Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1901 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

TARIFF BALL AND CHAIN. ' A dozen years ago President Cleveland’s tariff reform message brought down all the manufacturing interests of the country on his bend. They were all satisfied with things as they were. All they wanted was to keep tlie home market from being flooded with the products of the “pauper labor of Europe." Now it is the manufacturers who are agitating for tariff reform. Cleveland is dead and his work has been taken up by the men who helped to kill him. In the April number of the Engineering Magazine is a most significant article by Mr. William L. Saunders, a prominent mechanical engineer and publisher of the technical journal, Compressed Air. Mr. Saunders dwells at length upon Secretary Gage’s blunder, by which we have been subjected to reprisals from Russia; points out our need of foreign markets, and concludes: “If the bars of protection serve, as they do now In the case of this Russian business, as dams to obstruct the flow of our products into foreign fields, then let us take them down. Mr. Blaine, a disciple of protection, evidently saw clearly that reciprocity was essential to the maintenance and Integrity of protection; hence he coupled it with his protection idea. If protection has built up the United States to its present position, and if to be a great manufacturing Country is desirable iu the Interests of the whole people, then It is as Important no'» to protect the manufacturers by open doors as it was to build them up by a tariff which has now become useless and which has begun to be hurtful.” Iu the same number of the magazine Mr. Alexander Hume Ford describes the boundless opportunities for American energy in Russia in supplying the needs of that continental empire for machinery, railroads, bridges aud manufactured goods of every description—all depending, of course, on access to the market up<*:i such reasonable terms as our iarifi' policy is destroying. Already there are a thousand Americans In St. Petersburg engaged in making openings for American products iu Russia. And the editor comments: “America is fast coming to see tiiat wlmt site needs is not paternalism and political meddling, but wider markets.” The next tariff contest iu this country will be fought on very different line# from the last one. In fact, there may not be any fight at all. The same President under whom high protection reached its zenith may be the one under ivhopi it will be laid away by common consent.—Chicago American.

N.:w Jersey’s Income from Trusts. Tfce charter fee paid to New Jersey by the United States Steel Corporation amt unted to over $220,900. It Is estimated that the treasury of the State will this year receive $2,100,000 from the '.rusts domiciled there alone, including fees paid on filing certificates of trust incorporations. And the present cost* of the State government are less than $3,000,000 yearly. In other words, New Jersey is meeting over two-thirds of the expense of Its State government front the trusts It lias let loose to operate In other States. Springfield, Mass., Republican.

One More Hack ward Step. President McKinley has appointed to the vacant civil service commissionership ex-congressman Rodenberg of Illinois, one oftlie politicians left “out of a job” by the people. Mr. liodenberg’s peculiar fitness for this place and his sympathy with reform are indicated by tlie vote that be cast iu the House a year ago—with seventy-six others—to strike out tiie appropriation for the support of tlie commission in Which he now finds a refuge with a salary. Poor old civil service reform is having a hard time!—New York World.

A Chance for McKinley, If Mr. McKinley revokes the appointment of A. Rodenberg, Hie Tanner henchman and avowed spoilsman whom he has been tricked into making a civil service conmisslot.er, he will be deemed simply to have fallen Into and out of an entirely human error. If he does not revoke it he yIH be adjudged to have stultified himt.elf as un advocate in Congress and a defender iu the President of the merit system. He can suffer uothiug by revocation. He can suffer much by confirmation.—New York Press (Rep.).

In Keepi nK with His Policy. It Is quite in keeping with the poUcy of the noble and Imperial major toat plans should now be In contemplation for the corruption of Agulnnjdo. It is, of course, impossible for a true McK lnleyite to realize that there is such a thing ns honor and patriotism except for bargain-counter use. Mr, McKinley himself has not hesitated to change his mind, to abandon plain duty, to forget sacred obligations and to undertake lines of procedure whlcii he himself had described ns criminal.—Johnstown Democrat.

