Jones As A Beggar

It is becoming the fasbion to spcak of the present as a remarkable campaign. Aa each new phase which it develops sweeps Into sight, the peopla exclaim with Dominie Sampson, "Prodigious!" Surely nothing that has happened or can happen, Is or will be more ainazing than Senator Jones' appeal to the povertystricken masses for funds with which to elect Bryan. Does this appeal mean that the silver kings refuse to contribute to a movemeut froni which they expect such wealth as would be theirs, if they could get 100 cents for every 53 cents' worth of bullion they can mine? Is it an attempt to make it appear that these mine-owners are not in fact interested in the result of the election? Or is it an ingenious metkod of exciting class prejudice, and helping on the impending social revohition? Many expressions in the document itself suggest that the last of these three explanations of lts aim and Intentjon is the true one. "The Democratie party is engaged in the defonse oL the plain poople against the encroachment of the favored classes." "Our manhood, our freedom, the fruits of our industry, the integrity of our homes, everything that enlightened men hold dear- all are the playthings of aliens and the prey of usurers." We are In immediate and imminent danger of becoming "a living lic, a nation of slaves, callous and degraded enough to wear only the mask of freedom." Senator Jones' tropical magination and fluent South-r ern tongue have run away with him. We had no idea that things had come to such a pass already, but if Jones says that they have, it must be so. The worst of it is that there seema to Jones to be no near prospect of improvement in the situation. "We have allied against us in the contest not only thp financial forces of Burope, but the subsidized press and all the monopolies and trusts here at home, who are determined if possible to fix forever their relentless yoke upon labor of all kinds." The doubt in his mind is whether "the American Union is big enough, strong enough and patriotic enough to have its own financial policy;" whether the American [jeupie are rcaay to surrenaer tne hberties for which their forefathers shed their blood." This is "an alternativo at once imporative and terrible." If we cannot re-establish our independence of England, "thcn we are the serfs of the money cbangers of Europe and doomed to a vassalage more ignoininious and deg.rading tlian that against which our fathers fought a century ago. Is Senator Jones as alarmed as he pretends to be? Or is he trying to scare somebody else? Yet he seos, thnnk heaven, a gleam of hope in the midst of the surrounding blaekness. He relies upon "the patriotism and heroic manliness of the plain people - the toilers who créate the wealth which speculators absorb." These be kind and flattoring words for the plain Iieople, and they are well calculated to prepare the way for the solicitation of alms which follows. "We need money at once, and can only hope for help from the plain people." We thought so. l'Uiin people, whose fears and generosity and consciousness of superior worth have been so_ successfully played upon. in the preceding paragraphs, prepare to shell out! "We aak only for the necessary 'means to conduct a vigoTous and aggressive campaign." Please ma'am, thore ain't nothing in the house to eat, and my mammy is dead, and my baby sister is sick; won't you, dear, kind lady, help a poor orphan boy? "No matter in how smal! sums, let the friends of liberty and national honor contribute all they can to the good cause." If you hain't got a quarter, can't you give me a dime or a nickel or a penny? "To the overflowing treasury of the money power we will oppose the aecumulated offerings of the masses, fighting to be free, and ask the Ruler of the Universe for his Messing." This is the stereotyped religious sniffle of the professional beggar: May heaven bless your ladyship, and may your children never come to want, and 111 pray for you every night and morning as long as I live. The charity organization society has a way of dealing with this class of people. It sends around an agent to make an investigation of the case before giving relief. If the plain people to whom thig piteous appeal is addressed will send a risitor to the Auditorium Annex in Chicago, wliere Senator Jones sleeps and dines, and will ask for a report upon the palatial splendor in the midst of which he indited his manifestó, the frescoed walls, the rich carpets, the lace curtains, the magnificent sofas, the mirrors and plate glass, the beds and pillows of down for which their eontributions are asked to pay, they may see the matter in a different light from that in which he would have them see it. This would make a good subject for the cartoonist: Senator Jones on the street, with a hand orgran, holding out a battered tin cup, and Senator Jones at dinner. But the spirit which breathes through' his labored effort to touch the feelings of the ignorant and the nnfortunate, the arraying of the masses against the classes, the rich acainst the poor, is limply damnable.