Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1902 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

J Hanna & Co.—Patriots. The ship subsidy bill which passed the Senate is a purely patriotic measure —we have the word of Mr. Hanna for that. When it is objected that all the people of the United States should not be taxed out of millions of dollars for the benefit of a few rich men engaged In private business, Mr. Hanna’s patriotic answer is that the ships whose owners are presented with large bags of public money can be converted into auxiliary cruisers in time of war. These ship owners are also patriots Like Mr. Hanna. When their imperiled country shall need their bounty-plated vessels for naval purposes they will be more than willing to let their imperiled country have them. They have proved that. The St. Paul, the St. Louis, the Nw York and the Paris of the American Line (subsidized heavily under the guise of mail contracts) were pressed into service as auxiliary cruisers during the Spanish war. That war lasted but a few months, but here is what these subsidized ships cost the Government :

For charter and running expenses $2,106,133 50 For repairs to said vessels while in active service, including the cost of conversion Into auxiliary ' cruisers 111,702 14 For restoration to their original condition as [ passenger ships 647,000 00 ! Total $2,864,835 64 ; “Here,” said Senator Tillman, who extracted the quoted official figures "from Secretary Long, “Here were four vessels which we had been subsidizing from the time they first put the American flag at their peaks, under the pretense that they were to save us in our emergency, and when that emergency came these liberal, patriotic owners ■were so exacting and exorbitant, or our Government was so liberal—both, 1 presume, because they had tlie right to drive a hard bargain, and they did—that we paid in the six months they were in our service enough to build one of the vessels, if not two.” It would be cheaper for the United States to build auxiliary cruisers outright than to rely on getting them by way of the thieving subsidy route. Mr. -Hanna and his comrades in treasury raiding, besides being patriots, are devoted friends of American labor. It is, they tell us, largely because they want to maintain the standard of sailors’ wages at a high figure that they desire to enrich their ship-owning friends. Yet when Senator Patterson offered an amendment providing that no ships which employ Chinese crews—as Is the custom on the Pacific—shall receive any bounty under the subsidy bill, Mr. Hanna and the other Republican friends of American lal>or promptly voted to reject the amendment. The ship subsidy bill is nn open fraud. Its real and only purpose 1h to pick the pockets of the American people In the interest of the millionaires of the shipping trust.—New York Journal.

The People Must Foot the Bills. The necessity for protection to our infant industries engaged in swallowing tip adult foreign industries is evident to every true protectionist. It Is glorious to sell goods to foreigners for half what we pay ourselves, and we must not deprive ourselves of the Joy and glory of carrying our goods In our own subsidized ships. The Philadelphia Ledger remarks: “That is a very magnificent offer which the American tobacco trust makes in order to gain a market in England, namely: To sell its goods practically at cost for four years, and, besides this, to distribute a bonus of >1,(MX),000 a year among the retailers handling Its goods. Its American customers are expected to lie so dazzled by the splendor of this example of American enterprises I hat they will fall to see that they must pay for it.” If the people will only consent to foot Mie hills. Messrs. Schwab, Rockefeller, Duke, Oriacom and others will export the American flag on American ships, filled with American goods, at knockdown prices. The trusts will keep only the profits, allowing the great American people to reap all the glory.

Dancer to Speaker Henderson. Speaker Henderson may be able to convince the people of his district that he Is all right on the tariff question ami that they are all wrong, but some of them show it disposition to argue a bit before the case is closed. There Is nonie danger, however, sb far as Speaker Henderson's seat is concerned. in the fact that the protected trusts don’t do much voting iu lowa and are not so numerous and richly represented there as they are in Washington.— Toledo Bee.

Punished for Doing Hi* Duty. By no one act Ims Theodore Roosevelt lowered himself more In the estimation of thinking citizens than by the surrender to the brutal demand of o plunder-seeking clique for the retirement of Commissioner of Pensions Evans. a Renbllean official who won the esteem of the people nt large, Irresjiec-’ the of party, by the simple If unhappily novel course of strictly performing bls sworn duty.- Buffalo Courier. The Tariff on Foreign Meats. Just at this moment the importation •f foreign meats, if there were no duty on them, would break the arbitrary

control of the market by the trust and would thus tend to restore the free, natural movement of live stock from the producing regions. It is equally to the Interest of the cattle raiser, the agriculturist and the consumer that this and kindred tariff taxes should be removed.—Philadelphia Times.

