Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1902 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

Dismal Reports from Cuba. Cuban finances are fast getting into s deplorable condition. It is said that the treasury receipts averaged $40,000 a day during the American regime and ,that they have now fallen to less than SIO,OOO a day. The assertion is also made that “the Cuban authorities, In ■complete disregard of responsibilities ■imposed by the Platt amendment, are neglecting the sanitary condition of Hajvana and other cities,’’ and “It is not unlikely that the President may soon find it necessary to exercise his influence with the Cuban government to inaugurate reform.” Some of the dispatches are even more dismal in their pretended forebodings. There is no doubt that Cuba is in a bad way financially. Unquestionably the receipts have fallen off. As to other matters it would be becoming in us to suspend judgment. If the public revenues have fallen off, as stated, that is reason enough for falling to maintain the best sanitary conditions as well as coming short of the Ideal in other respects. It will be well to bear in mind that some people have all along taken a pessimistic view of the ability of the Cubans to govern themselves. It will be well to bear in mind that In some quarters there lias been an evident purpose to wreck the Cuban government, If possible, and to make Cuba not a part of the great American commonwealth, but a dependency arbitrarily governed from Washington, much as it was governed during our military oe- ■ cupation. The attempt, 'ptterly to discredit the people of Cuba and to make them out w'holly incapable of self-government means nothing less than this. The “annexation” advocated by these pessimists means nothing less, because it is plain that If the Cubans cannot govern them selves as an independent people neither can they as a State of the American Union. Before we believe the worst that these people would have us believe, before convicting the Cubans of bad faith, corruption and other crimes, we would do well to fulfill our own obligations under the Platt amendment. We would do well to give the Cubans the chance we promised to give them and see what they will do when they have that fair chance. If we are going to accuse the Cubans we at least should go into court with clean hands. There is something In these despairing cries about Cuba and the Cubans that sounds suspiciously like the voice of the sugar statesman and patriot.—Chicago Chronicle. Trusts Own the G. O. P. The Republican party Is responsible for the food trust. Congress, controlled in both branches by the Republican party, refused to remove the tariff duties on foreign cattle and meats. These duties enable the food trust to monopolize the American market and charge such prices as it pleases. The Retail Butchers’ and Meat Dealers’ National Association is not a political organization, but it is evidently composed of men who understand that the tariff cannot be changed without political action. This association, whose membership covers the whole United States, nt its annual convention, held in Washington, adopted a resolution Instructing all the local bodies from the Atlantic to the Pacific to Interrogate candidates for Congress on the subject of their attitude respecting the proposal to repeal the tariff duties on meats and meat products, and to support only such candidates as are known to be opposed to the food trust. That is business and rational politics. No Democratic candidate for Congress can, without being false to his party’s principles, decline to pledge himself to vote for the removal of duties on the people’s food. No Republican candidate can give such a pledge without putting himself in opposition to his party’s policy. Meat dealers and meat consumers must make up their minds to this fact: Neither the food trust nor any other trust will be destroyed by the Republican party. The reason is that tlie Republican party is owned by the trusts.—Chicago American. Abandon* Protection Ground. The tin plate trust has openly abandoned the ground upon which protec tlon for American industries has been advocated. It asks from Its workmen a concession In wages equal to the difference between rates of wages in this country and in competing countries. In making this request it admits Its Inability to prosecute a protected Industry without a substantial equality In wages with competing countries. The tin plate trust thus practically Invites the opponents of trusts to try the effect of a reduclon of duties on articles made by trusts.—San Francisco Bulletin. As Insolent uh Boss Tweed. Mr. Babcock, chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee, answer* the charge that the American manufacturers are selling goods in Europe cheaper than in the United States by saying, “Well, what If they are?” In 1870, when Wllllai> M. Tweed nnd Ills associates were accused of plundering the city treasury of New York, that worthy replied with the Jeer, “What are they going to do about ft?” Mr. Babcock's Insolent taunt Is in the spirit of Tweed’s. —St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mr. Rooeevelt’a Trust Remedy. Mr. Roosevelt’s idea of regulating trusts amounts to nothing so long as

