Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1897 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

A LOGICAL SITUATION. Expecting the Republican party to take any decisive action against the monopolies and trusis is like expecting a cat to drown her own kittens, and those who still have a lingering belief that the Lexow investigation will amount to anything, or who hope that the McKinley administration will do something of consequence for the relief of the people, are sure to be disappointed and undeceived. Monopolies, trusts and combinations of all sorts, formed to enable the few to enrich themselves at the expense of the many, are the offspring of the Republican system of alleged protection, of which we are sure to have another example In the Tariff bill, for the passing of which Congress will be called in extra session after McKinley has been Inaugurated. They are the result of government partnership wj,th individuals and classes wherein the former are put in the possession of millions that make it possible for them to contribute liberally to campaign funds and to buy up Presidencies and Legislatures that may help and “protect” them in their raids on the pockets of the masses. The Republican party to-day is the champion of those who have already made vast fortunes with the aid of the Government, and who want to add to them, as well as to put their friends and relatives into “good things.” It could not do otherwise than favor the trusts, the monopolistic manufacturers, the favored national bankers or any of the other big fry who fatten on the masses. To think for a moment that its most conspicuous representative, McKinley, will try to cut loose from them and select anybody for his cabinet who Is not entirely satisfactory to them is merely to blind oneself to the logic of the situation. The money-making combinations will be intrenched in all governmental places of power so long as the Republican party remains triumphant. That much is certain, and the people now realize it. —New York News.

Alger. A thick and thin Republican organ declares: “The selection of Gen. Alger is objected to, but Che objections are based on stories and rumors which were exploded long ago. The critics know that, yet so unconquerable is their propensity for fault-finding that they cannot refrain from condemning a selection with which people are generally satisfied.” Does not this beg the question? What Information has the organ that there is satisfaction with the appointment of Alger? As for the objections, is it true that they were based on stories and rumors which were exploded long ago? Let us see. 1. Geu. Crater and Gen. Sheridan recommended the dismissal from the army of Gen. Alger because he absented himself without leave, which was equivalent in an active campaign, as all old soldiers know, to desertion in the face of the enemy. Is the story exploded? The story is part of the military records of the United States. 2. Criticism of Alger as a business man is based upon a decision of the Supreme Court of Michigan. The report is published. It is part of the records of that tribunal. It cannot be exploded or effaced. It stands confronting Gen. Alger and condemns him. 3. John Sherman’s condemnation of Alger as a man who improperly used money to further his ambition to be nominated President of the United States stands in his printed memoirs. It is not exploded. The selection of Gen. Alger for the position of Secretary of War is not merely mistaken, unfortunate, undesirable. It is a moral calamity.—Chicago Chronicle.

Congressional Extravagance. When Speaker Reed, a few years ago, warned his fellow-Republicans that it would prove a dangerous thing from a party standpoint for them to furnish the country with the spectacle of a “billion-dollar Congress” they paid but little attention to him, and what he foresaw did happen. There was a political overturning which completely staggered them and lost them control of the Government for four years. The country has now had another Republican Congress for two straight years, and it is a billion-dollar one beyond question. When Mr. Reed gave his former warning there was only a possibility of a billion-dollar Congress. The most conservative estimate of the cost of the present one to the people is forty-five millions more than the billion, which the then Czar of the House himself considered the height of extravagance! Despite the desperate condition of the treasury, as well as of the country at large, every appropriation bill reported to the House during the present session has been larger than the similar bill of the preceding session. Thus the pace Is set in extravagance for the next Congress, which will have a Republican President, who is sure not to set his face in favor of that economy which is contrary to the traditions of his party. Reed Getting; Democratic Support. lu his opposition to extravagance and favoritism Speaker Reed now finds his strongest supporters in the democrats of the country and In the house. He is opposed by his own party because he will not permit it to pursue the traditional republican policy of spending more money than there is in sight or will be in sight for several years to come. He may believe in the virtues of the new tariff now being framed, but he does not propose to place any mortgages on such collateral.—Sioux City, lowa, Tribune. The Four Burden-Bearers. Food, fuel, clothing and shelter are the four essentials of existence in our climate. The Dingley bill as drafted puts nearly the whole burden of taxation upon these prime necessaries. The so-called farmers’ schedule taxes every article of food for man or beast that may seek access to our market to supply local or temporary deficiencies.

