Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1899 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

IMPERIALISM A REALITY. From the first week’s proceedings of this Congress the inference is clear that the session will be devoted almost-en-tlrely to bringing about partisan legislation under the White House lash. The Republican Senators and Representatives are to be kept In line by the administration for the measures that it wants passed, and nothing is to be brought up that is not wanted. This means that the Imperial idea which has grown to enormous proportions in the Presidential mind is to overshadow the entire Congress. » McKinley’s wishes are to be regarded as orders by Senators and Representatives, and but for the looks of the thing the laws might as well be issued from the executive mansion in the shape of edicts. .1 The first unmistakable sign of the disposition of Congress to obey the White House decrees was given when it was decided on the part of the House to allow scarcely any debate worthy of the name on the currency bill. This gives additional privileges worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the money trust, yet it is to be jammed through regardless of the protests of the minority simply because the President wants it so. The same course will doubtless be adopted toward the ship bounty bill, which will take more hundreds of millions out of the treasury, and toward the Pacific cable subsidy measure, which is good also for a very large part of the people’s substance. In fact, every extravagant scheme for the expenditure of money will have the right of way in this Congress because the President wills it so. There will be no chance, however, for any measure curbing or setting limits to the Presidential authority iu the new island possessions. Mr. McKinley intends to retain a free hand there. As Commander-in-chief of the army and navy he can rule Cubans, Porto Ricans, Filipinos and the others in true imperial fashion, and he wants no Congressional interference with the doings of either himself or the military satraps whom he has set over the natives. Clearly, the United States is about in the same position the Roman republic was in just before the establishment of the empire. The legislative body sitting at that time Ln the ancient city, the Senate, still retained the function of passing the laws, but the laws themselves were dictated Ln the palace of Caesar, just as the measures which Congress is ordered io pass are drawn up at the White House.—New York News.

That Gold Standard Bill. That great Republican bill to “reform” the currency proposes to establish the gold standard, to pay the bonds in gold, to impound the greenbacks and ultimately to give the banks a monopoly of the paper money circulation. If Congress passes this measure and It becomes a law through McKinley’s signature there will be a most magnificent political issue for 1900. The mask will have been torn from the-face of the money power and the Republican party with William McKinley, Mark Hanna & Co., will go down to a most spectacular defeat. But if Congress refuses to pass this bill the gold advocates will be enraged and political warfare will be declared in the ranks of the Republican party. The promoters of this bill may not know it, but they have opened a veritable Pandora’s box of troubles with no consolatory hope at the bottom. Is there anything the matter with the Government bonds? Are people worried about their security? Is the credit of the nation suffering because these bonds are payable in coin instead of gold? Is anybody anxious to part with his bonds at a discount? If not, why all this row- about gold payment? Simply to get a chance for the money power to snatch the money creating authority from the Government and place it in the hands of private individuals. Let the Republicans pass the bill if they dare. Politically its introduction is a mistake: fts passage would be a disaster to the very party which hopes to gain by it. —Chicago Democrat. Reid Reviews Ohio Election. Still rages the resentment of Whitelaw Reid against our noble executive, and though his shafts are ostensibly aimed at Mr. Hanna It is perfectly plain that they are really directed against the anointed one in the White House. Mr. Reid looks with dismal apprehension upon the Situation in Ohio. Unlike such cheerful optimists as Messrs. Grosvenor and Dick, he sees no triumphs in a jnlnority of 45,009 votes, and though he speaks of “bcsslsm” as the cause he evidently entertains other views. He predicts, at any rate, that unless, there shall be a marked change in sentiment in the meantime Ohio will be lost to the Republicans in 1900, and though we may doubt Mr. Reid’s professed sorrow at the prospect we cannot dispute his facts. The votb two weeks ago indicates a Democratic majority in 1900 and Mr. Reid is justified in his preparations to wear full mourning when the Ohio returns are in. It is not for us to inquire whether his Inky cloak will cover an aching heart or a ehpstened spirit quite reconciled to fate.—Chicago Chronicle. Getting Ready for Another J-Top. iWitleians and' newspapsrpy.l et. n refginjina : the. fingnctai plank tee t WS fion*sr i plat<6riu ( When rogufefc' rail out, '.ere.-' A Yfftle nrotb haii

