Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1899 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

NEXT YEAR’S POLITICAL ISSUE. The New York Bun Is very anxious that the Democratic party shall go into the Presidential contest next year with the money question as the principal, and practically the only, issue. It thinks that if this Is done the Republicans can win as easily as they did in 1896, when, by means of enormous misrepresentation and a huge campaign fund contributed by the trusts ,£nd monopolies, they managed to elect McKinley by a plurality of 600,000 in a total vote of nearly 14,000,000. Our contemporary will not admit that the failure of the Republican party to undertake reformatory currency legislation has induced the great majority of the gold Democrata to return to their former party associations, and by closing its eyes to this patent fact it bees another triumph of the syndicates and the national banks ahead, if only the trusts and Imperial expansion and the attendant deification of militarism can be kept in the background during the campaign that is to be waged a year hence.

Careful observers of the political situation to-day who do not try to deceive themselves believe that if the election were held next month, with the money question as the principal Issue and with McKinley as the Republican candidate for the Presidency and the Democracy led again by William J. Bryan, the latter would win by as large a plurality as Hanna managed to get for his man three years ago. The truth is that the American people cannot be seared by the same false cry in two successive Presidential elections. The misrepresentation of the Democratic position on the money question that the Republicans indulged in during the campaign of 1896 will fall very flat on the ears of the voters next year, if repeated. The voters do not want old straw threshed over again by the stump orators. They want an Intelligent discussion of new Issues as they arise, and the party which undertakes to look backward instead of forward is sure to rue It. The monetary system of the country. It is true, still needs reform Ing, but the Republican party will not undertake the task, and the only hope of having the work done properly rests In the return of the Democratic party to power; and the Democratic party cannot be kept out of power by the reiteration of the untruths that were used In 1896 or any other year.—New York News. Good end Bnd Trusts. 1c Is vain for the defenders of trusts to deny that certain evils result from the forming of these gigantic business monopolies. Recognizing this fact, these trust defenders have originated the idea that there are good and bad trusts. Having created this theory, they demand that those who are opposed to trusts shall name the bad ones. William J. Bryan, after showing that the Republican party defends and fosters trusts, says: “Now, I don’t know exactly how they are going to diseem between the good trusts ‘and the bad trusts, but I take it that the good trusts will be the ones that contribute the largest amounts to the Republican campaign funds.” With this.view of the question the plain people will be disposed to consider the good trusts quite as harmful as the bad, indeed, the very purposes which a trust is formed to carrj’ out condemn it as unmltigatedly bad. Why are trusts formed? In the first place, to reduce expenses of conducting business; to get more work done for less pay; to accomplish greater results with less labor. In the second place, to kill competition. Having accomplished these two things, the trust Is ready to grasp a third benefit for itself, and that is the raising of prices and the increased taxing of the consumer. These are the objects of all trusts. Which of them can, then, be said to be good? Asa matter of fact, every trust is a monopoly. Some are not so powerful as others. In that respect they may be said to be less evil, but not one of them possesses the positive quality of being good. Absolutely It may be declared, therefore, that there are no good trusts. The principles upon which these combines are founded are wrong and nothing but evil for the people can flow from them. that German Vote. SSH Whistling to keep their courage up, the Republican managers are announcing that “the German vote is all right.” True, the German vote ia all right, but not in the sense that our Republican friends Imply. But the New York Independent, which is not independent at all, so far as its political belief Is concerned, but ks rampantly Republican, sees danger to the party in the disaffection from or of the German vote. Imperialism has no claims for the German-American dtlsen, and be knows too much about Its workings in the fatherland to approve of its importation to the United States. He does not approve of the Philippine war, nor does he like the attempts of administration advocates to establish a great standing army. Undoubtedly there will be a large exodus of thoughtful German voters from the Republican party in the campaign of 1900. Promises are nqver made good by the Republican machine politicians, and the German voters are getting tired of those who make pledges only •o break them. However much the

thick and thin Republican press may protest that “the German vote is all right,” the fact remains that the German press of this country almost unanimously oppose the war and denounce unstintlngly the doctrine of imperialism. Truly the German vote is all right, but not from a McKinley point of view.

