Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1902 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

The Heralded Truat War. Again It Is announced from Washington that Attorney General Knox will proceed vigorously against the trusts. He Is described as waiting Impatiently for decisions In the suits pending, and to be full of plans for the assault on the monopolies and combinations that meflaee and oppress the people. The attack by President Roosevelt In his Fourth of July speech was a bombardment of the Trust citadel with projectiles of thistledown, and the prospective siege by Attorney General Knox will be no more calculated to cause the trusts concern. Knox seriously attack the trusts! Knox, the trust lawyer, who went directly from the position of attorney for the armor-plnte highwaymen to the Attorney General’s desk? Knox, the one man In the United States who, though he had been the lawyer for one of the large component companies of the Steel Trust, did not, according to his own declaration, know there was any Steel Trust? Knox, whose position as the bulwark of the trusts is so well known that the non-partisan Anti-trust League has demanded his removal at the hands of the President?

Knox, whose communication as to the nefarious Eastern Railroad Association brought this characterization of him less than a month ago on the floor of the House of Representatives? ‘‘The palpable evasion, the contemptible cowardice and chicanery of the Attorney General's reply were so plain and so damaging to his official sincerity and candor that not a leading newspaper in the country but commented upon it most critically and disparagingly. Any one who runs may read between and in the lines of this communication his absolute unwillingness to en force the law, and his corrupt complaisance toward the known violators of the law, because, presumably, they were his recent clients and his prospective friends. It is a document of such disingenuous and dishonest tene and temper ns to render it certain, in the minds of all impartial judges, that no anti trust suit will ever be instituted by the present Attorney General, except under the compulsion of necessity, and when instituted will never be prosecuted In good faith, nor with reasonable official honor and intelligence.” Attorney General Knox will seriously attack the trusts when John W. Gates moves to have gambling in stocks suppressed and John D. Rockefeller enters the lists as a champion of the Income Tax!—Chicago American.

Unappreciative Tin-Plate Workers. It Is difficult to find any palliation for those ttn plate workers who have declined to have their wages reduced 25 per cent In order that the American Tin-Plate Company may underbid the mills of Wales and secure a contract for the making of 1,500,000 boxes of tin plate for the Standurd Oil Company, at the lowest rates ever quoted. The men are actually given the opportunity to deprive themselves by their own volition to create benefits which they will not share In. Could anything be more liberal? There are not many countries In which the criminal has tj»e right to select the method of his execution. The indication of a preference not to be executed at all shows a nature lacking In gratitude.—Louisville Courier-Jour-nal.

Pirates in Agreement Again. Even the tiger Is for harmony, after he has had his dinner, and, therefore, there Is nothing surprising In the reports that Qnay has held out the olive branch to his former henchman and late antagonist, Elkin, and that they have decided to bury their differences. This corresponds to the general rules of piracy everywhere. The pirate chief Is the man who can hit the hardest nnd he remains chief Just as long as he can shrivel up other men’s aspirations by a glance of his eye. Quay proved that he could hit the hardest and now his late antagonists. In splints and bandages. are flocking to renew their homage. Besides, the signs of more plunder are not lacking.—New York Evening Post. Why Trunin Hold Control. With a billion dollar steel trust clearing up $140,000,000 a yeor and tlie American consumer paying oue-thlrd more for his steel goods than Europeans pay for tho identical articlemade by the same trust and sent abroad—lt Is easy to see why the trusts keep control of the Republican party. “The tariff is the mother of trusts,” said Mr. Haremeyer, of the sugar trust. And the Republican party Is the agent of the trusts. In that It Is responsible for the tariff laws.—St. Paul Globe. How Working People View It. When an honest laboring mau or woman, who Is not looking for charity, but for fair wages, rends In the papers that the eost of living to-day Is higher than It has been at the beginning of any fiscal year since 18«5, what does he or she csre If n trust magnate has endowed another library? Dora that endowment really Improve the present magnificent opportunities for securing a superior education In this country?— Boston Globe. Practice Far Short of Profeealon. The Democrats are determined to appeal to history to prove that no antitrust legislation Is to be expected from

