Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1899 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

THE NEXT PANIC. It is oot a pleasant task to sound a Dote of alarm, but It is necessary in this case. When the end comes it will be a bitter one. The crash will, we are afraid, equal any that has ever preceded It In this country. The panic of 1893 was of tremendous magnitude, but we question if that was as terrible an event as that which will be produced by the present trust movement When that much-to-be-dreaded day comes It will be necessary to look to other agencies than Congress to initiate restorative measures. Wc do not, in fact, see how it is going to be possible to produce u change for the better until the panic has run a long course. By the lime the crash arrives there will be several billions (par value) of “water” —judging from present appearances—to be squeezed out. It will be Impossible to save it. Of course, as we said last week, all the common stock of trusts so far authorized has not yet been issued; but it will be very largely worked off in the course of the next few years, and will be found eventually in the hands of “innocent holders;” that Is, in the hands of persons who paid good money for it. Now these people have got to stand for a terrible loss, and the number of them will be so great that the suffering will be widespread throughout the country. The next panic will work In two ways, at least. It will destroy credit at the start, and well-conducted enterprises will accordingly suffer for a time along with the general run of misguided trusts, and will wipe out hundreds of millions of property in the possession of the owners of trust

•hares—property represented by certificates which should never have been issued. It may be asked when all this wil happen. That, of course, no one knows. The lean period will come tn time. We have in previous articles traced the causes that will wreck the trusts. Competition will eventually prove too much for them. By competition we mean the adverse conditions to which they will be subjected by the organization of new companies with legitimate capitalizations and the latest improvements.—United States Investor. A Verdict in l&OO. President McKinley, in his zeal to defend the beef trust, who were rewarded with fat contracts in consideration of past and future favors, has gone too far. The soldiers represent all of the States and all shades of politics. They went into the service of their country as patriotic Americans, and they realize that the nation opened its heart and its puree and ordered that they should have the best the nation afforded. It will be difficult for Mr. McKinley and his defenders to explain the disgraceful conduct of the War Department in a satisfactory manner to the soldiers and their friends. Mr. McKinley may, through the aid of the beef trust and the other trusts, secure the Republican nomination in 1900, but the disgraceful conduct of his administration in the matter of caring for our soldiers in the field will cause him to lose thousands of votes in every State in the nation. The final jury on the beef inquiry will render their verdict in the election of 1900, and it will be on the side of the soldiers and not on the •ide of the beef trust—National Watchman, _ The Trust Punzle. The twisting, squirming and maneuvering of politicians to avoid the odium of trusts and talje advantage of the unpopularity of the enormous combinations recently formed furnish a subject for serious thought. There is no doubt that all parties in the next national campaign will adopt platforms violently against trusts. The Republican party will be so vindictive in its language against those institutions that no other party can exceed its violent abuse. The question to be solved is: Will the people ever find out who is responsible for trusts? The gold standard Is the father-of all trusts because gold standard contraction creates falling prices which make it necessary for business men to combine to save themselves from bankruptcy. Who is responsible for the gold standard—the party led by McKinley or tlie party led by Bryan? Every trust organization in the United States will

contribute its money and its influence to elect the Republican candidate. Will that fact satisfy the people that the Republican party is the party responsible for trusts? Why should every trust in the United States be Republican, from the gold combination down to the manufacturers of matches? If the American people are not stark mad they will have no difficulty in finding out which party is responsible for the trusts, and if they are really opposed to the trusts they will vote for the other side. Unless the majority of the American people vote as the trusts .vote, the Republican candidate will stand no show whatever of winning in 1900. . / A-Fatal Disorder. Sherman was forced out of the Cabinet “on account of ill health.” Vice President Hobart Is to retire from politics “on account of ill health.” J. Addison Porter, McKinley’s private secretary, has gone to Atlantic City, and it is reported that he will soon be out of a job “on account of 111 health.” It is really remarkable how service for Hanna’s administration is conducive to ill health —except for buzzards like Alger, to whom such carrion as “embalmed beef” is as dainty as “angel food.” Meanwhile Uncle San. Is bearing up under many afflictions, and the people must rescue him in 1900 from a prolonged siege of “111 health,” for the Hanna kind of “ill health” appears to be infectious and contagious.—Mansfield Shield. They Will Live to Abolish Hannaiam. There are plenty of newspapers in the country who are declaring that Bryan and Bryanism are dead, and yet

those same papers are devoting a great deal of space to both the man and the ism. This is a singular state of affairs. It is strange that these editors should take so much pains and so much apparent delight in kicking a corpse. If Bryan and what he stands for are dead, let them rest in peace. There is nothing gained by contending against them. But the fact is they are not dead or dying. They are the two moat alive propositions to-day before the country. They stand for pretty much everything that Hanna and Hannaiam do not stand for.—Cleveland Recorder. Committee’a N«w Head. J. G. Johnson, who has been placed at the head of the Democratic National Committee dnring the absence in Europe of Senator Jones, is the Kansas member of .the committee, and ia. a warm friend of William Jennings Bryan and a stanch advocate of fusion and silver at the Chicago platform ratio. Mr. Johnson has been active in politics for a long time a»d is accounted one of the strong members of the National Committer. He dividea his time chiefly between his practice of law and the affairs of the Order of Modern Wood-

men, of which he is the head. This leads him to visit Rockford often, for that city is the headquarters of the Woodmen. The temporary head of the Democracy was born in Brooklyn, and early removed to Peoria, 111., and thence to Peabody, Kan., where he resides. Naval Officer* Too Chatty. It has been suggested that among the other improvements of the trotted State* Naval wUdh are now being made and are in contemplation, the establishment of a ehair of reticence would be advisable.—Atlanta Constitution.

J. H. JOHNSON