Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1887 — POLITICAL. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL.

The Fight of the Democratic Party Against the Giant Monopoly. Eloquent Speech of Hon. John W. Kern, Delivered at Indian* upolis, Ind. I read with some interest the other day an interview published in one of our morning papers with a.gentleman who has spent the best part of his life in fighting the Democracy, in which he stated in effect that the laboring men would so vote in the coming elections as to give to the Republicans a victory, and that the Democratic party would then quietly and complacently go to pieces, and out of the general wreck some other party would come forth, and all the evils of modern times would be speedily corrected. lam surprised that the gentleman hadn’t profited by his past experience, and learned that the Democratic party was not born to die. It came into being with the Union and the Constitution. Tne father of Democracy was the man whose hand penned that immortal instrument, the Declaration of independence. Its organizers were the men who formulated the Constitution itself. Since that time scores of political organizations have been formed, have lived a little while, triumphed for a time, then died with the issues that called them forth, and bad been forgotten, while the great Democratic party has lived on. Other parties have not survived repeated defeats, but the Democratic party lived through twenty-five years of disaster—dark, dreary years of gloom—its political funeral was preached biennially from pulpit and rostrum, the followers of its Hag were reviled and persecuted, and yet it lived on. The secret of its vitality ’is that while other parties, organized upon temporary or sectional questions, have passed away, the Democratic party was organized as a national party, and during every year of its evistence, whether in adversity or prosperity, in storm or sunshine, in victory or defeat, in peace or in war. it has clung to the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and at all times and under eveiy circumstance it has resisted the encroachments of monopoly, and has always waged battle in the interests of the common, plain people, who toiled that they might live—the people who have patiently and loyally followed its Hag, and who to-night make up the blood and the bone of this mighty organization. These are some of the reasons why the Democratic party has lived, and why, after twenty-five years of defeat, it won the magnificent victory of 1884, and with new blood and new life it stands today fully abreast of the times, stronger in the affections of the people than any time in the hundred years of its existence. I do not believe the laboring men of Indianapolis are in love with the idea of a Republican victory. I don’t think they waut their wrongs righted by traveling that perilous pathway, which, unfortunately, them have been traveling too long. The® is no workingman in Indianapolis who does not know that every evil complained of is the direct result of vicious class legislation enacted by the Republican party. Is it necessary that Ido more than ask the questions:

Under whose administration was enacted that outrageous financial leg elation in the interest or the wealth of the country, which began by making the bonds of the Government payable in coin, in violation of the contract under which they were issued, and ended in making'them payable in gold coin? Who demonetized the silver coin? Whose legislaiion in the interest of the few was carried so far as to bring about those terrible days of suffering and distress, which filled the land wi h workingmen who were compelled to sacrifice pride and manliness and go up and down the land begging like common mendicants for work or for bread? A gentleman by the name of John Sherman was more prominently identified with this kind of legislation than any other. During all those dark hours, he never for one moment relented. His ear was deaf to the entreaties of the workingman everywhere. He went on to the utmost limit. And yet it hasn’t been many days since this same John Sherman, in Cincinnati, declared that it was the .interest of every workingman in the country to vote the Republican ticket and return to those good old-fashioned Republican davs. Mr. Sherman is now a candidate for the Presidency, and we may safely presume that this recently discovered affection for the workingman, which has developed in so short is intended to offset that tender, unfading love for Irishmen which his dangerous rival, Mr. Blaine, is working lor all that it is woith. Who would have believed, fifteen years ago, that in 1888 Blaine and Sherman would be opposing, candidate-for the Republican Presidential nomination? Blaine posing as the champion of the Irish voters of Americi, and John Sherman ns the great, original, only Jacob Townsend workingman’s fri nil. '1 he telegraph and telephone companies and railroad corporations generally arc complaining of this administration. I believe this to be a healthful sign. For years past all legislation has been shaped in their interest, it is high time that the t\heel was turning the other way. lam glad the laborers are awaking to their interests, and are not slow in making their demands of political parties. The Democratic parly has not been slow in heeding them. From the time of its organization to the present sirne it has been the earnest champion of the weak as against the strong, and has been the uncompromising, aggressive foe of monopoly in every form. Ihe Democratic party will remain in power for many a year to come. It will remain in power because it will prove true to the interests of the masses of the people. Through it can be accomplished, speedily, reforms which, through any other organization, would take years. Give Grover Cleveland a fair chuuce. His heart is with the people. The power and political influence of monopolies have no terrors lor him. Let those who voted* for him sustain him by an earnest and cordial support, strengthening his bunds in the contest with the mighty forces of wrong which have wielded such a crushing power during the years of the past, and at the close of his administration I think we will all be satisfied, and will thank God for tt.e courage and nerve with which He endowed him, which enabled him to win the victory in such a contest. The Missouri River is one of the flow- era that boom in the spring.