already emerged from under the bushel of fustian and fiction. They all acknowledge that William McKinley was a wabbler on the currency until to an equivocating gold plank by the pressure of “circumstances” before and when the St. Louis convention met. That William McKinley will wabble again on the financial plank ot the next Republican convention is equally certain. That William McKinley is by nature a wabbler on all questions is now known not merely to all Americans, but to all living people of the civilised World. That William McKinley’s mind is a putty lump upon which the largest or most vociferous, and best pursed portion of his party may engrave any plank they please upon any question is out of debate. Most of the Republicans now professing to have been responsible for the St. Louis equivocal gold plank were wabblers also. That they are preparing to wabble again, should wabbling seem expedient, is manifest.—Chicago Chronicle.

“Prosperity” Closing Mills. When “prosperity” results in closing mills, the people who have worked in these mills, the merchants who have lost customers through the lockout and the people at large who must pay higher prices for commodities because of a forced scarcity are not able to seewhere the prosperity benefits them. These remarks are suggested by the fact that while the tin plate manufacturers are basking in prosperity and taxing the consumers with exorbitant prices, they have contemporaneously closed eighty of their mills. While the material which goes to make up a hundredpound box of tin plate has fallen 22 cents, the price has been shoved up to $4.65, which is $1 a box more’than it Is worth in England. With open competition tin plate in the United States would not bring more than $3.65 a box, and would probably fall to $3 within a short time after this competition had been Inaugurated. Moreover, the demand for tin-plate, stimulated by a reasonable price, would cause the opening of the closed mills to create the necessary supply and prosperity for the laborers and the merchants would result. It Is plain enough that in this case the protective tariff fe the matter of the tin plate trust, and if the protection w’ere removed competition would follow’ with all its accompanying benefits. No special law would be needed to curb the rapacity of this trust as the natural law of supply and demand would be restored and beneficially operative.

To Perpetuate the National Debt. One of the features of the currency bill which Allison, a former’ rampant bimetallist; Henderson, a former bimetallist not so rampant; William McKinley, formerly, now and always an opportunist, et al., propose to foist upon the American people is this: The Secretary of the Treasury will be directed to establish a permanent gold reserve equal to 25 per cent, ot the total of greenbacks and .treasury notes outstanding, and to maintain this reserve “if necessary,” by issuing 3 per cent, gold bonds. In other words the joint committee, after drafting its bill, confesses a lack of faith in it. With only 25 per cent, of primary money with which to redeem outstanding paper, the possibility of a depleted reserve, due to manipulation, is owned up to and guarded against. How? Not by simply saying that the Secretary may at his discretion cease to pay out gold—as the Bank of England does—when the reserve is menaced by a raid. It authorizes him to go in debt to the usurers and Increase the bonded obligations of the country. This section Is drawn solely in the interest of national banks and it means that the public debt is to be perpetuated for their benefit. Another sinister feature is the reduction of Interest on national bank circulation. But that will make another story.—New Y’ork News. That Open Door. McKinley’s "open door” swings only one way. It is constructed to let business out of this country to compete with that of Europe, but not to let in business from abroad. This is a proposition so brazenly one-sided that it insults the Intelligence of foreigners and casts a shadow on the belief that the President possesses even a moderate degree of commercial intelligence himself. Those dear “allies” of the United States, England and Germany, will regard this “open-door” proposition as a very palpable confidence game, and will lose respect for the mind that could conceive of such a proposition. McKinley’s scheme Is to open the door when he wants business and to close it when others want business. He would gladly throw down the Chinese wall, but has no desire to reduce one etone of the 52 per cent, tariff wall which surrounds this country. Trade favors cannot be secured by asking everything and granting nothing. This fact President McKinley will discover when he attempts to fool Europe with an “open door” which shuts in the Xace of all foreigners seeking trade with this country. To Make Money Master. The Republican currency bill is simply and’ pthlnly designed to make money dearer and whatever money will buy—the products of earth, muscle <nd Vpin—cheaper, and to give the.natjopal banks a hUH. which country's money.- Wheeling Register.