the Republican tariff remains in force. We do not believe that the abolition of the tariff will abolish the trusts. But when we take away from the trusts all the peculiar benefits of legislation which they enjoy and put them in competition with the trusts of other lands we take away from them the power to monopolize and extortion.— Richmond Times. Trusts Helping the Socialists. One of the bad habits into which some of the managers of trusts have fallen in is that of speaking contemptuously of the public. An anthracite coal road president recently said; “It is none of the public's business,’”, when asked why the coal operators would not consent to arbitrate. But It is the public's business, nevertheless, and in the end the public will have its rights. Yet that speech of seven words will do more for the advancement of socialism than could be accomplished by a thousand lectures delivered by the nblestadvocates of that doctrine. The masses are beginning to suspect there is something wrong with a prosperity that increases the cost of living four times as much as it raises wages.—Washington I’ost. Demand for Tariff Reduction. It is evident that public sentiment, as manifested through the press and the platforms of State conventions, is rapidly crystallizing into a demand upon Congress to make a general reduction in the tariff schedule, more particularly on protected goods that’ are being sold abroad for less than is exacted at home. The action of the Democratic congressional committee in making tariff reduction, especially as applied to the trusts, the paramount issue of the coming canvass is very significant. It forces upon the Republicans the political expediency as well as the economic necessity of giving attention to the gross injustice of high protection as generally applied.—Kansas City Star.

They Cannot Be Sincere. It is difficult to believe in the sincerity of such Republicans as Mr. Babcock of Wisconsin, Mr. Warnock of Ohio and their like, and at the same time to believe In their intelligence. Mr. Babcock Introduced a bill repealing the tariff on certain trust-made goods. This touched no part of the tariff except conceded and crying abuses of it. Yet the bill has been pigeonholed and will never emerge from that pigeon bole unless a Democratic House is elected. But Mr. Babcock is laboring zealously to elect another Republican Congress, which (under the control and tutelage of the trusts) will retain inviolate the present Dingley schedules of extortion.—Albany Argus. Plea of the Beef Trust. The beef trust practically acknowledges the commission of all the iniquities charged against it by Attorney General Knox, but ft denies that the law Inhibits or restrains such rascalities. It is a plea of guilt as to the fact, but a denial of legal responsibility. The trust hopes to escape through the open meshes of loose Interstate commerce and anti-trust legislation. If this result shall be accomplished It will be a sore defeat for the administration and a new demonstration of the inability of the Republican party to cope with the monster combinations which It has nourished into maleficent existence.— Philadelphia Record.

Nearly a Million Pensioners. Congress lias been running a race with death and Congress has won. The Civil War pensioners are now dying at a rapid rate and yet the pension list is Increasing. Thirty-seven years after the close of the war there are more pensioners than ever before. The number lacks only 074 of being a round million. This was an increase of 7,027 since 1809. The experts say it is the high-water mark and that from now on the increasing deatli rate will decrease tlie pension list. Tills lias been predicted each year for the past twenty years, but each time Congress lias rallied to tlie rescue of the list and added more names than death could take off.—Baltimore Sun. Making His Own Political Coffin. It begins to look as if Mr. Itoosevelt Is rapidly driving into ills final political resting place the fatal number of nails and that In 1004 he will be compelled to look for a comfortable position on the political shelf. Unless the President’s restless strenuoslty nnd Insufferable egotism mellow down Into n conservative policy that will enable his party to wage war along the old lines It Is more than probable that Senator Hanna will be the nominee of the national Republican convention.—Butt* Miner. It Looks that Wav. Does It not look like the administration wants to be able to say to the people. “See, we have prosecuted the beef trust,” and to the beef trust, “See, we have postponed the case till after the elections, nnd If you put up for the campaign fund like good Republicans we will drop the case when the elections are once safely over?”—Houston Post. Injunctions May Come Handy, Tile useful Injunction having been enlisted in behalf of the speculators, one need not be surprised to hear of an application for one to prevent a dealer from sailing a corner lot