The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-07

yention assembled. The platform, like the temporary chairman's speech, deal. chiefly in the boast that the Republican party is responsible for everything good which has happened. It also deals much in ancient history. It did well to go back fifty years ago. The pres. ent Republican party needs a running start of fully fifty years to enable the imagination of the American people tc
 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 platform, in speaking oi the access of the Republican party tc
 power after Mir. Cleveland's second ad.
 minfstration had expired. uses this Ian
 Ruage; "We then found the country after four years of Democratic rule. :r evil plight, oppressed with misfortunes and doubtful of the future. Public credit had been lowered, revenues were declining, the debt was growing, the administrations attitude towards Spain was feeble and mortifying. Its stand ard of values was threatened and un- certain. Labor was unemployed. Busi- ness was sunk in the depression which succeeded the panic of 1893. Hope was faint and confidence was gone" Sup pose I paraphrase that utterance by saying that When Mir. Cleveland suc- ceeded to the Presidency in March, 1893, after four years of Republican administration under MT. Harrison. the Democratic party found the country, after a long period of public misrule and extravaganza, in evil plights. op- pressed 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.
 saturnaIfn of Extravagance.
 The panic which had devastated the world was relentlessly approaching our shores. A long saturnalia of extrav- agance, public and private. and of reckless speculation, had been already followed by depression. Corn was burned for fuel in Kansas and else where 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 approach ing, even before MT. Cleveland was elected. Business was sunk in the de- precision which preceded the panic of 1893. Labor was unemployed, or poor ly remunerated in factory or field. especially in the latter. Indeed busi- ness depression. especially in agricul- ture and the lack or adequate remu- neration for labor. taken together with the high prices of manufactures under the Mckinley act. (high prices espe- cially accentuated to public realization by the contrasting starvation prices of agricultural products which had be- gun to prevail in 1890 and had con- tinued more or less consistently since) these constituted the chief industrial reasons in the public mind for turning MT. Harrison and the Republicans out and putting MT. Cleveland and the Democrats in." To go on with the paraphrase: Under Harrison's admin istration for three years hope was faint and confidence gonae 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 sc- cialism in the shape of sub treasury