The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-04-29

postoffice pecu1ation, legislative mon
strosities dominated by partisan boss
es, executive usurpation. All this goes
on in the nation and in the states
without fear and without shame. The
Republican party revels in power.
Eternal vigilance, the price Of liberty,
Is no longer effective, now that party
equilibrium is destroyed.
4. For some reason every man Of
means has left the Democratic party.
In Stark county for instance, formerly
rock-ribbed Democratic community,
for years we have not been able to
raise enough money to make an effec-
tive poll of the county and city. And
this is universally true throughout
the country, save in the south and in a
few large municipalities in the north.
These astounding and alarming facts
ought to set every Democrat who
loves his country, land he ought to
love his country better than his party
to thinking, and ought to determine
the question as to who shall be nom
mated for president Of the United
,
and on what platform of principles
The campaign on the money question
has been very severe, and very
bitter one. 1t has cut close to the
question of poverty and property
rights, and as is universally the case
when the money question is in issue,
affected the stability of business and
commercial institutions.
The Democracy in the last two
presidential campaigns, being out of
power and being the party of opposi-
ton, and the situation being accentu-
ated by a worldwide depression and
panic, naturally attracted to itself,
every kind and class of person with
radical beliefs and political and econ
omic nostrums. Whether consciously
or not, the campaign took the form Of
an onslaught against property, against
,Ae plutocrat, the banker, the capital
list. 1t encouraged the socialist; it
encouraged the radical socialist who
believes property is a crime and rob-
berry. 1t enlisted the advocates of
state ownership of all natural monopo-.
| lies of single tax, and dignified these
advocates by giving them leadership in
the party. Not to discuss the virtue
of justice of these doctrines, the ma
tural result of all this was to array
property and all its interests against
the Democracy.
The great mass of men of modest
means, the grocer, the merchant, the
manufacturer, great and small, the la
borer who was the owner of home,
the banker. or holder of stock in
banks, no matter how small, was either
openly or secretly against the Demo-
cratic party. am far from saying that
Mr.. Bryan Intentionally made this
onslaught upon all business and bus
mess enterprises and all men of
means in the country. My point is
that the effect of these campaigns, in
the heat and enthusiasm engendered
| therein, the opening of the Democratic
platform to every element Of discon-
tent, and economic doctrine and be-
lief, resulted in this alarming state of
affairs. A great buttress of prejudice
1t is a false and dangerous doctrine
which advocates that all men of means
are essentially dishonest. Property is
sacred; il is the conserver of liberty;
1t brings leisure; it gives stability;
1t brings power; It gives the individual
the ability to do what he most desires
TO do. II is therefore thing much
to be desired; IT is necessary to the
accomplishment of all great and
wholesome enterprises. The decalogue
makes property sacred. The great
body Of our laws has to do with prop
erty. 1t is the basis of civilization and
there is no civilization where It is not
protected. The crimes against proper
ty are only exceeded in venality by the
crimes against the person. The good
old Jeffersonian Democracy stands
for the doctrine that the sources of
wealth and power shall be open to the
rich and poor alike. There are to be
no peculiar privileges, but equal and
exact justice to every man, the impair
tial maintenance OF both the rights of
labor and capital, no unequal discrim-
nation, no abuse of the powers of
laws for favoritism or oppression
That every man OF means, and this
includes every man of modest means,
as the world goes, is in the Republican
party today Is most melancholy fact.
A great body Of them used to be in
the Democratic ranks. Is 1t right 10
assume that they have no love for their
country? That they are not true pa
triots? BY no means. The honest
zone OF the body polite, the represen-
tatives of the highest integrity, of the
best character, Of the most disinter-
|ested patriotism, lies in those citizens
who are possessed Of modest fortunes,
who are the owners of their own
homes, who are engaged in business
enterprises, who are contractors, man
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