The Silver Question. Naturally enough, the Republican editors are deeply exercised over the silver question. They know that there are gold Democrats who were assistant Republicans in 1886, and they are anxious to keep open the spilt in the Democracy and secure the aid of the gold faction. With this object in view, they axe busy declaring that the regular Democracy has “abandoned silver,” hoping by this means to arouse the pugnacity of the silver Democrats and cause them to antagonize the faction which went over to McKinley. It is true that the regular Democracy desire to harmonize differences in the party, but it is not true that it is prepared to abandon principles to secure this end. This fact has been demonstrated by the action of the lowa State Democratic convention, which reaffirmed the Chicago platform and renominated the man for Governor who ran in 1896.

Ln discussing the impending Issues William J. Bryan truly and eloquently said, during the delivery of a speech at Des Moines: “We do not need to surrender a single syllable or idea of the Chicago platform. Like the Inaugural speech of Thomas Jefferson, it was made for all time. But when new and Important Issues come up, we can take them Into the family and fight on them without apologizing for any previous fight we have made. When the Democratic party has once come into power and Democratic principles have been tried, the Republican party will dissolve and be lost forever.” These assertions are not in the least ambiguous, but Republican newspapers have attempted to distort them into a retraction of belief in the doctrine of bimetallism. There is no such retraction, and the Chicago platform will stand unrepealed in any of its clauses, but enlarged to embrace the new Issues which will come before the people in 1900. —Chicago Democrat An Example for Other States. The lowa platform is one upon which al} lowa Democrats can stand. It reaffirms the national platform of 1896, as is entirely proper, seeing that that instrument constitutes the party creed until the national convention of 1990 frames a new one. It also deals with the new isoues—imperialism, militarism and trusts—which undoubtedly will constitute the fighting ground in the Presidential campaign. The platform, like the ticket, is Democratic and will receive the Indorsement of all Democrats. lowa has shown the way to the Democracy of sister commonwealths. With similar mutual forbearance. consideration and resulting harmony the national Democracy can next year advance against the common enemy with that confidence of victory which results from united allegiance to the principles laid down by Thomas Jefferson.—Chicago Chronicle.

An Ideal Platform. The platform adopted by the Democratic convention at Des Moines, lowa will be read with unalloyed pleasure by Michigan Democrats. It Is throughout a thoroughly Democratic document. It does not indulge in glittering generalities or meaningless eaten phrases. It reaffirms the Chicago platform and takes up the new issues along thoroughly Democratic lines, and In language that cannot be misapprehended by any one. Its objections to the pro pceed Anglo-American alliance are forcible, and its arrangement of the present administration admirable. lowa, while not a pivotal State, is more nearly a typical State than Kentucky or Ohio, and the result of the campaign this fall, with a strong platform and a strong ticket, will be watched for with great Interest.—Grand Rapids Democrat. Rises to New Conditions. There is absolutely nothing In what Mr. Bryan Is quoted as saying that will not be heartily indorsed by every good Democrat. Instead of Its being a shelving or desertion of the silver Issue, It Is anything but that. It means no weakening in support of the Chicago platform, nor the abandonment of a single principle. It is nothing else than a sensible understanding of political conditions as they exist, recognition of which Mr. Bryan has given in many previous speeches; not in exactly the same language, perhaps, but in substance. There is not one man in America—that is, no man of any intelligence whatsoever—that does not understand exactly where Mr. Bryan stands on the currency question and every other issue.—Atlanta Constitution. Every Day Mrengthena Bryan. Mr. Bryan has made Democratic success possible, if not probable, by hia declaration at Des Moines. He has opened the way for a complete Democratic reunion, and he has made it easy for his party to take the offensive on a dozen bitter and formidable accounts. —Washington PosL *