Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1898 — PAYING THE PENALTY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAYING THE PENALTY

THE SENATORS AND SILVER. Some of the silver Senators are easily satisfied, as they showed when they voted at the last moment for the war revenue bill as it came from the conference committee with the proviso for the coinage of the seigniorage stricken out and an authorization for the coining of a million and a half of silver dollars a month put in place thereof. This concession to the silver men amounts to very little indeed, for the mints have been turning out a million of dollars of the white metal every month under existing law, and the addition of a half million more a month, or six millions of them in the course of a year, is so small a matter as to scarcely be worth mentioning in connection with so important a measure as this bill, which provides for the collection of additional taxes to the amount of probably $150,000,000 a year, and for the increase of the interest-bearing public debt by the issuance of $400,000,000 more of bonds. Had the silver Senators stood by each other earnestly they could have undoubtedly secured better terms from the gold majority in the House. It was probably their desire not to delay action on the bill, but to put the Government in command at once of all the money it needs for the prosecution of the war that prompted them to vote as they did.—New York News. Right Kind of Men. Quay’s success in buying and bulldozing the Pennsylvania Republican convention and thus securing the nomination of bls candidate for Governor may prove the defeat of his party in the Keystone State. It is alleged that If the Democrats nominate the right man for Governor they will be able to elect him. This condition of affairs is not peculiar to Pennsylvania. All over the country facts are making it evident that this year presents a great opportunity for the Democratic party. The people are disgusted with the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the Republicans, and are ready to deprive them of the power which they have abused. But, as in Pennsylvania, Democratic success requires that the right kind of men be nominated by the Democrats. However, Democratic success with the wrong kind of men for candidates would be worse than defeat, for the effect of electing Incompetent or unsound men this fall would be to imperil the chances of victory in the campaign of 1900. This paper has urged cart* in the selection of Democratic candidates for Congress, because such care will Insure future victories. Let wise and loyal Democrats be chosen, and let the cranks and the men of one idea remain in the harmless seclusion of private life.—Chicago Dispatch.

Wanamaker Is Right. “In order for us to have.good times the people must not only have money, but they must also spend it freely. The two things are reciprocal. It Is the market that keeps the factories and the stores going and pays the wages.” This is what John Wanamaker said recently. Mr. Wanamaker is one of the few rich men in this country with a glimmer of economic sense. The average ediiorial idiot is advising the people to save their money. They must be saving it; they certainly are not spending much of it. Nothing will so quickly breed hard times as an epidemic of economy. There is a circulating medium of but $23 per capita, and probably sls of this is in the banks or otherwise idle. If the people save the remaining sB— is not much to becomes of our circulation medium? And yet the people are urged to save their money. You might as well ask a man to save his breath or dam up the circulation of his blood. Under our laughable system of society the spendthrift Is a benefactor and the prudent is an enemy to the public welfare. A New Definition. The word “plutocrat” does not necessarily mean a rich man. It is a strange fact that a vast majority of plutocrats are poor men—financially as well as morally poor—while many wealthy people are the most genuine of Democrats. A plutocrat is one who looks upon wealth as a warrant of respectability, and with the right of industrial and po- : lltlcal authority, and of government of, by and for the rich. The- toadies to wealth, the caterers to monopoly government, and the blind, unthinking partisan who votes and works for the party with a record adverse to the popular interest is the meanest, most contemptible and most dangerous plutocrat, though not worth a dollar.— Kansas Standard. Raising Money for the War. If ordinary common sense, instead of the desire to favor certain contributors to the Republican campaign fund of 1896, were animating the majority in Congress the war revenue bill would have been constructed on the lines suggested by the Democratic minority, instead of on those advocated by the agents of confederated corporations. The Democratic plan provided ample revenue for the expenses of the war without unduly taxing any portion of the community. It authorized a new issue of treasury notes—greenbacks so called—to an amount that could be absorbed by the business of the country with benefit to all excepting, perhaps, the professional money lenders. It provided for the coinage of a certain quantity of silver now lying idle in the vaults of the Government, and it levied taxes impartially on those best able to pay them. The Republican plan, on the other hand, is to increase the bonded debt of the nation enormously and to save all the big corporations and trusts that came up with liberal contributions two years ago to encompass the defeat of William J. Bryan for the presidency of the United States. Coal Miners Starving. There are reconcentrados in the United States. There are Weylers and Blancos, exercising their despotic power in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Hazelton miners are starving and have petitioned Congress to vote money for their aid. Will not Senator Thurston, whose heart was touched by the sufferings oLXhe Cuban reconcentrados, visit Hazelton? Will not the Republican President, who wanted to send bread to the starving people of Cuba, send a few crumbs to the victims of the coal trust Weylers of Pennsylvania? Sheriff Martin and his men taught the Hazelton miners that to strike meant death. That the rifles of the sheriff’s guard would blow the remnants of life out of the Emaciated bodies of starving strikers. Men who have faced the deadly rifles WFliO? tM MM UMMIM U)»

