Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1891 — The Cobder Club Dying. [ARTICLE]

The Cobder Club Dying.

If reports from Loudon are true tho McKinloyites are about to lose their favorite campaign cry. Tho Cobden Clnb is on its last legs. Tho London correspondent of tho New York Times says that tho famous club “is so hard up for funds that it is obliged again to omit its annual fish dinner at Greenwich, ” and that “it is not unlikely that it will expire altogether within tho noxt few years.” “The truth is, ” the correspondent goes on, “that tho club's mission seems to havo ended. It was founded in the first flush of the triumph of political economy over stupidity and ignoranco in England by men who fondly believed the rest of the worla was open to conviction by argument, as the English had shown themselves to be. They were going so to spread the light that soon all mankind would abandon those twin mediaeval ;~lies of barbarism, tariffs and wars. Tho dream was lofty, but it cruelly failed of realization. * * * Tho old generation of Englishmen who founded the club have mostly died off. The new generation do not burn with sacred enthusiasm to proselytize tho world. They see that England is making profits right and loft by the protectionist follies of her neighbors, and they are indisposed to spend money in dissipating those follies. Hence the Cobden Club may be described as on its last legs.” Not enough Cobden Club gold to buy a fish dinner? What in the world will tho McKinleyites do when they can no longer frighten the ignorant by shouting “Cobden Club”? They will be of all men most miserable, and no balm in Gilead can heal their hurt.