Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1898 — MY POPULIST FRIEND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MY POPULIST FRIEND

■ ■ -A FARMER’S WIFE TEACHES A LESSON IN CONSISTENCY. •® er Husband's Pride in Ownership of the War Bonds of “a Country Brought to the Verge of Moral, Political and Material Ruin.** “We get them,” said my Populist friend, as he came blithely up the .gravel walk that leads to the front porch of his cozy country home. His wife did not look up. “I tell you,” he continued, “it does me as much good this time, to subscribe my mite to the government loan as it did to go to the front myself, thirty odd years ago.” Still no response from the little woman, rocking on the porch. “What a glorious war this has been!” ■and he grew enthusiastic. “What a real nation we are! W T hat a grand old man Uncle Sam is, anyhow! Think of sit! Think of it, I say,” he fairly shrieked to the unruffled lady in the chair. “When Spain was trying to borrow a few millions to patch up her dilapidated old navy, Uncle Sam shoved his hand -down in his pocket, pulled out fifty mil--lions in cold cash, handed it over to McKinley and said, ‘Get ready.’ McKinley got gun factories going, powder factories going, men and boys going .here and there, camping, drilling, moving to the front. Dewey at Manila, whizz! One-third of the Spanish navy at the bottom of the sea; Sampson and Schley at Santiago, whoop! The pride of Spain’s navy full of holes and burning on the beach; the boys in Cuba, twenty-five thousand Spanish fighters surrender to them. Porto Rico captured without a struggle. It’s great. It makes me feel like celebrating. More money, wanted; did we have to go to Europe for it?” He paused for a reply, which did not come, and then he proceeded: “No, we didn’t, not a bit of it; we .didn’t have to go anywhere. The people just said, ‘Here it is, six times over if you want it.’ We get our share of the bonds, it makes me feel good;” and he strutted back and forth in front of the porch, seeming to imitate the walk of the proud peacock not far off, but the woman said nothing. “But that isn’t all,” he said. “Think •of us commercially. What do you think -of making Europe and other lands fork •over six hundred million dollars in dean cash for the difference due us in the deals of the past year? Aren’t we •somebody, though?” Then her lips moved. She spoke, her voice as deep and as solemn as she •could make it; her eyelashes not lifted; iher features expressionless. He listened to the words: “ ‘We meet in the midst of a nation ■brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin.’ ” Like a voice from the tomb it sounded to him. At first my Populist friend seemed atunned; then he was angry. His arms flew in the air, his jaw moved, and bis whiskers beat the wind; but so enraged was he that he could utter not a word. Finally, in despair, he sat •down upon the porch steps and buried his face in his hands. “Cruel, I know it is cruel,” said the little woman in her softest, meekest voice; “but that is one of the first phrases in the first national declaration of your great Populist party. That was the corner-stone on which you Imilded; it was the belief in those conditions that brought your party into ■existence. Think of it, what a libel on a great and good people! What are you going to do with that declaration ■of ‘ruin,’ anyhow? Why not frame it, and send it to Spain? I don’t know of any one else who could get any satisfaction out of it; but, in the light of recent historic events, it would be a difficult task to get even her to believe It.”

“But that was six long years ago,” plaintively pleaded my Populist friend. “But yon are still following the trail ■onto which that infamous declaration led you; and that is what hurts me,” she answered, impatiently. “Think of It yourself; think of it. Can a great and growing nation make a complete change in morals in six years? When was there more evidence that Divine Providence was guiding a nation than we have at this time? Think of our war for humanity; think of Dewey and Manila; think of Santiago; think of Spain's navy practically ruined and but one man of ours killed in doing It. Would the hand of Divine Providence «o protect a nation that was on the verge of moral ruin? Would a wicked and depraved people wage such a war for humanity as ours has waged? “Financial ruin, too! Think of that. All those millions of dollars are being loaned to the government by the people, plain, hard-working, economical people, such as you. And yet you say In your great national platform that we Are on the verge of material ruin. How dare you look Truth In the face and follow the footstep* of the party which uttered that libel? " ‘Material ruin!’ Yes, the difference In our trade with nations of the world was more than six hundred million •dollars in our favor, but, groat as It Is, that tells only a small part of the story. It Is no comparison with our Internal growth. England's most reliable statistician now asserts that we have become the richest nation on the face of the globe, and he furnishes the figures the prove It. Yet you follow blindly in the lead of men who declared that we are on the brink, ready to topple over Into all sorts of ruin." “But that was six years ago. I say, and what makes you always bring that up?” said my Populist friend, somewhat defiantly. “Take our later acts; we were a new party then.”

