Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1900 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

THE BOY ORACLE. The boy oracle has opened his lips and told the American Senate what it ought to do with the Philippines. With the exuberance of youth and the selfconfidence of precocity, young Mr. Beveridge of Indiana, has appeared before lawmakers old enough to be his grandfather, and given what a few enthusiastic Republican newspapers call “expert” testimony. Beveridge became an expert by taking a summer vacation in the Philippines and looking as much of the ground over as the insurrectionary forcen would permit. That 18 to say, he stayed for a few weeks in Manila and,its suburbs. This is supposed to have Inspired him with a profounder knowledge of constitutional law and limitations and a firmer grasp on the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence than mere stay-at-homes like Hoar and Cockrell and Berry could ever acquire. Beveridge is 37 years old and baa been a member .<of the Senate thirty-five days. Had he followed precedent he would have kept his mouth shut and looked things over for at least one session. But boy oracles never follow precedent. George Frlsbe Hoar is 74 years old, just twice the age of Beveridge, an'd from the latter’s view point he knows about half as much. He has been in the Senate twenty-three years. The Indiana Senator’s views are set forth at such great length that we cannot spare the space to print them, tfut wp can tell what they do not represent by quoting from Mr. Hoar: “What I want the American people to do is to do in the Philippines exactly what we have done, are doing and expect to do in Cuba. We have liberated both from Spain, and we have had no thought—at least I have had no thought—of giving them back to Spain.”—New York News. National Debt and the Banka. If the refunding scheme which the Senate Finance Committee has recommended for adoption becomes law, then the United States will be saddled with a debt of nearly a billion dollars,' no part of which It wHI be able to call in for redemption until thirty years have passed. For thirty years the people are to be taxed to pay the interest on the bonds in order that the national bank system may be kept in existence for the same length of time! This is part of the Republican plan of currency reform. The interest-bearing debt is to be perpetuated in order to give the banka something to do business on with profits coming in from both ends of an ingenious transaction which only the government's loan of its credit makes possible. Ihe obligations which the Senate Committee is in favor of refunding will all become due in less than nine years. The greater part of them will be pay - able July 1, 1907. It is proposed to extend them twenty-three years more, together with others that fall due tn 1904 and 1908. Practically the government will not be able, if this plan goes through, to redeem any part of its debt for almost the lifetime of a generation unless' it goes into the market and pays the holders of the bonds any price they may demand for them. This refunding scheme ought to be fought earnestly by every Democrat in Congress. 'Hie Republicans should not be allowed to fasten this national bank incubns on the country for at least thirty more years without a protest so strong as to rivet the attention of the voters and hold it there until next election day. ■ Democratic policy has never sanctioned the plea that a national debt is a national blessing. The perpetuation of the present debt for the benefit of the bank trust is something to which the Interests of the masses are particularly opposed. The interest on these bonds, which it is proposed to keep on paying for thirty years to come, can be saved very largely by stopping the iasue of bank notes and putting those of the government In their place. “No perpetuation of the national debt” Is a good Democratic slogan, and “No perpetuation of the bank trust” Is another. A third is: “Put the banks out of the government business of issuing money.” ' Impending Dangers. I At the instance of the sultan of Sulu the American flag has been raised on Sibutu island, and the United States has another new possession. So long as the sultan confines his attentions to Islands everything is serene. But should he suddenly and in another fit of friendship take It into bis head, as the shah of Persia did on the occasion of bls first visit to England, to propose an exchange of some of his numerous spouse* for those of American statesmen, who knows what complications might arise? —Chicago News. Will Not Be Coerced. A German-American, Henry Wolf, of Havana, writing to a friend, says about-the German vote: “When the time comes to cast our ballot, we will serve notice that wp Germans will not be coerced to sustain a principle contrary to our convictions. We came here to find a republic, and we will guard it with the ballot, that It may so remain and not become a country of imperialism and military despotism.” - i Protect! uk the Trusts. We have societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, children, fikh, bugs. etc., and new conies' a new one. which may be called “Society for the Protection of Trusts.” w* McKinley