the Republican majority in Congress. Scarcely a day passes but one of their politicians repeats the charge on tho platform or In the press. It may as well be honestly admitted that the records for the last six years, during which period the Republican party has been in absolute control of the Government, are all In their favor. President Roosevelt declared in his Fourth of July speech: “Words are good If backed by deeds, and only so.” If his party persists in refusing to live up to its profession it will stand condemned by the words of its foremost representative.— Philadelphia North American. Fairbanks and His Bonm. The “Fairbanks boom” has again been heard from. It is reported to have touched at Manhattan Beach Sunday, where it communicated with Senator T. C. Platt and “proceeded same day.” On the other hand, Senator Fairbanks of Indiana, managing owner of the boom, says that lie is out of politics until 1904 and is attending strictly to business affairs. Asked about sentiment in his section. Senator Fairbanks responded: “Roosevelt is very strong out West, but as to whether Indiana will commit itself to his renomlnation in 1904 I can't say,” which, being translated, means that Senator Fairbanks will take up an attitude of observation, prepared for any eventuality.—Boston Transcript. Home and F'orcign Prices. The higher prices at home than abroad for the products of American labor are Illuminating in more respects than one. They show that the wages paid do not cause the high prices at home, otherwise they would forbid the sale of such products abroad. The ability of the manufacturers to compete in foreign markets demonstrates their ability to compete in the home market if the tariff were removed entirely. Where it touches the trusts particularly Is In showing that domestic competition does not keep down prices, for the very ample reason that it is shut out by combinations powerful enough to control production at home.—Louisville Courier-Journal.

Not the Man for the Place. It is semiofficially announced that the President's chum. Wood, is to be placed In charge of the construction of the Panama canal. The selection is Improper nnd can be explained only upon grounds of favoritism. It will surely arouse a popular protest. An army doctor, who chanced to be on terms of intimacy with the occupant of the White House, Wood's advancement has been rapid- far more so than often comes to men of greater merit. But upon what ground of fitness or experience could Wood’s selection as a canal constructor be possibly condoned?—Albany (N. Y.) Argus.

Volunteer Pension Grabbers. Five regiments of regular infantry that took part In the battles at Santiago and lost GO4 men In killed, wounded and missing have furnished ?04 applicants for pensions. From five regiments of volunteers that did not lose a maw la any of the battles come 2,997 claims for pensions. As we are forbidden to assume that the volunteers were any less unselftnh in their patriotic devotion than the regulars, the only possible Inference from this contrast la that the volunteers were sadly unfit to withstand exposure, since more than half of them represent themselves as permanently disabled by their short service.—Philadelphia Times.

Not Easy of Explanation. Mr. Austin, the newspaper man whom Mr. Hanna made chief of the Treasury Bureau of Statistics, Is an expounder of the doctrine that trade follows the flag, but he has difficulty In explaining the falling off in our exports during the past year, amounting to more than $100,000,000 In value. He is no worse off, however, than all the other Imperialist soothsayers who have found it to their profit to disseminate fairy tales about the effects of “expansion” upon our foreign trade and our national prosperity.—Hartford, Conn., T|mes. They Must AU He Crazy, If Hoar Is crazy on the subject of the Philippines, so was Benjamin Harrison, so is Governor Boutwell and George F. Edmunds nnd Thomas B. Reed. A man who harbors the Idea that we have not “outgrown the constitution” or that the Declaration of Independence Is something more than n mass of “glittering generalities” is •necessarily crazy.—Helena Independent. Democrats in Fightim; Mood. The Democratic party does'not agree with Senator Vest that it would be a good thing for It to be beaten by the Republicans this year. The party is in a fighting mood nnd far better lighting condition now than It hna known Blnce 1892. It Intends to attack the Republicans all along the line and to give them a walloping such ns they have seldom known.—Atlanta Journal. Honor Is I)uo to King Herod. When a man like General Jake Smith, who ordered all children over 10 massacred can be praised for gallantry It Is time that we were revising our opinion of Herod and erecting monuments to his memory.—Memphis Oommerclal-Appeal.