Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1890 — WILSON’S WISE WORDS. [ARTICLE]

WILSON’S WISE WORDS.

DE TELLS YOUNG MEN WHY ?lIEY SHOULD BE DEMOCRATS. The Fight for Loiter Taxes Is a Fight for Higher Manhood, and the Fight for Local Sovereignty Is n Fight for Blonder Freedom. Congressman Wilson, of West Virginia, one of the leading members of the Jost Ways and Means Committee of the House, and an earnest tariff reformer, pieeentts the <anse of Democracy to the young men of the country m a very forcible way. His aiticle, which appeared in the Wheeling Rfr/isler. should be read by al! tho-e who wish to know what true Democracy is, and tariff reformers, whatever their political faith, should be glad to see this definition of it. Mr. Wilson writes: With which party should n young man. who takes his polities not by inheritance 01 dicta- \ tion from others, but by his own intelligent and ■ independent judgment, identify himself ? Where ! will he find sentiments and politics that are worthy of his adoption and ardent support?! Surelv not in the Republican party. That is to- : day the party of reaction, while’he belongs to i the future. Its leaders are generally men past ! the prime of life, who naturally believe in per- | petuating the conditions under which they won ■ leadership and their party reached power. Their statesmanship' consists accordingly in | efforts to maintain war passions as a lasting i sentiment, and war taxes ns a permanent policy. The young voter can £nd neither glory for himself nor benefit for his country by support- , ing them in either effort. The great sectional issues, slowly ripening ! from the foundation of our Government, were fought out by the mer. of a quarter of a century ! ago. Every question submitted to the arbit- ! jament of war bns been settled, and settled so ! indisputably that a search warrant could hardly i find, in all the laid, a corporal's guard who do no'., understand and fully acquiesce in that set- | tlement. The exceptions, if any such there be, I are found among the old and the non-combat- 1 ant. The generation on whom the storm burst 1 met its fury as constant and brave men. Honor i ami abiding glory are with the men who fought ‘ real battles and marie real sacrifices. But for I those doughty warriors who defy foes that no! longer exist, who delight to insult the vanquished, and to reopen wounds that time has Dialed, and who fill the arena with their Tailorings and imprecations, there should be only contempt to-day. as there will bo only scorn ana derision in the future. History is always on the side of the magnanimous. Her laurels are lavishly bestowed on those w’ho are sturdiest in the light and most generous in the victory, but she will wave into doe)■ .cd oblivion and disgrace the whole host of tongue-valiant, post-bellum heroes, who still vex our ears with their sectional cries. But if there are no titles or brevets in the nnny of the bloody shir! which a self-respecting young wan should aspire or consent towear, are t ue general policies of the Republican party worthy of support? There, too. lie finds reaction. These policies may be s.iim • ied up in one word, centre izntion. Centralization or political power in the Federal Government. Centralization of w-enlth in favored classes. It is difficult to say which portends more evil to free institutions, w hich is the surest corrosive of individual manhood and individual freedom. The history of tin growth of free institutions is a history of the development of local soltp.ovornment. That is their vitalizing principle. Under no theory or practice do we reach the goal of government by the people, that government that belongs to the people, not the government, to which the people belong. The government that deals with a citizen at long range becomes his master, no matter what its name l>e pr how its machinery may work. The government w hich he can held immediately under his eye, on which he can constantly keep his hand, that is his servant. Our Constitution, growing out of the voluntary union of independent States, made it poseiblii to combine the two sovereignties—State sovereignty for local affairs—a combination that bus been weightily pronounced the highest jeach of constructive statesmanship. The party that overrides the autonomy of the f-taioa, that sejks to have the General Government interfere with and assume to control matters which the State should agd ought, exclusively to deal with, wars against the fundamental principles of our institutions, the law of their life and of their healthy expansion. Yet such is the steady, unrelaxing gravitation of the Republican party, and to-day wo find it not only. as ever, striving t.o gather all political power to the Federal Government, but even to bestow upon it that “worldly omnipotence that, is annexed to the power of dealing out wealth and poverty.’’ Its chief existence, as avo.ved by itself, is to maintain a system of taxation that nampera national progress, represses producti on, clogs trad?, and makes war on commerce, and that, having in all these ways diminishedtheeur.i----iug-i of labor, inter; o-t s with cruel favoritism to divert a part of those earnings into the pock--c'.: o' chosen beneficiaries. And worst of all pretenses, it imposes on ignora.iee and plays wj:h palrieiism, oy calling this • policy the “American system," when in truth it • i s. lint the cast -off gurm’i a t oLßri ts sh state sin an- 1 ship. Afore than forty-years ugp, whan England sought to widen theboundS of freedom, she decreed the extinction,of her ay»te>)to»r class taxation, . In lifting the burdta cUMinequal taxes from the ba ks of her hffioj'ers jgai? lifted a political.and social pressure,, which was equally us ibeavy and to a freeman far more galling. This so-called “American system" makes the American laborer moreot a serf than his English brother. From, his current earnings it gathers not, only the bnlk of the taxes needed for the support of government, but even greater sums to be bestowed in free and unearned bounty on thes? who are already' so rich that they his employers. Out'of these bounties .are springing up monopolies, monster combinations of capital, and the trusts that wrap themselves about with the mantle of concealment while they wield the power ol swelling millions.’ The Democratic party appeals to the youth of the countryto rally to its standard and fight against these sentiments and politics of the Republican party. Oyer against the banner of the bloody shirt it. plants the flag of a restored Union and a reconciled people; a flag that represents no primacy' of section, no grates or geographical distinctions Of ■ citizenship, but equality of States and equality s os people. Against political centralization, by the massing of powers in the Federal Government, it fights for vigorous and healthy local government as the safeguard of personal freedom. Against the centralization of wealth by unjust taxation, it fights for equality of burdens as the condition of equal manhood. In al) its .history, and never more zealously than now, it .has championed the cause of the individual. It . has not sought to odd to the power of government, but to the stature of the men ; not to cir•cumscribc the citizen with increasing interfer- : ence, but to widen th« bounds of his free, un- | trammeled actions. Trusting to the capacity ! and virtue of the .whole people to govern themselves, it has never permitted a few to share in the powers of taxation as a reward for their Administration of, government or as a uribe.for | their support of party. Knowing that under any wise and frugal' government prosperity And wealth would come by natural la a s to our people, its concern has not been how it might increase trade or wealth, but how it might preserve and secure libarty. It recognizes that to foster capital is to make labor more dependent. The Democracy means a chance in life for everyman. We’have loved to boast that under free and equal government we had forever rid ourselves of the class laws and social prejudices that made honors and social position and poverty the heritage of a privileged order and condemned the great body of the people to a poverty and obscurity from which there was no escape. We have rightly pointed to our young men who have risen from lowliest beginnings "by mere force of virtue and merit as ihejmost precious fruit of free institutions.' Yet this fruit is now. threatened with deadly blight. The corporations, steam and elccwicity, the great forces of modern industry, are terribly centralizing in their effects. By their own free play they threaten the integrity of the Government and the liberty of the citizen. But when the law steps in. not to curb or chasten, but to aid and increase their effects, to add to the power of wealth, to cherish and protect monopoly and to stimulate that latest and most dangerous f< rm of commerciaJ combination, the centralization of corporations into trusts, a shadow is flung across the path of the American youth ; barriers that cannot be are rising before him: his heritage

is passing from him into the possession c* others. Classes diff-remlate, and society, aa eigffwhere, hardens in io its unyielding siratifica iont. This is the great contest of the future —the struggle between the people andplutocra3y- J’h,> Hcm icratjj parly, as the hereditary champion ot the peopls, is tallying to their cause with an enthusiasm it has never before felt. The Republican party is chained in helpless aud, sad to say, seemingly willing service to the money }x>wer. 11 has made its covenant with that power. “Keep nr. in control of the Government, ami you shall dictate the jaws." No young man erght to hesitate as to his duty in tucli a struggle. He disci elite his uianI'ood when be enlists under the banner of the bloody shirt. He wars against posterity when he ccEsema U'accept service or command in the subsidise.: bat'alicn- 1 of monopoly. The fight for lower faxes is a fight for higher manhood. The ffp!A tor local sovereignty is a fight for broad* i fteeilom. There are. t.- Mt . Cleveland w ell says, no. weak, weary, or dejaudent members of the true Democracy to-day. Ii its success are involved not only the issues of restored citizenship, of past aud equal taxation, but the more momentous question whether the jace in life shall be kept open equally to all American youth or the chasm prow wider between the rich and the poor, as the power of tbeG< vornmentis thrown in favor of the one and against the other.