope was faint and confidence
was gone" Suppose paraphrase that
utterance by saying that when Mr..
Cleveland succeeded to the presidency
in March, 1898, after four years of re-
publican administration under Mr.. Har-
rison, the democratic party found the
country, after long period of public
misrule and extravaganza, in evil plight,
oppressed with misfortune and doubtful
of the future. Public credit had been
lowered, the revenues were declining"
The outgoing administration was pre-
pairing and had prepared to issue bonds.
A government deficit was confessed.
The panic which had devastated the
world was relentlessly approaching our
shores. A long saturnalia of extrava-
gance, public and private, and of reck-
less speculation had been already fol-
lowed by depression. Corn was burned
for fuel in Kansas and elsewhere in the
west in 1890 and after. Cotton was at or
below the price of production. The
acute reaction which we call panic was
inevitably approaching, even before Mr..
Cleveland was elected. Business was
sunk in the depression" which proceed
ed the panic of 1898. Labor was unem-
ployed," or poorly remunerated in fac
tory or field, especially in the latter.
Indeed, business depression, especially
in agriculture and the lack of adequate
remuneration for labor, taken together
with the high prices of manufactures
under the Mckinley act thigh prices
especially accentuated to public realiza-
ton by the contrasting starvation prices
of agricultural products which had be-
gun to prevail in 1890 and had contin-
ued more or less persistently since),
these constituted the chief industrial
reasons in the public mind for turning
Mr.. Harrison and the republicans out
and putting Mr.. Cleveland and the DEM
ocrats in. To go on with the para
phrase: Under Harrison s administra-
ton for three years hope was faint and
confidence gone" The plight of the
people was so desperate that, like
drowning men, they were catching at
straws." Many nostrums were being
suggested. Agrarianism and state So
cialism in the shape of subtreasury and
other schemes were rife from 1890 and
thence on. The two old parties, = as
they were called, were blamed for it all,
but the one in power was blamed most.
hence the out of power got in. Men adj
vocating these nostrums, in the state
of public desperation then existing,
counted their audience throughout the
suffering west and depressed south, no
longer by numbers but by the acre.
Who will deny tie historical truth of
a single sentence of the paraphrase?
Why pretend to have forgotten all this?
Why not be honest with the people, as
men ought to be? 1t is true that after
the election of Mr.. Cleveland the
chronic business depression continued
1t is true that it became acute; in word
reached the banks and then the fright
or panic of 1893 came, which was not a
local or American condition, but one
which had existed from where Vienna
nestles on the Danube to where Buenos
Ayres commands its bay, one whose
foundations had been laid long before 1t
reached us, almost last among the ma
lions. Then with the panic upon us
more ,nostrums of a national character
were suggested to cure an evil of world
character. One of them. as you will all
remember, was the repeal of the pur-
chasing clause Of the Sherman act. This
nostrum was suggests by wise men and
it was administered to the patient Il
did no good, of course. The panic went
on, went on until when? 1t went on