Bounties for campaign contributors, protection for trusts and the whole burden of federal taxation put upon consumption—the food, fuel, clothing and shelter of the people—this Is the program. The “advance agent of prosperity” proves to be the arrived agent of injustice.—New York World. Effect of Free Wool. Some months ago the wool growers of this country were at great pains to show the enormous increase of the imports of raw wool since it had been put on the free list under the Wilson bill. Perhaps it did not occur to everybody that if the imports of wool had increased there must be a corresponding decrease in the amount of imports of woolen goods. The Wool Manufacturers’ Association has recently furnished the following figures on this point. The imports were: Eleven Eleven months. 1895. months, 1896. Cloth $23,511.581 $13,677,65" Dress goods.. 20,634,855 12,302,279 This shows that the manufacturers of this country have been able with free wool to sell in this country some $18,000,000 worth of woolen goods in one year, which, under the McKinley tariff bill, would have been imported.— Edwin Brainard, in Chicago Chronicle. Highly Paid Labor the Best. Americans can manufacture iron more cheaply than Englishmen, while paying much higher wages to labor, but it has been conclusively demonstrated that the best paid labor is the cheapest. England pays better wages than are paid on the continent of Europe, but in spite of that she has been able to maintain her supremacy, because she gets more service for a given amount of money. The same is true of labor in the United States. It is better paid than that of England, but in return it renders better service and Is more efficient. —Pittsburg Times. No Love Lost Between Tliem. From the day when Joseph B. Foraker became a prominent figure in Ohio politics M. A. Hartna did not love him, nor has Mr. Foraker for a single moment loved Mr. Hanna. Party exigencies at times produced mutual action, but not mutual confidence. There is no reason for believing that Mr. Foraker is more kindly disposed toward Mr. Hanna now than when the friends of each were fighting each other tooth and nail at the direction, or with the approval of the two leaders.*—Cleveland Plain Dealer. Protection Another Name for Robbery The present tariff law has been the best protector of American industries ever devised in this country, for it has enabled Americans to sell more goods and product abroad than ever before, but this is not what the millionaire manufacturers want. What they actually mean by protection is a measure that will so choke off foreign competition that they can sell their goods to their own people at two or three times their value.—Memphis Commercial-Ap-peal. Asking for Too Much. If Chairman Dingley can devise a bill that will collect $50,000,000 a year from the taxpayers without their knowledge or consent he will meet a long-felt want. Another way which is received with jeers by politicians and cheers by the people would be to reduce expenses $50,000,000 a year, but of course this is asking too much, and we hope the politicians will pardon us for ever hinting at such a revolutionary idea.—Louisville Post.

Fresh Burdens for the Farmer. The Republicans are doing their best, as far as can be judged, to evade the responsibility they sued for. Instead of trying to remedy the constant and growing losses of the farmers the Republicans are actually engaged in preparing to legislate higher prices on the goods which the farmer has to buy and which, for lack of money, he cannot buy even at present prices.—Atlanta Constitution. Boeses of New York State. Republican rule in New York stands to-day for Platt and Payne, two men whose theories of political purpose and political methods are utterly corrupt, two men who represent what is worst and lowest in modern political life; two men neither of whom would dare submit his cause to the people, knowing that it would be buried under an overwhelming adverse vote. — St. Paul Globe. Insist on Robbins the People. To-day, when you could count on the fingers of one hand all the industries of the United States that could not compete on equal terms with the products of like industries in any other country in the world, we find that, so far from gradually diminished duties, a special session of Congress is to be called to restore them to the highest point ever known.—St. Paul Globe. Political Pointers. In the meantime nobody has recently mentioned Benjamin Harrison, formerly well known in the American republic, for a place in the cabinet. In Mexico, if an advance agent misrepresent his show he is sent to jail. If Hanna lived in Mexico he would have to secure a pardon before running for Senator. You are our kind of people, Madden, and we are sorry you lost, but we’ll do a whole lot of the kind of work you were expected to do.—T. Cute Platt and M. Slippery Quay. The Ohio wolves want the government to prohibit the entrance of foreign wool into this country. Perhaps one of the vultures will explain how this will increase our revenues. The old McKinley tariff has been put back upon lumber, so far as the recommendation of the ways and means committee is concerned. The consumer of lumber, the house-builder, will sooß find out how much more expensive it is to rear a dwelling under high protection than it has been under a moderate tariff.