coal barons, and who have appealed to the courts of justice, only to be denied it, are not likely to demand their rights. The danger is too great Therefore these poor wretches are now begging Congress for assistance. Miserable as their lives are, still they want to preserve them, and rather than starve, and in preference to being murdered, they make mendicants of themselves. Truly this is a land of liberty! A land where the trusts are protected and the people starved.—Chicago Dispatch. Coining the Seigniorage. “Silver sentiment is dead,” shouts a Chicago administration organ one day, and the next day it mourns over the fact that the House makes a “concession” to silver In the matter of coining the seigniorage. If silver sentiment is dead, why is the House making a “concession” to it? What is the House afraid of? Ghosts? It is evident that the Government needs money. There is $42,000,000 worth of silver in the treasury, but that must not be coined, says the gold-advocating press. “Bonds are what we want. Gold bonds are preferred, but as we can’t get them we will take coin bonds.” But why bonds instead of the good money lying in the vaults of the treasury? Because bonds bear interest. Bonds make bankers rich. Bonds force the people to pay tribute to the plutocrat, and coining the bullion into money does not put any tax on the people to be paid into the hands of bondholders. Nevertheless the seigniorage is to be coined, and all because the members of the House of Representatives are afraid of ghosts.— Chicago Dispatch. Democrats for Congress. Great care should be taken in selecting the Democratic candidates for Congress. Those who have been mentioned so far are not strong enough. There are better men who should be brought to the front. This is not a time when the ambition of inexperienced men should be gratified. It is better to have one wise man to represent the Democrats in Congress than to have half a dozen cranks. Republican Congressmen have shown great ability In doing nothing. By pursuing a course qf masterly inactivity they have evaded exciting hostilities. This negative commendation is all that can be given to the Republicans. It is incumbent on the Democrats to secure aggressive, forceful, able and sincere men as candidates for Congress. This fact cannot be urged too strongly. It is evident that such men have not as yet been brought to the front. The leaders of the party owe it to themselves and to the Democracy to mend this condition of affairs. Reign of Trusts. With absolute unanimity the Republican Senators have voted to tax the people and not to tax the trusts. Solid as a Roman phalanx the Republicans presented an unbroken front to the Democratic attempt at reaching the hoarded millions of the plutocrats. Taxes on the necessities of life were favored by the Republicans. The poor man’s luxuries were gladly placed on the tax list by these patriotic and noble minded gentlemen; when a tax on corporations was suggested a howl of indignant protest was raised and the proposition was promptly voted down. When the Republicans could not argue they descended to ridicule, and pretended to see something extremely funny in the idea of taxing trusts. That is just the way the aristocrats treated the demands of the people before the French revolution Inaugurated a reign of terror. There will be no reign of terror in the United States, but, thanks to the intelligence of the common people, there will cease to exist the reign of trust.— Exchange. To Authorize Income Tax. Representative Barlow, of California, has Introduced a joint resolution to amend the Constitution by adding as the close of the first clause of section 8, article 1, after the words of “United States,” the following: “But nothing in this clause, or in this constitution, shall be so construed or interpreted as to destroy or abridge in any way the right of Congress, whenever in its discretion it may be deemed necessary for the public good, to levy a tax on incomes in excess of $2,000 per annum, and Congress is expressly empowered to levy such a tax, fixing either a common rate for all or a graded scale, according to the amount of income, as in its discretion may seem best for the welfare of the nation.” The One Exception. President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, is probably the only living ruler of a country who has publicly denounced the capitalist class. He warned his hearers against capitalists, who were sucking the lifeblood from the veins of the working men. Capitalists in the sister republic (the Transvaal), when they could not get their way, shut down. , the mines. This was simply taking the bread out of the mouths of the working men. Looking north there was a great Imperialist (no doubt meaning Cecil Rhodes), under the guise of philanthropy, calling the working men into the country to slave for him, for he had a monopoly in the country.—Justice. Labor’s Vain Appeal. Labor is whining around in Congress with a lot of petitions to its masters to give it a crumb of legislation. The votes of the workers made this Repubican Congress, yet their pitiable appeals are contemptuously ignored. When smooth and wise labor catches onto its power it w'lll not go to Congress with either a petition or a demand. Congress will listen with both ears to the tenor of labor’s wishes. Now It bows to capital, simply because capital, working through the ignorance of the enfranchised, makes Congressmen and legislation.—Coming Nation.

The Judge Is King. The government by injunction is the most absolute despotism and the most flagrant usurpation known to organized society. The power of the Federal judges, as construed by themselves, is greater than the Constitution or the fundamental rights of men. It suspends the freedom of speech and of the press. It destroys individual liberty. It exceeds In pretension and in performance the exploded doctrine of the divine right of kings. No greater menace to our liberties could be devised than the Federal judge’s arbitrary assumption of omnipotence and infallibility.—Ohio News.. A full-grown blgck ostrich Is seven feet high, and easily carries on its back, “ * twrM ' * *