Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1891 — STAND TOGETHER. [ARTICLE]

STAND TOGETHER.

[David Tnrpie, in Hendricks Club Guide.] Encroachments upon the rights of the people, must from time to time be repelled in the line of their attack. We have reaohed a point in our social and civil progress at whioh life and liberty are upon the whole, well protected. But from attacks upon property we have not the same seourity. These stimulate ra pacitv and assume (various shapes difficult Jto guard against. A forcible taking of private property by government means, would excite general alarm »nd so would be defeated. The danger lies in the taxing power. Its approach is stealthy, covert; it makes no violent assault, and it is always masked by alleged fair intentions —the ever ready pretext of the public good. It is capable of being prompted and perverted in many ways by fraud, corruption and private gain, and of serving the selfish interests of class, clique and party. The legislation of the last Congress upon the subjeot of the tariff affords one of the instances of the most outrageous abuse of this power of taxation, and has received at the hands of the people a condemnation as just as it was wholesome and necessary. The result of the elections in November, 1890, was overwhelmingly with the Democratic party upon this issue. The monopolist trembles in looking at the new House of Representatives. He can not control, he can not even approach a single committee therein. His only consolation is that the Senate is unchanged and that a President is still in offioe that is devotedly attached and unconditionally bound to his interests. The change of the President and.tbe Senate depend upon the next election.

This attack upon the labor and earnings of the people has been repelled not wholly repulsed. Now, at this verv time, when but one more effort, united and earnest, is needed to defeat the banditti of the Tariff Trusts, a cry is raised of division and diversion. Democrats and those acting with them are urged to leave their oiganization—to join others, some tl ird party movement, which is to effect the changes of policy which they wish more speedily than their own. This course is precisely what the friends, anthors, agents and supporters of McKinleyism desire. It aids and helps the cause of the tax-eating protectionist, and such assistance is rendered voluntarily, without oost to these corruptionists. A political hypocrite and impoßter openly professing our principles, yet secretly plotting our defeat, could hardly devise a better scheme than under some pietext to form a new party, thus lessening the influence and diminishing the vote of the party of reform. Some very honest and sincere men, no doubt, think that there should be a reorganization of parties, and that [new parties are needed in aid of very useful policies which they approve. But these citizens, friendly enough to our policy, mistake the character of the present crisis. For thirty years we have tried class legislation. For' a generation we have seen Federal taxes levied and collected wholly from the produce of the farm and from the wages of labor. This iniquitous system has been most thoroughly tested and as theroußhly condemned, yet it is still in full force and vigor. Now, the question is not whether new parties or new organizations may some ime be needed, but whether at this time or upon this issue there is any such necessity. Wh.ther indeed there can beany realignment or division among the friends of Tariff Reform at the polls which will not endanger success. There are doubtless other laws, other branches of the pub ic service, other oacts of our financial system whioh need revision and improvement as well as the tariff. But what will be the chances for the correction of other evils and abuses if the vs ry head and front of reform be thwaited and cast down? We know what will happen then. The tariff, the currenoy, the land laws, the oivil service rules, the public expenditures, the billion appropriation bill—that huge Behemoth of the lobby jobbers—all these will be, as the phrase is, revised by their friends—a new term of power, etc., will te given to injustice and oppression. A celebrated writer in describing the meeting, after years of separation, of two old veterans who had fought side by side in one of the most famous battles, says thev embraced eaoh other with the cry: “Stand together, front and rear.” that having been the word for the day passed along the lines on the morning of the engagement. This should be our word. Division at this time is desertion. Unity of aetion and purpose by those who hold the Democratic faith will bring to us assured triumph—will inflict upon its adversaries an overthrow, swift, total and irretrievable.