Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1897 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

- THE POPULAR DRIFT. In undertaking to make an estimate of the political situation throughout the country this year it must not be forgotten that, despite tlie raising of false Issues by the Republicans, and the enormous expenditure of money on their behalf by the \illionalre trusts and monopolies, the Democratic candidate for the presidency. William J. Bryan, polled over six and a half million votes, and that McKinley had only about 200,000 more ballots than his opponents combined—an exceedingly small margin, indeed. With the Republican tariff fiasco and the bunco “sound money” game, it is safe to say that at least one out of ten of those who voted outright for McKinley are thoroughly disgusted to-day. Were a vote to be taken in the Union to-morrow, the Democratic party would be found with very good majorities even in the States which .were most thoroughly deceived last year. New York State itself cannot be relied on for the Republicans this year, although McKinley did carry It over Bryan by 208,000 last year. They are decidedly nervous about keeping control of the Assembly, essential as that is to their legislative dominance during the development of the greater city government. Not only is there the likelihood of the Democrats going to the polls with their old-time enthusiasm, but there is every reason for expecting a very large percentage of their regular political opponents to “go fishing” on next election day. There has not, In fact, been a more marked revulsion in popular political feeling in recent American experience than there lias been right here during the past twelve months.—New York News.

Sliver Sentiment. The “decline of the silver sentiment,” which the advocates of gold apparently take so much pleasure in talking about, Is truly a very peculiar phenomenon. A glance at the history of the monetary reform movement will show just how rapid and extensive this decline has been. In 1870 the question was made a political Issue, and Peter Cooper, who represented the cause, received 81.740 votes. That was a small beginning, but the seed germinated. Four years later, in 1880, the contest was renewed at the polls and monetary reform received a vote of 307,300. The sentiment had “died out” to the extent of quadrupling the number of Its advocates. In 1892 there was another bnttle of the ballots in the cause of reform In the currency, and the friends of the movement made a record of 1,041,028 votes. Another “decline” increasing four times that of 1880. But in 1896 came the tidal wave. The Democratic party nominated William J. Bryan for President on a strong bimetallic platform, and the silver sentiment “declined” again and registered the fact of its fallen condition by casting a vote of 6,508,081. Judging by the past, the Republicans can easily figure out a continued “decline in the silver sentiment” that will place a Democratic President, a friend of the people and an advocate of bimetallism In the chair in 1900.

Injunction, Then Murder. The more light there is thrown on the shooting of the coal strikers at Hazleton, Fa., the blacker this deed of cowardice and cruelty appears. Only two of the murdered men were shot with their faces toward the riflemen; all the rest of those poor fellows were shot in the back. Nothing but a frenzy of uncontrollable fear or a deepseated malice to deal death among the miners could have resulted in such a showing. The refusal of the commanding officer of the militia now maintaining martial law at Hazleton to allow warrants to be served on Martin and his deputies will tend to Increase the feeling of bitterness and to deepen the Impression that there is no justice to be found anywhere for the poor man. That government by injunction has resulted in wholesale murder is nothing more than might have been expected. A radical reform In the matter of arbitrary rule on the part of Federal judges must be Inaugurated if serious trouble in the near.future is to be avoided. Constitutional rights cannot be trampled on with impunity, and there can be no doubt that the results, as manifested at Hazleton, have set the people of the United States to thinking seriously.

Not \\ hat the Platform Demanded. The Republican national platform, after denouncing the Wilson tariff as a breeder of deficiencies, demanded a tariff that “will furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the government.” The Dlngley law is the answer to this demand, and it starts with a deficiency of $14,000,000 Its first month. But for the money in the treasury as the result of the Cleveland bond sales it would be bankrupt and unable to meet the current expenditures of the government.—Pittsburg Post. All Goes to the Trust. Dlngleyism lays its heavy hand on every breakfast table in the land. The protectionists tell us that the sugar duty is a duty for revenue, but as a matter of fact, not a single cent of the increased price the people are paying for sugar under the new tariff goes into the hands of the Government as revenue. Every cent of it goes as extra profit to the sugar trust. The people are taxed, not to support the Government, but to further enrich an already bloated monopoly.—Minneapolis Times. i Too Much Prosperity Cry. The truth is that the prosperity rooter is getting to be almost as much of a bore as the calamity howler. In some respects he can make an even bigger nuisance of himself. We do not believe—we do not think there is any sensible man In the country who believes—that the change is anywhere near so great as some of the metropolitan papers are trying to make out that it Is. We believe that they are injur-

