Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1898 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

RUINOUS COMMERCIAL POLICY. Now, more than at any other time, the weakness of our commercial policy is made evident. Colonies and protective tariffs do not work well together. The French colonies are a fair sample of what this system will bring forth. The French management of Tonquin has been on protective tariff lines, and the result has been the stagnation of the life and business of the colony. The success that England has with her many colonies comes very largely from the course she pursues with her tariffs. The fullest liberty is allowed to commerce, and the result is that the commerce and manufactures of England have been able to hold their own, in comparison with other gold-standard nations. If there ever was a time when a free trade policy would be of benefit to the United States, It is uow. The settlement of the Philippine question will be Influenced very greatly by the course we Intend to pursue there. If we are to allow all nations to trade there without restraint and without fines for so doing, most of them will be very willing to see this country the master of the situation. If we are to erect a tariff wall there we may expect some very vigorous opposition from several of the European Governments most Interested. Greed and Grab Is not a policy that commends itself to our neighbors across the water, except when It Is practiced by themselves. That policy hangs like a millstone about the neck of America. It will be found Impeding our progress at every step. It cannot be thrown off no matter how heavy It becomes, for the Republican party is in power, and that party Is committed body and soul to the policy named. Every treaty entered Into must take cognizance of that fact. Every trust and every “protected” Interest In the country will from this time on have its agents busy watching the progress of events In the settlement of the great questions growing out of the war. As the protective policy Is really a policy that these same “protected” interests have developed and foisted on the country, we may expect that the smart lawyers whom they are able to employ will be eminently successful in having all treaties and regulations fixed to suit their interests, without regard to the interests of the rest of the country. The sugar trust, whose influence was so potent in the framing of the last tariff on sugars, and which was able to raise the price to consumers some 20 per cent as a result of that tariff, may certainly be looked to to take a hand In settling the questions of our relation with Cuba. That devastated country should have the freest tariffs possible to enable it to rise from Its ashes, but we cannot expect that a generous policy will be followed. What, open the markets of the United States to free Cuban sugar? What can we expect of the trust? The policy is a disastrous one, so far as present business and present prosperity are concerned, but the working out of the present Republican policy In relation to these new possessions is likely to bring the protective tariff scheme Into bold relief and show up the iniquity of it. The people will have an object lesson that will not fail to Impress them. If. we do not mistake the Intelligence of the American people, the time Is not far distant when they will turn down the whole policy with the party that espouses it. Nay, more; the time is not far distant when no party will dare make a protective policy an issue In an election. It Is one of the errors that nations are slow to outgrow, but once outgrown will be cast aside forever.— H. F. Thurston.

Silver as a Dead Issue. Two years ago the gold standard press devoted cplumns of their space to laboriously prepared articles to convince their readers that “the silver issue was dead.” Dead past the hope of resurrection or redemption. During the recent campaign the “ghost” of the silver issue nearly frightened them to death, and they made the most frantic appeals to their readers, not to stand by the gold standard, not to vote against free silver, but to' “stand by the administration” because it would be a condemnation of Its war policy, and a reflection upon that great and good man McKinley, to elect an adverse Congress, and the election of such a Congress would cause Spain to refuse the terms of peace we have offered. By such appeals and by an absolute elimination of the money issue from the campaign, and with the aid of the war sentiment, a remnant of the overwhelming majority of the last Congress has been saved. As soon after these false pretenses and have secured them a victory that is a narrow escape from defeat, as they recover from their great fright, they stick up their heads from licking the tombstones they had prepared, and again squeak by the column about silver being dead. As a dead Issue, killed, according to the testimony of these same killers, two years ago, it is stronger in the House of Representatives than it was then. Stronger on the popular vote polled at the elections of 1898 than at the elections of 1896. Stronger In the convictions of the people who believe that genuine prosperity is impossible without it. There was a division of sentiment among silver advocates as to whether it would be better or worse for the cause of silver to control the lower house of Congress while a gold standard President stood ready to veto all silver legislation, and those who believed it would be worse refused to vote, and the Republican press has conceded that It was the Democrats who stayed at home. On all hands it was conceded that war measures and local politics were the only Issues in the campaign while it was pending, and there is a manifest lack of fairness in the post-election efforts of the very fellows who refrained from the most remote allusion to financial questions as being z at issue during the contest, to now claim that there has been any decision in relation to them. They, however, can fool nobody but themselves by such absurd claims, and they will realize later that the great silver question cannot be killed by such methods, and that it is and will remain a very live issue until it has been fairly made an issue and passed upon by the American people. Disastrous Commercial Policy. Stocks, especially trust stocks, went booming when the news of the Republican victory was received on Wall street. But wheat did not go up. On the contrary, the tepdency of wheat prices is downward. Why Is it that Republican success

means high prices for trnst stocks and low prices for agricultural products? The answer is self-evident. The Republican party fosters and protects trusts, and its victories mean continued fostering and protection for the great combines of this country. But the farmers receive no protection from the Republican party. That great organization Is engaged in making money dear, and dear money means cheap wheat. There is to be no famine in India next season, and the prospects of a large world’s crop of wheat are so good that the boom given that cereal last year is not to be repeated next year. By a dispensation of Providence the farmers were given a brief glimpse of prosperity and the Republican party endeavored to take the credit for It. But with big crops everywhere and no famine anywhere, the farmer will find his wheat a drug in the market and Republican promises won’t be able to save him.—Chicago Democrat

