Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1901 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

'ree Government Opposed to Anarchy. Some partisan newspapers are trying > show that the inenrderous assault pon President McKinley was the outrowtli of party politics. Front their oint of view, even legitimate criticism f public officials is an inspiration to ssassiuatlon. This is the sheerest aburdity. Such arguments find a eoilincing refuL.Mon in the statement of jjon ('zolgosz, the man who shot Mr. that he was led to do the eed which has shocked the world afer hearing a lecture by an anarchist chose doctrine is that all rulers should e exterminated. It was the incendiary Iterances of this person, according to .’zolgosz, which “started hi him the raze to kill.'’ The leading political paries in the Uni’ed States believe in esablished and orderly government, ami re odious to anarchists. It is inimaerial to the latter whether the governneut be controlled by one party or the >ther. The fact that there Is a governnent which exercises authority arouses heir opposition and impels such men is (’zolgosz to attack the state through ts official head. The attempt to trace a connection between party politics and he methods of anarchists indicates a ttrange confusion of ideas and extrairdinary ignorance of American instiutions and the American spirit. As long as the American people have t government by party there must be nil and free discussion of public men tnd of measures which affect the gen>ral welfare. Our government, as a natter of fact, rests upon discussion. The right to have opinions and the right to express these opinions is one t>f the most precious privileges which are assured to the citizens of countries having constitutional government. It Is the proud boast of the Englishman that his government, monarchical though it be, recognizes the right of the subject to free speech. It is no less the pride of the American citizen that in this republic every citizen can proclaim his opinions fearlessly without molestation by those whom the people have put in authority. Every four years the people of the United States have the privilege of changing the policy of their government, transferring the control, if a majority of them desire to do so, from one political party to another. The press and public speakers discuss the issue and the candidates for the enlightenment of the people. The people discuss the questions involved, the advantages to be derived from existing policies and from the policies which it is proposed to substitute. Party feeling may be roused to a high pitch—and it usually is, for most Americans are partisans—but press, orators and voters have only one object iu view—a change in policy and administration by orderly methods. Whatever the decision of the voters may be, their purpose is not to destroy government, but to perpetuate it. That is the American idea, and it has prevailed ever since the foundation of this republic. The ballot is the only weapon which the citizen of this country uses to bring about a change in men and in measures. For nearly a century and a quarter we have preserved our free institutions and strengthened them by absolute freedom of discussion. Such conditions are possible only in those countries which permit liberty of speech and criticism and where governments have no power to sb»i>e and control the opinions of citizens. In Great Britain, which is a constitutional monarchy, members of Parliament do not hesitate to denounce the policy of the Government even in time of war. Such men as Mr. Bryce. Mr. Morley and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman protest fearlessly and vigorously against the mllitarjl' policy of their government. British newspapers and statesmen are equally outspoken in condemning the men whom they bold responsible for the war in South Africa. In our own country there were decided differences of opinion about the wisdom and necessity of acquiring remote territory by conquest. The matter was referred to the people, and they have settled it, temporarily nt least. There has lieen prompt acquiescence In the result, however disappointing It may have been. That is the British and American way of scitllug controversies, of clearing the political atmosphere. They make appeals to reason, to public sentiment and to political expediency, but when the issues are decided at the polls they quietly accept the decision. No Englishman or American thinks of assassination ns a remedy for political evils. Now that is not the anarchist’s way. They do not lielleve in law, in authority and In government. All rulers, in their opinion, are despots, all governments are tyrannies. They want to annihilate government, to abolish authority. The man who shot President McKinley was not influenced by the fact tiiat the President Is a Republican. It would have been all the same to him if the chief magistrate of the nation were a Democrat, a Populist or a Prohibitionist. From Czolgosz’s standpoint the fact that Mr. McKinley was the head of the government was sufficient to justify his removal by violent means. It would have been the same If Mr. Bryan hnd been elected President. As the chief magistrate of the nation he would have been ns objectionable to anarvlHsts as Mr. McKinley. For-the anarchist is no respecter of-parties. He la not swayed by the considerations which Influence other men. He wants Chaos, it he belongs to the violent class