The mischievous smile began to play about the lips of the good wife, as she said: “Very well, your later acts, then. Out in the barn loft is a banner which you lugged about in one of your ‘reform’, parades of two years ago. It reads: • A VOTE FOR M’KINLEY • • MEANS * • 25 CTS A BUSHEL FOR WHEAT * • AND * • 10 CTS A BUSHEL FOR CORN. * »»♦»***»♦»•*• “How much will you charge to carry that to town now?” My poor Populist friend was hurt. Would that Banquo’s ghost of a banner never down ? Hadn’t the men in town made life miserable for him, and hadn’t they silenced his ‘arguments’ by reminding him of it, and now must it be brought to his very threshold? Had the really tender-hearted wife known how he had suffered for the folly of believing too implicitly in the political predictions of demagogic reformers, I believe she would have pitied him rather than have twitted him of his more recent folly. But she was kind even in her seeming cruelty, for he persisted in that folly. Her motive was to bring him back to the paths of political rectitude.—E. G. Pipp, in American Economist. Gov. Tanner'* Speech. Governor Tanner opened the Republican campaign in Illinois with a speech at Golconda. The address is local in its tenor and is devoted mainly to what Republicanism and Democracy mean in Illinois. Govenor Tanner is in a position to speak with knowledge and authority as to the outcome ’of the last Democratic administration, and he reviews in detail the management of the state finances and the state institutions. His summing up of Altgeld’s so-called “business administration,” expressed in figures, Is $922,041 plundered and stolen by Altgeld appointees, $1,532,687 borrowed mopey, and $2,059,225 treasury deficit. As a campaign argument there is a multiplicity of details and a directness of statement which will keep Altgeld busy iSa answering during the entire campaign and for some time after. As to the national issues Involved in the late war, the governor is sound and takes a position which will be indorsed by Illinois Republicans. Our flag has been hoisted in distant and strange places, and we will keep it there; barbarism has made its conquests in the past, ■why may not the spirit of humanity and civilization claim some of the w’aste places of the earth? If monarchy and aristocracy can partition Africa and China, why may not a people’s republic, with its free institutions, go forth and in the spirit of universal humanity place its shield over the homes and lives of the millions who have been downtrodden? Why should not new lands be opened to American trade as well as to the trade of the nations of Europe?” This is good, sound Tribune. A Brood Worth Defending.

Dispose* of Senn. The Chattanooga Times puts Dr. Nicholas Senn, the Chicago physician who has been giving much aid and comfort to the yellow journals who have been attacking the war department, in a most ridiculous light. In an Interview given September 1, Senn claimed he had warned the Washington authorities before the soldiers were sent to Chickamauga that the place was not fit for a camp, that typhoid fever was bound to come, but that his protests bad gone unheeded. The Times draw’s the deadly parallel on Dr. Senn, and prints side by side with his late Interview, a signed letter printed June 10, In which Senn declares that Chickamauga Park is admirably adapted for a large camp; that it contained shade which would furnish protection from the burning rays of a semitropical sun, and open fields for a drill ground. He then declared that the supply of pure water was ample, that malaria had nearly disappeared from that part of.the country, and that the troops were In excellent condition as regards their health. This disposes of Senn. Before he can get any further hearing, he must Inform the public as to when he told the truth, in June or in September.-Cedar Rapids Republican. Fame Old Bonner. The sliver and tariff questions will necessarily be the great issues in 1900, and the Democracy should emphasize that fact on every proper occasion.— Kansas City Times. This is the conciliation expressed by almost the entire body of Democratic throughout the United States. The few exceptions to be noted relate to the currency issue, and are mostly to be found tn journals located In the Large '"Mmmerclal centers of the