Effects of the Gold Standard. Every observer of past and present conditions has been impressed by the radical changes that have taken place within the last quarter of a century, in those business conditions, and their effects upon the general prosperity o fthe people and of the country. Twenty-five years ago the productive energies of the country were In the hands of millions of small producers, who owned and controlled their own farms, factories and mills, and citizens with limited capital could'freely engage in any of the industries with fair prospects of success. Now well-nigh all business Is controlled by combinations of capital and immense producing forces through the organization of trusts, that have driven or are driving all individual enterprises out of existence, and making it impossible for individuals to successfully engage in any productive enterprise. The great combined grain farms of the West make It Impossible for the small farmers to earn more than a bare living by the production of grain. The great iron, steel, tin-plate, woolen, cotton and other trusts, having obtained control of and combined the great mills in these lines, make it impossible for Individuals or small , combinations of capital to engage in production, with any hope of success. The same transition has taken place In the commercial world. Twenty-five years ago the merchant was found doing a profitable business at almost every crossroads In the country, and a man with a few hundred dollars in money could carry on, at the doors of his patrons, a business that would return him something more than a comfortable living. Now the big city merchants, the great department stores, more by their immense stocks and attractive appearance than by cheaper goods or better bargains, have driven these small merchants to the wall and made it impossible for those with small means to engage in profitable commercial business. This has closed legitimate avenues of business to men of small capital and driven them to other methods of making a living. Some have become sportsmen, engaging in ordinary games of chance, to procure a precarious, uncertain living; others, and in much greater numbers than most people imagine, have gone Into stock or other gambling, and bet their money on the probable advance or decline In the price of some stock or some product, winning to the extent of the change In value, If as they expected, or losing if otherwise. A few make fortunes, but the multitude lose all that the few win; still the losers go on until they are pauperized, and many of them reach paupers’ graves through suicide. Notwithstanding the precarious character of the gambling business, and the hosts impoverished by it,, It seems to be constantly growing, and usurping the place of legitimate business. As an evidence of this, last week in the city of New York $27,000 was offered and refused for a certificate of membership in the New York Exchange, which is necessary to secure the trading privileges of that great stock-gambling organization. This is more than double the price at which such a certificate could have been purchased five years ago and Indicates the growing importance of this method of business. Is It, can it be possible, that this change in methods, this trend of business from the many to the few; this concentration of capital in the hands of the few; this Increase In speculative, non-productive, gambling methods; these trust combinations with their profit-increasing, wages-redudng Influence, that cannot tend otherwise than to the impoverishment of the many for the benefit of the few, can fail to result in impoverishing the people and to the decadence of this country as a great nation? This trend Is the result of legislation that for a quarter of a century has been increasing the purchasing power of money, decreasing the value of all property and all products, and Increasing the wealth of the few of the creditor class at the expense of the many of the debtor class; has been taking the profits of the producer from him and giving it to the consumer; the value of his property from the debtor, and giving it to his creditor, must lead to untimely ruin unless changed. There Is but one remedy: Reverse this course; legislate in the Interest of the producer; protect the debtor; destroy trusts; prohibit gambling; restore the mone-s tary conditions of twenty-five years ago by restoring bimetallism, which gave us “honest money,” and the impending danger may be turned aside before the ultimate ruin has come upon us.

Judge Day and the Governorship. The solemnity with which a Republican organ in Mr. Hanna’s bailiwick explains that Judge Day would probably not be anxious for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio is entertaining. Of course he is not in that line. He would not Interfere with the plan that has long been mapped out. The suggestion of bls name in the gubernatorial connection was a figment of the imagination of some young man who was not familiar with the Hanna program.—Cincinnati Enquirer. Switzerland has a business-like compulsory education law. If a child does not attend school on a particular day the parent gets a notice from the public authority that he is fined so many francs; the second day the fine is Increased, and by the third day the amount becomes a serious one. In casr of sickness the pupil Is excused, but if there be any suspicion of shamming a doctor is sent. If the suspicion is found to be well founded, the parent is required to pay the cost of the doctor’s visit. •