ing the cause of prosperity by putting up claims that are so ridiculous that anyone can see there is nothing in them.—Peoria Herald. Cleveland’s Honesty. Rockefeller is not the only rich man who is having trouble with the assessors. Grover Cleveland, who was such a stickler for the “honor of the nation” that he bonded this country for $200,000,000 to buy gold to keep up the Action that “coin” means gold, has returned a schedule to the authorities placing the value of all his holdings at the modest figure of $130,000. It is but justice to the champion of honor and honesty to state that he did not make oath to this statement, but this omission on his part makes him subject to a fine of S2OO. Some statististically inclined person has made the following estimate of what Grover Cleveland is actually worth: Saved in twelve years $300,000 Present value of Gray Gables.. 250,000 Horses and carriages 15,000 Boats, yachts, etc 3,000 Furniture . , 5,000 Present Value of Woodley 150,000 President value Princeton, N. J., home 40,000 Furniture 5,000 Personal property and other real estate 428,000 Stocks and bonds 000,000

The Cleveland fortune... .$1,790,000 Admitting that this may be somewhat in excess of his property, there is a marked discrepancy between $130,000 and $1,790,000 which the assessor of Mercer township, New Jersey, has a perfect right to investigate. With the examples of Rockefeller and Cleveland before them, is it any wonder that the plain people are beginning to believe that there is more or less justice in the talk about “the classes and the masses.”—Chicago Dispatch. Hanna’s Fight in Ohio. He wants to be elected Senator and he will leave no stone unturned that has a vote under it which he can control. If he is defeated this year it will be because the Foraker men stayed at home, as the Hanna and Sherman men did when Senator Foraker was a candidate for Governor against Campbell. This is the condition of things, plain and distinct. If Marcus A. Hanna whips the Foraker men into line it will be one of the most masterly displays of political power ever made manifest in the United States.—Cleveland Plaindealer. Natural Result of Hingleyism. Retaliation ngainst the Dingley tariff was to be expected, and appears to be coming from various directions. The president of the Argentine republic recommends to the congress there that duties on petroleum,' plows and other agricultural implements, timber and boots and shoes, which are largely imported from the United States, be radically increased. This would be a fair return, he thinks, for the treatment given the chief products of Argentine in the new United States tariff.—Springfield (Mass.) Republican.

Most Uninviting Of Gold Regions. Yes, there are tons of gold in Alaska, and here and there one in a thousand or so may win fortune, but the great mass of those who are tempted by the stories of tons of gold to be found in the Klondike fields will be fortunate if they ever get back to their homes, even with utterly shattered health. The gold is there, as it is in many other States of the Union, but of all the gold fields of the world the most uninviting for the adventurer is the Klondike region.—Philadelphia Times. Ring-Ridden Pennsylvania. The appointment of the notorious Dave Martin to the position of Secretary of State in Pennsylvania, made vacant by the enforced resignation of his predecessor, looks like another example of the sort of polities that flourishes in that ringridden commonwealth. They seem to have become callous to this sort of thing there, so they will probably be able to put up even with Dave Martin, Secretary of State.—Boston Herald. Political Pith. The people are handling more money now than they did a while ago, because the new tariff law compels them to pay more for the necessaries of life. —Manchester (N. H.) Union.

There is a gradually but steadily growing impressing that' as a President Mr. McKinley is, to borrow an expression from the vernacular of the street, a , “four flusher.”—Wheeling Register. The Ohio gold Democrats will have no trouble in securing enough names to their petition to get the ticket on the official ballot. Mr. Hanna’s machinery is in perfect working order and can execute commissions of that sort AVith neatness and dispatch.— Washington Post. It is a mistake to suppose that the salary of a Senator—ss,ooo a year—will not support him and his family in comfort. In fact, since tariff bills have been at the front it is said some Senators, by strict attention to business, manage to save four or five times as much as their salary.—Louisville I’ost. There seems to be no good reason why Secretary John Sherman should speak in this year's campaign. He has already said more than he can atone for or explain in the rest of his natural life. Anything he might say now ’would probably be an extension of his iniquities rather than apology or reparation for the past.-Cincin-nati Enquirer. So far from increasing the revenue, the Dingley monstrosity seems to have dried up the sources of revenue. So that, although avo have had half a year of .Republicanism, although the Republican Congress has met and adjourned, the country is still face to face with »the dangerous condition which the advocates of McKinley and high protection pledged themselves to remedy.—Atlanta Constitution.