Eastern States. So far ns the tariff Is concerned there is hardly a single exception. “Protection No Longer Necessary” is the cry that is now most frequently heard. Its enemies can neither expunge nor explain away the splendid record of the past year that Stands to the credit of the American policy, but they have by no means abandoned the intention of fighting for the control of Congress in 1898 and the Presidency in 19tK) under the banner of free trade and free silver. X _ lowa Demo-Pop-Sit Platform. Reading the lowa Democratic platform of this year, and the speech made by “Sub-Squirt” Stuart as the temporary chairman of the convention which adopted that platform, should be sufficient to cause every Intelligent voter In lowa to vote the Republican ticket next November. It will not be denied that that platform calls for “the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1,” for it so declares in the words we have quoted, and it then says: We impeach the Republican party of criminal insincerity in declaring for bimetallism in the national platforms of 1888 and 1892 and for international bimetallism in 1896, and now in its latest State platform unequivocally committing itself to the gold standard. And we denounce as being dangerous to the public welfare its proposal for legislation involving the conversion of the 500,000,000 silver dollars and the $346,000,000 of greenbacks, first into exclusive gold obligations and next info an interest bearing bonded debt, and filling the vacuum created by the obliteration of the nearly $1,000,000,000 of legal tender money with non-legal tender bank notes. Think of an lowa state convention attempting to deceive the voters of the state with such flagrant falsehoods as those in the last sentence of the foregoing resolution adopted by the Democratic state convention at Marshalltown.—Des Moines Register. Welcome the Gold Democrats. The gold standard Democrats will be welcomed in the Republican party forever, and especially until after the gold standard principle lias, been enacted into the laws, and placed in the national constitution beyond the reach of the demagogues who deceive and mislead their deluded follower's on all the dishonest money schemes they can devise. The gold standard principle must be made “the paramount issue” until It has been fully and forever settled that all the howling malcontents who can be rallied under a dishonest money standard cannot accomplish the object of their wholly destructive schemes.

McKinley Was a Soldier. “Nothing is too good for the soldier boys,” said President McKinley in a quiet talk with a prominent Ohio man a few days ago. That has been the spirit of the whole administration in this war. If subordinates, through inexperience or otherwise, have not always carried out that idea, no one can regret it more keenly than President McKinley. Directly Traced. The Immense decrease of imports of foreign merchandise can be directly traced to the Dingley tariff, for with our Increased prosperity and ability to purchase, our people have used more than in any previous year, but Instead of purchasing foreign products they have been supplied with home products.—Tacoma Ledger. Nothing to Criticise. With imports decreasing and exports increasing, there is pone left to criticise the beneficial results of the Dingley bill, which Democracy conceded would decrease our Imports, but claimed would destroy our foreign markets.—Ogden (Utah) Standard. Cause of Disturbance. The war with Spain didn't disturb the business of the country half so much as the Popocrats’ attack on the stability of our currency. Current Political Opinions. As it appears to the lowa City Republican, the motto of the lowa Democrats Is: “Anything for office.” An exchange suggests that the name of the ( Democratic party should be changed to “disaster party.” The middle-of-the-road Pops believe in meeting trouble more than threequarters of the way.—Washington Post. Silver Prophet Chandler Is without honor In his own country of New Hampshire. Go, West, old man; go West.—Syracuse Post. If the Colorado Silver Republicans Intend to “vote as they shoot” our old friend Scattering probably will be elected.—Chicago Times-Herald. Congressman Bailey displays wonderful skill or marvelous misfortune in getting on the wrong side of public questions.—St. Ixniis Globe-Democrat With the resignation of Bynum from the chairmanship of the gold Democracy, one of the largest bluffs that ever amused the American people is called off. —Chicago Record. The middle-of-the-road Populists are early In the field with their presidential ticket for 1900, but they will find it difficult to keep it In the middle of the road or anywhere In sight for two years.—Boston Journal. It would not be surprising If the fall elections should result In the return of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota to the Republican fold, in spite of the dead weight of Republican Inertia to be overcome In the off year.-St. Paul Pioneer Press. Let all the Republican state conventions follow New’ Hampshire's demand that the flag which George Dewey raised In the Philippines and of which he now says. “I hope it will fly there foreVer," shall uot be hauled down by a Republican president.—New York Sun.