of anarchists. If he is an anarchist of the philosophical school be wants the impossible and the unattainable. He wants men so perfect that they will not require the restraints of government. The American and the Briton, who have the most liberal governments and the free Institutions of all the nations of the world, know by experience that governments are indispensable; that authority must be exercised by some power created by the people and sustained by them. They criticise officials, as It is their privilege: they denounce policies and condemn administrations, as it is their prerogative to do, but their purpose is solely to perfect government, not to tear It down and destroy it. As long as government by party exists men will differ as to principles, methods and candidates. Such differences are inevitable and unavoidable under a system of popular government, where the authority is created by the people and exists solely by their consent. As long as the right of untrammeled discussion is recognized, as long as the citizen is free to speak and to vote as he pleases, party differences in the United States will be settled, as they have been settled for more than a century, by appeals to reason. Our revolutions will be fought with ballots, and the results will be accepted promptly and cheerfully. That is the American way. It is the system which commends Itself to men of all parties. It means peace, the enforcement of law and order and the protection of the citizen in all his rights and privileges. It means a government held to the proper discharge of its duties by enlightened public opinion. It means absolute freedom of opinion, of criticism and of action within the limitation imposed by the laws which the people have created. There is no place for anarchists in such a system.—Baltimore Sun.

Bree lers of Anarchy. If it be true—and who can deny it?— that disrespect for the makers, the interpreters and the administrators of the law breeds anarchists, this is a time when a peculiarly painful sense of turpitude should afflict many highly placed citizens. Among them: The members of a legislature that openly sold a United States Senatorship to a man who escaped conviction of the crime of misappropriating public money by pleading the statute of limitations—a legislature whose general scorn for common honesty gave it a disgraceful eminence even in a State accustomed to corrupt legislatures. A governor who became the accomplice of a band of politicians and speculators and conferred on them by his official signature the legal privilege of stealing the streets of the State’s cities. An attorney general who made one of a gang of marauders that tried, with the legislature’s help, to steal the coal lands of the State. A justice of a supreme court, appointed by the governor whose former law partner he was, and who secretly revealed to that governor in advance how each justice would vote on a case in which the governor was politically interested. The mayor of a great city who turned blackmailer in the effort to protect himself from newspaper criticism, who habitually jobs in contracts, gives away enormously valuable franchises to his confederates, connives at the existence of illegal and profitable dens of vice, and from being a bankrupt when he entered office is reputed to have become a millionaire. The Chiefs of a political machine which carries elections by padding the assessment rolls, employing repeaters, stuffing ballot-boxes and surrounding the polls with policemen who play the part of bullies and thugs—by these means teaching the people that the citizen’s vote avails him nothing whenever those in official power consider it their Interest not to permit an honest expression of the public will, thus undermining faith In the ballot as the only remedial agent under a republican form of government. Surely all those are active promoters of disrespect for the makers, the interpreters and administrators of the law, and therefore prolific breeders of anarchists.—Philadelphia North American. “No white man can do physical labor Tn the Philippines,” says Gen. MacArthur. “Nor will the Filipinos come ‘to the United States.” How, then, shall they be truly Americanized? Has England Anglicized India by simply ruling it? Are a few Yankee sclwolmarms going to Americanize 10,000,000 people of an oriental race by teaching their children the English language? New Mexico and Arizona have been territories of the United States for about fifty years, and they are within our continental boundaries, touching elbows, so to fqieak, with Colorado and California. Yet the main objection urged against admitting them as States is that they are not sufficiently Americanized. Gen. MacArthur’s idea that the Filipinos will become “thoroughly Americanized” ts taken seriously, It appears, by the Federal party of Manila, which was started by Judge Taft last winter. Their latest platform is at hand, and it asks for statehood In the American Union at once, with live representatives In Congress. The American people may be expected to grant this request, of course, at all early day.

The ironclad Wasa was launched at Stockholm in the presence of King Oscar and the members of the diplomatic corps. The vessel was christened by Queen Sophia. A report by the Russian minister of finance, M. Da Witte, shows that the winter grain crop in the southwestern provinces is excellent and that it is above the medium in northern Caucasus and Finland. The winter crop is only mediocre in southeastern Russia and in the Volga province. The spring grail crop is everywhere worse than winter trop.

TOMB WHERE THE BODY OF M’KINLEY RESTS.