Roosevelt us Viewed in Tennessee. Quite a number of magazine writers have been telling us of late what a wonderful President Theodore Roosevelt is making. The fact is that the individual whom a tragic accident made President of the United States is a very ordinary person with an extraordinary amount of self-assurance. A civil service reformer who sleeps with Tom Platt, a public-spirited citizen whose sworn statements regarding his taxes were hopelessly antagonistic, a shoulder hitter who is also an expert dodger, a man who has settled the naval controversy by perverting the facts and mutilating official reports—this Is the actual Roosevelt.—Memphis Com-mercial-Appeal.

The Cloud Over Great Britain. There would be little cause for surprise if at any moment Great Britain should find herself confronting the menace of conflict with one of the great powers. She is not prepared for such conflict. Her condition, revealed by her inability to whip 40,000 Boers with 300,000 English soldiers, tempts her enemies to attack her. A hostile movement against England, with her sin against the Boers as the avowed provocation, would look mightily like retribution in the eyes of other peoples. Every day’s prolonging of the war In South Africa Is dangerous to the British.—St. Louis Republic. Check on the Beef Trust. There are millions of people In the far East who are subjected to the most laborious tasks and yet never taste meat. The bulk of peasants in Germany and SPnndlnhvia are nonmeat enters. Without adopting the whole program of vegetarianism there is little doubt that the bulk of the people consume more meat, especially In sedentary positions, than there is any need of. Now that vegetables and nourishing roots are soon to' come to the front, it is possible to hold the meat trust within bounds if it attempts to crowd the people too far. — Boston Globe.

Roosevelt an Uncertainty.

There can be little doubt that the administration has aroused serious antagonism is not a few circles by Its attitude toward the tariff, ship subsidies, the railway merger, the army bill, and by Uie singular Infirmity of Judgment manifested by the President in incidents personal in scope. In a word, Mr. Roosevelt has both in conduct and in manner persuaded unprejudiced critics that he Is an uncertain and peculiar political force, and withal a disturbing member in a political organization.—New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Not a Representative Body. The present Congress is not a popular Congress. There is good Democratic material in It, but the Republican majority has not distinguished itself. Legislation for the benefit of the classes at the expense of the masses has been its sole occupation, with a despotic gug rule to cut off debate. The people know’ when they are not repre sented, but misrepresented. In that, rather than in the precedents theory, lies the surest ground upon which to base predictions of Democratic victory.- Houstea Post.

A Foolish Diplomatic Policy. The whole tendency of onr diplomatic policy has been to alienate the Russians and what have we gained? Nothing, except the name of echoing the foreign policy of Great Britain. Manchuria will pass under Russian control as naturally ns California came under United States control in 1850, The whole world In arms could not permanently prevent the natural expansion of the Russian people. Of all the nations the United States can least afford to share in such an effort.— Hartford Times.

Treading a Perilous Path. Our methods of doing things in Washington arc more and more closely bordering on absolutism each succeeding month. We are plainly walking along the bordered path which other free peoples have walked before only, In time, to find thepiselves confronted by the prospect of fighting for or surrendering their liberties on demand.— St. Paul Globe.

The Modesty of Tariff Plunderers. There is no lack of modesty on the part of the beet sugar thieves. They say they are willing to increase the rebate to 35 per cent or even 40 per cent and pay the money out of the United States treasury. Doubtless they would be just as willing to make it 100 per cent if in so doing they could retain their own plunder.—Johnstown Democrat.

Might Serve a Double Purpose. It is said that Mr. Hanna may decide to lay aside the ship subsidy steal until after election. In that way ha might, hope to keep it out of the campaign as an issue and at the same time make ths subsidy seekers stand another big assessment,—Albany Argus.