Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1901 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

The Democratic Opportunity. The growing opportunity for the Democratic party tp become the representative of the business interests of the country was never brighter than it Is at the present day, and every succeeding development Is but a heightening of it. The discussion has not yet recovered from the discjsslon of the loss of $lB,000,001) worth of Russian trade because of the anxiety of the administration to protect the sugar trust against an annual sugar import- of less than $20,000. That $18,000,000 worth of Russian trade, in which millions of people were interested, should be deliberately thrown away upon the demand of a single protected interest must have opened the eyes of the people to the character of our present policy. Bad as was this step we have now reached a second, in which, upon the behest of the Standard Oil trust, the government has raised an inhibition against the importation of Russian petroleum, and the czar, in the protection of his own people, feels called upon to add more restrictions to American trade. Hence we have the spectacle of an administration pledged to a policy of tariff protection upon the theory that it win benefit the growth of American business, deliberately sacrificing that business for the purpose of taking care of special Individual interests. As against the sugar trust the entire business of the country is thrown to the winds. When the Standard Oil Company besieges the White House there is no thought for the enlargement of American commerce, but expansion is forgotMn while American buyers are throttled at the custom house.

These are but two examples along a line that might be continued indefinitely. Instead of a broad policy intended to protect and encourage American business, leaving the result to individual skill and enterprise, we have an adjustable scheme in which favors are given out for favors received and in which there is no thought for the general interest about which so much concern was expressed during the Presidential campaign. The result Is that the Republican party stands before the people manacled and handicapped as the creature of a few interests, whose names appear in the private pocket book of the campaign manager, and the people at large are but creatures to be bled to enrich those who have earned the right to enforce their exactions. While these scandalous disclosures are being made, the demand goes up for tariff revision so that power may be taken away from those who make such iniquitous deals and injustice may cease to be a feature of our tariff laws. The strength of this cry is such that Republican protection organs have become alarmed. They are now crying out for what they call a business revision in the hands of business men. Such a revision would be one placed in the hands of the trust magnates and would probably be even worse than the tariff under which we now suffer. This opens up to the Democratic party the opportunity of becoming the organ of the whole people, those who manufacture and sell as well as those who buy and consume. With such scandals as have been disclosed by the Russian incident there will be no difficulty in rallying the people upon a common sense, progressive platrtirm which will take care of the American people at large Instead of a few favored Interests, as is the case at present.. Every campaign brings about its own questions. These necessarily pass into abeyance before others of more emergent character. The Democratic party has always moved up to the plane of the present occasion. What that plane is to be in HMM is already evident. It is to be the people against the extortion of the protected interests, the people against unjust taxation, the people against a tariff law framed in the interests of special favorites and which disregards the true growth of the country.- Atlanta Constitution. A Disgrace to Civilizat'on. Only the other <My the British authorities, confronted with necessity, admitted that the British army In South Africa had burned houses and pillaged homes, and attempted a defense which only served to emphasize their responsibility. For some time—a year, in fact —rumors, unconfirmed and strenuously denied, have reached us concerning the barbarous conditions existent in the refuge camps of South Africa. A few months ago Miss Hobhouse, representing a charitable organization of England, went to the scene of reported horrors to minister to the comfort of the South African women and children. The report which she has sent home Is the most damning evidence yet adduced to establish the savagery and brutality of the British authorities. She paints a horrible picture of weak and helpless women and children exposed by night and day to the burning rays of the sun and the beating of the rain, forced to partake of scanty food before the filthiness of which the stomach revolts, deprived of soap and water and condemned to sickly chloretlc conditions, and practically ignored in sickness. Children are slowly starved for .want of suitable sustenance, and disease and death hovers constantly over the foul-smelling pens where women In the most dellcat# condition are subjected to indignities and cruelties that

would touch the heart of a savage Miss Hobhouse recites several pathetic instances of where mothers, separated from their husbands, were compelled to see their children perish one by one from literal starvation and hear protestations without receiving a word of sympathy from the uniformed brutes who swaggered and swore as they stood sentinel over them. The London Daily News passionately denounces the dishonorable policy of the war administration, and adds: “We defy any man to read Miss Hobhouse’s simple compilation without a feeling of burning indignation and shame at the deeds done and the sufferings inflicted on women and children under the protection of the British flag, and with the countenance and approval of British statesmen and ottictals. Hitherto our people at home hate been ignorant of what was being done In their name. Information was strictly withheld. Fallacious answers were returned to questions asked in the House of Commons, and on every hand there was a conspiracy of deceit and evasion carefully calculated to prevent the facts from being known.” The American people have not yet forgotten the floating prisons of our Revolutionary war when American patriots were slowly murdered, smothered and starved. The American people were humane and courageous enough to protest against the horrors of Weylerism when practiced upon legal subjects under the Spanish flag. Is there any real reason why the civilized world should remain silent and Inactive while savagery equally heartless and inhuman strikes '.t the women and children of South Africa? It would seem that the British soldiery, unable without tremendous odds to hold their own with the farmers of the veldt, decided to soothe their wounded pride by cowardly attacks upon penned-up women and children. No more shameful procedure has been discovered in the annals of modern war. It is a disgrace to civilization.—lndianapolis Sentinel. The Ohio Campaign. All factions of the Democratic party were represented in the State Convention of the Ohio Democracy, which met recently at Columbus and nominated Col. James Kilbourne for Governor. Mayor Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, showed that he is a power in Ohio politics by securing the incorporation in the platform of “planks” relating to the taxation of corporations, including steam and electric railroads, and also in respect to home rule in municipal affairs. It has long been alleged In Ohio that corporations in that State escape taxation, thus increasing the burden of owners of real estate. The platform adopted provides that “steam and electric railroads and other corporations possessing public franchises shall be assessed in the same proportion to their salable value as are farms and city real estate.” This year the Democrats of Ohio intend to make their tight largely on State issues. The platform is, therefore, notable for its failure to reaffirm the last national platform of the party. It contains no allusion to the Presidential nominee of the National Democracy last year, but touches upon several subjects of national interest, including trusts and the tariff. In 1899 the Republican candidate for Governor, was elected, although he received about 00,000 votes less than the combined votes of the Democratic candidate and the Social-ist-Labor candidate “Golden Rulo Jones,” the Mayor of Toledo. In 1900 the Republicans elected their candidate for Secretary of State by an overwhelming majority. The Democrats of Ohio are always ready for a fight, regardless of the odds against them.— Baltimore Sun.

If the attempt of some of the protected interests to force Secretary Gage out of the Cabinet should prove successful the Chicago statesman would have the best of reasons for resuming bls place among the tariff reformers of the West who used to regard him with much favor as one of their ablest leaders. Possibly it was his experience as a free trader which made him yield so quickly to the demands of the sugar and petroleum trusts In the matter of Imports from Russia. He took It for granted that they were to have what they wanted, and he never thought of the other Interests that would suffer. This is what comes of letting a reformed free trader run a protectionist treasury department. Here is an Interesting question for the imperialists: Had George Washington been captured by Major Andre and Benedict Arnold, what would have become of the cause of freedom? McKinley’s triumph of the Filipinos Is Just as damnable as the triumph of George 111. over his colonists would have been one hundred and twenty-five years ago. We have no more business to set up our authority In the Philippines than the Chinese have a right to declare Chinese sovereignty over the United States. In 1800 there were In the world less than fifty ship building yards. To-day there are more than 700 shipbuilding yards, turning out a total of 1,000 vessels yearly. Rashness Is the characteristic of ardent youth, and prudence that of mellowed age.—Cicero.