Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1886 — READ, REASON and REELECT. [ARTICLE]

READ, REASON and REELECT.

Indianapolis Sentinel: The Democratic party went into power as a party of reform. But little over a year has elapsed since the executive function has been exercised by a Democrat. Abuses created in a quarter of a century, by a strongly entrenched party, and exerting its power in an era of prodigious expenditure, has reached enormous proportions, and many of them became so intertwined with legitimate enterprises as to be difficult to separate. With an enormous xpenditure, political offices, from becoming posts of honor and pnblic trust, became valuable for the opportunities they give for the acquirement of wealth, and from being the creation of the people became the prize of the one who would use money the most lavishly, and so gradually passed out of popular control. Public property, instead of being reserved for public use, was squandered, given away with the lavish hand of a gambler who throws away the treasure he controls but did not acquire. Syndicates of capital were allowed to take whatever public property that suited them. Valuable franchises were sold to corporations, and bribes secured that official indifference that won what could not be secured in open debate. Syndicates for controlling the products of the country were found. Banks were given powers belonging to the government. Corporations were favored with enormous loans, and a political pollution scarcely eqnalled in the most dissolute periods was reeking the social atmosphere of the nation.

It was under such conditions that the Democracy went into po ver as the party of reform, and this power was so diluted by the senatorial’obstruction that its work wns unavoidably hampered. But that it has not been false to its pledges the result in a little more than one year gives gratifying evidence. — That it has not done more is due to their prodigious quantity and the difficulties of their removal, and also to the opposition of the Republican party that yet controls the strong hold of monopoly—the Senate. That there also has been impatience was natural to people who felt the effects of those profound abuses, without understanding the enormous difficulties involved in their removal. Mr. Cleveland ha proven one thing, and that is his honesty. He has stood like a wall between tl e assaults of his enemies, the mistakes of his friends, on the pledges upon which he took his office. And the doubts that obscured him from the public vision are clearing away, as one after another of the abuses are attacked and destroyed, and great corporations and individuals are compelled to respect the law along with the humblest citizen.

Nearly 60, 000,000 acres of public lands have been reclaim'd, and suits are entered upon twine fes much more. The rottenest haVv in the world is being renovated, out of less money than formerly served to keep it in a state of decay. The public debt has been reduced by more than a twentieth of its volume. Economy in the management of public money has enabled the Administration to hasten new wUT ships, improve docks, pay its expenses and Interest withont halting a moment in the payment of its debt, and without disturbing the gtoat reserve that maybe applied to public Works, naval constirutiKdn and debt paying. A healthier mord tone lsnoticedbfte in aft official cycles. Leftishitors andcdWrtc show arespedtldripubfte Cpmion they failed ’to 4o two vears ago. Mctaey does not so rSS&rly buy the honor of'officials, acr as The monopoly spirit so overbearing. asserted tredr-the oliigsrehv d the Blaines, Thaßkeraans, the nogiu and w M who hate come to read*l Thssasalvcc a law with thcasslfesuud law givers to BtftThe puriyeneome selections

has become impatient It hoped to see the enormous load liftedpruin ediately, and because this was impossible became despondent.— Many did not reflect that years would be required to effect the necessary change. Yet how unreasonable this spirit is may be seen in the great change effected in a single year. It may also be seen how great is the necessity for harmony and unity of purpose aud leadership in order to complete the work so well begun. Tnat the enormous aggregation of the party should, after long absence from power, confronted by evils of long growth and great dimension, be absolutely free from errors of misunderetanding and fail to generate here and there little animosities, would be a curious anomally.— 3uch are common to all organizations whatever, they are the accidents tkat can neither be forseen nor prevented. Neither do they affect the great momentum of events, that goes on without those who can not accommodate themselves to it. The momentum of the Democratic party will not be lessened by the petty quarrels, grown out of merely individual Those who foster ihem will find they have few sympathizers, and few r who can understand the petty cause that led them, and which are nearly always of the most individual nature. — Cool after-thought will convince the most recalcitrant, if they be honest, of the folly of discord and the necessity of harmony- that success of the w ole is more essential than success of the individual—that principles are superior to ambitions.