is the President of it and the chief executive, and if any trust gets hurt during his administration it will be la violation of the by-laws. Mr. McKinley and his aiders and abetters hate trusts, but they follow the pious dodge of doing good to those they hate, and heap coals of fire on their heads by taking them by the band and loving them. Trust Prices Go GuCompetition among producers is the on£ bulwark of the consumer. Monopoly spells final pauperism for him. Competition means to the consumer lower price and better quality. Trusts, which poison competition and kill It out of the way, mean higher price and poorer quality. And to-day “prices” are “up.” There isn’t a commodity that hasn’t clambered. Here Is a list built bn what is purchased for the home. The poor as well as the rich must have these things. Read; you may thus learn what, under rule, is taking place in your pocket: • 1888. 1888. Articles. PricA Price. Brooms $1.75 <3.85 One-gslleu galvanised oil cans, dosen 1.35 LBS Canned peaches, dosen 90 1.45 Sardines, case 2.50 4.00 Salmon, dosen 1.35 1.80 Canned beans, dozen 75 1.35 Canned coni, dozen 80 1.05 Canned ■ pea*, dozen 75 . 1.00 Canned kraut. dozen TO 1.00 Carpet tacks, gross I.SO 2.75 Cheese, pound 00 .13U Wire clothes lines, dozen.. .90 1.75 Boiled oat*, barrel 3.25 4.00 Matches, case 4.50 7.80 Galvanised buckets. ■ dozen. 1.10 2.25 Lead pencils, gross 75 1.35 Pickles, barrel ........... 3.25 4.00 Pocket knives, dozen 85 1.25 Salt, barrel 75 LIO Laundry soap, b0x,.'..:... 2.35 2.85 Starch, pound 024* -04% Syrup. gallon t" .26 Tapioca, pound 08 .07 Stogies, thousand 7.50 10.50 Tuba, dozen 4.50 0.75 Washboards, dozen 1.40 2.25 Spices, pound 12 .18 Canned beef, dozen 1.40 2.45 No one may cavil at these figures. They were fixed and offered by salesmen who handle the articles. And the above is only a partial list of instances. The roll of those commodities, the price of which within a year has had arbitrary trust advancement, with no reason save the loot reason that moves a burglar or gives impulse to a footpad, would swell to thousands.—The Verdict. Lincoln Wan Right. Mr. Bryan in his address before the anti-trust conference in Chicago, repeats Mr. Lincoln s warning against the approach of a monarchy: “In 1859 Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to the Republicans of Boston who were celebrating Jefferson’s birthday. and in the course of the letter he said: ’The Republican party believes in the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict it believes in the man before the dollar.’ In the early years of his administration he sent a message to Congress, and in that message he warm'd bis countrymen against the approach of monarchy. And what was it that alarmed him? He said it was the attempt to put capital upon an equal footing with, if not above, labor tn the structure of government, and in that attempt to put capital even upon an equal footing with labor in the structure of government lie saw the approach of monarchy. Lincoln was right. Whenever you put capital upon an equal footing with labor or above labor in the structure of government you are on the road toward a government that rests not upon reason, but upon force." Would Be Lost Without Mark. Mark Hanna will remain at the head of the Republican organisation. This is President McKinley’s earnest wish, and Hanna’s acquiescence will be hailed with glad acclaim by the Republicans of Utah. McKinley would feel lost without Mark. There is no other trnst magnate who understands “Our WilL iam" so well or knows so much about the peculiar methods required to boost him. It is just as well. Since there is to be a Republican party in the nation a typical Republican should lead It. Without Hanna the organisation would resemble a man without a head. He is it.—Salt Lake Herald. Hanna Found Out. The recent intimation that Mark Hanna was upon the point of resigning his management of the government turns out to be the case of the man who published his own obituary before he was dead just to find out what people thought-of him. Hanna found out, and it made him so mad that he refused to give up. Maa It Come to Thia? Has it come to this, that a President of the United States may inaugurate a certain policy, the perfecting of which wjll compel the American people to reelect him to office to save the nation? If so, then consider Mr. McKinley as life President, without any further bother. Must Stand and Deliver. If the gold standard banking conspir ators succeed in getting tifeir measure through the Senate, all other classes of Americans must prepare to yield up their substance to this band of highwaymen who have captured the government.— Washington National Watchman. Cubans Are Not Prisoners. Now while the administration organa are praising General Wood because of his determination to do justice to the Cuban prisoners, let them Ire equally solicitous of the Cubans who are not prisoners and demand justice for them, too.—Omaha World-Herald.