The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1914-08-14
WHAT S. S. PRENTISS SAID IN A SPEECH IN 1874
APPLICABLE NOW.

In this dav when the time serve and the demagogue is going
up and down the country trying to keep the people stirred up to
divide them into classes according to employment and the property
owned, it might be well to study what that great apostle OF honest
government, S. 5. Prentiss. said in a campaign speech IN 1914 Inc
state of Mississippi never had one greater than Prentiss. He came
TO the state from far away Maine poor, and carved out for himself a
name and a fame worthy of the emulation and the ambition of ev-
cry youth of the land. His voice almost speaks back to us on the
matter of the "demagogue as from across me river. Listen
There are denagogues among is who tell the poor man, IN the
very spirit Of the arch-hend, that the rich man is your enemy, and
vet how often do we see the employer of today become the laborer
of tomorrow, and the laborer changed into the employer. his is
the legitimate result of our free institutions and how IN n iac OF
such facts, dare any mar to iniame the bad passions OF the different
classes of society by teaching that there is a natural hostility be-
tween them? The sons of the poor man have actually the better
chance in the race tor wealth. As a general thing, they first reach
the golden eminence. Stephen Girard began life a poor boy, and so
did John Jacob Astor. They were the architects 81 their own tor-
tunes. They acquired their wealth by their superior enterprise. The
son of the poor man is more likely to prosper, because honest in:
dustry, perseverance, and hope arem most likely TO be his portion, and
these are the mainsprings of success in life.
There are. those who in public speeches refer to the toiing
masses as the can't phrase is. just as if poverty in this country were
But poverty is in this country no such Procustean bed, nor is labor
here subject to any such hard necessity. Our institutions are illus
trated in the race course where every horse is put upon his mettie
The slowest cannot win the prize; it belongs to the heetest. We
train our sons like young eagles, to soar alott, not to hutter about
like owls. say to every man who earns his bread by the sweat OF
his brow, YOU have the same chance before you that Benjamin
Franklin had. The path of success is as free to you as it ever was
to the thousands and teos of thousands whose industry and enter
nrnr have raised them To afduence independence. station. and honor
40 the community.
II never hear these Infamous appeals to popular envy and
prejudice without being reminded Of Satan tempting our mother
Eve. AS the arch-hend
Squat like a toad at the ear Of Eve,
Assaying by his devish art to reach
The organs OF her fancy,
so do the demagogues approach the laborng man, inspiring venom
and raising 'distempered, discontinued thoughts, vain hopes, vain
aims inordinate desires Nor can ever witness these attempts OF
passion and satanic cunning without wishing that possessed the
spear Of Ithuriel, that might touch and unmask the monster
Were Prcntss living today is there anybody in Mississippi to
whom he would apply the spear of lthuriel?' How long-how
much longer-wil our people lend their ears to the voice of the ma
who talks of Glasses in good old mississippi