Year: 1871

opponents carried the day. I think
that the new departure" OF the Demo.
Gratis so far as any election except this
very next year is concerned is like steal
ing a mans grave clothe. After some
remarks upon the causes OF the Demo
cratic failure to elect President In 90,
be continued !: I consider that the
new departure is much nearer Q prob
ability Of success than men imagine,
that with the influence Of the Ku-klux
monopolizing the whole ofthe Southern
tier of States, the Republican party
wouldn't begin to have q chance with
any other name than Grants. | say
this with the gravest feeling Of indig.
nant disspprobation Of the apathy Of
the government on this Ku.Klux ques-
ton, ever since the adjournment OF
Congress.


Glow do you explain this state OF
apathy which you speak OF, sir?


Mr.. P.-Because although, as is
perfectly well known, Grants best and
closest admirers are Butler and Morton,
yet it is true that he is surrounded by
men who take off the edge Of the ad.
vantage which those two men give him.
Either OF those two men in the Presi.
dental chair would end the KuKlux in
sixty days. But Grant has around him
a class OF men one-third rebel and some
Of them one-half non.committal, and
they take off the whole edge OF what
ught to be the Presidents decision in
exercising the powers that Congress has
entrusted to him.


C.-Well then it amounts to this in
your opinion, sir, that the Republican
party is doomed


Mr.. P.-Well, yes, ! must repeat
what have said once or twice, that II
the Government don't do something
with the Ku-Klux before December, !
don't see much hope for the Republican
party. No party can live on laurels.
They must live on expected service, not
remembered triumphs. The Republi-
can party is like an old family-all lis
merits are under the ground; all their
merits are in history. The Republican
party is a ghost haunting the grave OF
its departed strength. Now il it would
dare put down the Ku-Klux with a
strong hand, or if it would open on a
new career by emancipating the white
laborer as it has the black. then il would
take the front rank as it has done But
if they succeed in driving out OF the
arena all the live issues, the Democrats
are better managers than they are, and
will secure the government. Ii is only
when live issues come to be dealt with
that the nucleus of the Republican
party is efficient. must say that in
the division of the spols the Democrats
are a great deal better than they are.
(Mr Phillips laughingly added that he
did not know how the World would
like that


C.-Do you not hold, sir, that ques-
tons of finance are likely to form
very important element in the politics
Of the country hereafter?


Mr. P.-I don't believe the financial
condition of the country will come up
in any absorbing form except in the
question OF labor. The question OF the
debt is so disposed ef that the most IN
tense interests in finance will be its re-
lations to the labor question. The pro-
gress Of liberty 200 years ago meant
fight with kings and hereditary nobility.
The struggle Of liberty today means a
fight between the working classes and
the well-to do middle classes hidden be-
hind the banks and moneyed corpora
tons and the financial questions OF to-
morrow will be banks and gold basis
and land tenure. You are not aware,
it YOU have not been in Pennsylvania,
how far and how deep the financial
question has penetrated. 1t will be a
very keen struggle, as community,
with the workingmen movement and
the mere finance OF Wall street. The
financial questionsof the next five years
are not 10 be the financial questions OF
Wall street. They will be finance as
connected with the workingmen' 8 move
ment. 1t crept into Congress little at
its very last session, and it will be there
more and more. When you look at
such corporation as the Pennsylvania
Central, which now holds its right hand
on New York harbor and its left on
San Francisco, and controls all the
transportation between with a capital
Of four hundred millions in its control
the mere ordinary political tricks are
chips when compared with such power.
1t will begin to lie between them and
their comrades and the workingmen
which shall own Washington, and the
decision OF the question will settle
whether we are a free government or
money corporation. something like the
Whig oligarchy of the last century in
Great Britain.