Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1895 — The Decline of Populism. [ARTICLE]

The Decline of Populism.

The nomination of General Coxey to be Governor of Ohio by the populists does not disturb the , generally accepted fact that populism is dead. On the contrary, the laughable fiasco at Columbus merely emphasized the demise of this spectacular aggregation of rainbow chasers. Any attempt to give their luminous fallacies the potency of any further organized political endeavor will be futile, advent of good times and bountiful crops sounds the death knell of the calamity propaganda. The political tenets of such a party can never find favor with the people except in times of pestilence and industrial depression. Senator Manderson, of Nebraska, very aptly compares the populists to grasshoppers that make their appearance in pestilential times and declares that they will be smothered out of existence by the great prosperity around them. For the speedy annihilation of populism the public must give no small degree of credit to the champions of honest money. There was a time when it looked as if the common people of the entire west were gradually being into the free silver maelstrom. The currency dogmas of populism were captivating to the unthinking mind. The populistic intellect was a most fertile field for the propogation of the idea that the government could make fifty cents’ worth of silver worth a dollar. But there was a startling awakening and valiant defenders of an honest dollar sprang into the breach. The fire of rhetorical musketry in the press was hot and deafening for several months. Sound money advocates piled Ossa on Pelion in the matter of proving that a debased currency meant industrial disaster, and the blatant Ishn.rt-liu j mffi driver: to' cover. The demise of populism and the free silver lunacy must necessarily be coincident. Let them be interred in the same deep grave of popular disapproval.—Times Herald.