What we haven’t got is RELIEF.
If Publicity were a cure for the disease, we’d have been well long ago.
As it is, the evil grows worse, day by day, in spite of all the Publicity.
Go back to thy gerund-grinding, Woodrow—thou insufferable, impractical prig. Among the dead Greeks and the extinct Romans thy labors may, haply, be useful; but when thou comest among the practical men of today seeking to master actual conditions and to take part in the great battle of thought, motive and purpose which rages around us, thou art but “a babby, and a gal babby at that.”
Mr. Bryan says, in his Commoner, that “the movement begun in 1896 would have succeeded in 1900 had it not been for the Spanish War and the increase of the gold supply.”
What a superficial view!
First of all, the “movement” did not begin in 1896.
It began when the West and South were brought together by the Farmers’ Alliance in 1890. It was in full swing when it gave General Weaver 1,200,000 votes in 1892. It was running like a millrace when it polled 1,800,000 in the local elections of 1894. It would have scored a triumph in 1896 had the Democratic leaders acted honestly with the Populists.
After 1896 the “movement” lost strength every day.