«ur “Hlsclits" In the Philippine!. The success of the conquest of the Philippine Islands, now said to he at last realized, does not alter the nature of the Philippine problem. The archipelago doc* not belong to us, but to the people thereof. We sin against our owu principles quite as much by eontiuulnlng as by establishing a government of force. The Filipino people are alien to us In race, In color and language. We

cannot say they are part of us la »MJ way that creates rightful national connection—Des Moines Leader. The Rattroa 1 Trust. The story about the new company to control all the railroads of the United States may or may not be true. If It is not true to day it will be to-morrow. It is merely the last. Inevitable step In a process that has been going on steadtly since our railroad system began and that has been making more rapid progress in the past few months than ever before. If Mr/J. Plerpont Morgan, Mr. William K. Vanderbilt. Mr. James J. Hill, Mr. Edward D. Harrlmau, Mr/George J. Gould, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Mr. Jacob H. Sell Iff and Mr. James Stillman. who have been named as the authors of fliis scheme, should undertake to control all the railroads of the United States, they could do it without any trouble. The only question is whether they think the time has yet come to take the step. The railroad system of the United States was capitalized last year at twelve billion one hundred and sixtyfive million three hundred and twentyseven thousand eight hundred aud for-ty-nine dollars. That is over twelve times the bonded national debt of the United States. It Is four times the debt of Great Britain. It is equal to the capital of a dozen billion-dollar trusts. It represents over a hundred and twenty of the liundred-inlllion-doHar trusts that were considered the monsters of finance a few years ago. But the railroads are not so unmanageable when they are approached by the right men in the right way. Of their total capitalization the stock represents only $5,742,181,181, of which a majority, giving a controlling interest, would amount to less than $2,875,000,000, As many railroad stocks are selling far below par, it Is probable that a majority could be bought for $2,000,000,000. But it is not necessary for Mr. Morgan. Mr. Rockefeller aud their associates to own a majority of the stock. When the late Cornelius Vanderbilt died it was found that he owned less than one per cent of the stock of the New York Central, the typical “Vanderbilt road.” With $500,000,000 in cash, .their skill in manipulation and their control of banks, industrial enterprises and financial agencies of all sorts, the members ot the proposed syndicate would have no trouble in securing the mastery of every railroad in the country. When the Universal Railroad Trust comes, whether to-day. to-morrow or next week, it wifi handle revenues more than twice as great as those of the national government and employ ten times as many men as the United States keeps in Its army on a war footing. And then the American's policy—“ Public Ownership of Public Franchises”— will be the central issue of practical politics.—New York Journal.

Recent Democratic Victories. We have au abiding hope that the demonstration of last Monday will not turn out to have been a mere muscular spasm and that it will not be found on the morning after the November election to have been a stark corpse all the time. Spring elections are not always significant of results in the fall, but there is enough iu the Democratic victories of the Ist inst. to be of great value under good management, after the chaff and heresy shall have been sifted out.—Cincinnati Enquirer.

Democracy Uiiniog Ground. The right influences in Democracy seem to be gaining ground by natural gravitation ot' brains to the top. The elaborate plaus for “reorganization" have bfeu less influential than the mere operation of reason among Democrats themselves. There has been no overthrow of “organization" In Cleveland or Chicago or St. Louis, but the rank and flic there have taken possession of the existing organizations and are in control.—Brooklyn Eagle. \VI liam, the Promise Hreaker. The Knox and Itodenberg appointments are entirely in keeping with the McKinley characteristics of shiftiness and avoidance of his political promises. The Chicago Chronicle’s declaration that ho has violated more pledges than all Ills predecessors put together cannot be successfully questioned. should be handed down to future general ions by the name of "William the Promise Breaker.”—Kansas City Times. An Incoagrnous Policy. In connection with our Philippine policy, docs It not seem strauge that the Moron and Jolos, who are Mohammedans, polygamists and slaveholders, are allowed to govern themselves as they see fit, while the Tngalogs and other Chrlsllan tribes are governed by the dictates of an autocratic commission and are ruled as vassals and subjects by Irresponsible satraps?—St. Paul Globe. The Pension Commissioner, If Mr. Evaus has not done his duty as Commissioner of Pensions discharge him from the office, but do not appoint him to another. If he has done bis duty he is the man for the place and should be kept where he Is. We do not often get a man in the pension office who insists on running It himself. Instead of allowing the pension sharpers to run it for him.—Louisville Courler-JournaL