Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1902 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

Deplorable Condltiona. . The last few years have doutbless seen some dimming of our national Ideals. With colonies we And many things to do thaFwe never looked forward to, and that were, until recently, supposed to be Inconsistent with established and well-settled principles. For Instance, it is manifestly impossible to govern the Filipinos as we govern people here at home—or rather as our people govern themselves. At the very outlet we have to recognize the fact that government in the Philippines is without the consent of the governed—at least, for tlie present. Plainly, therefore, we have learned by our excursion to the Pacific Islands that our boasted principles are not universally applicable. So trial by jury can hardly be practicable in Samur or Mindanao. And we find it necessary to Impose severe limitations on freedom of speech and the press, and even to violate the'constitution by resorting to the use of torture.

Out of this has grown a tendency to glorify the strong man, to take exceedingly “practical” views of things, to talk about “weak” races, and to rely more and more on the strong hand. This tendency is working out in many directions. One can hardly pick up a newspaper without seeing an account of some act of shameless cruelty and brutality perpetrated on a negro. But the negro belongs to an “inferior” race, jid so Is entitled to no consideration ■.Yom us Anglo-Saxons. And we actually hear voices demanding the repeal of the fifteenth amendment. We are not now discussing so much whether what we have done is right or wrong, as the intellectual tendency that has flowed from those acts. In the industrial world the sqme influences are at work. Men combine and form mighty industrial organizations which control State legislatures and Congress, and then we are told that we must not attack them, must not even deny 'them what they want, lest In weakening them we should destroy industrial prosperity. The vulgar rich, the millionaire adventurers, dazzle us with their splendor; and when we criticise their methods or question the beauty of their Ideals, we are told that they are really benefactors of the race. Railroads and anthracite operators get together In an organization that is in violation, at least of the spirit and intent, of the laws, and oppress and rob their men, and the latter are denounced for raising the price of coal. Everywhere is this glorification of strength—strength which conies from riches or mere brute force. And the answer to it all is that the country is prosperous! This is a sad plea to make to a people whose ancestors endured the most horrid privations for years In order that they might establish, as they thought forever, those groat principles which we now smile at as the mere dreams of political idealists. The only duty of governments nowadays—lncluding our own—is to make the people prosperous. When they have done that, all their crimes are forgiven. Believing as we do that Democracy is an immortal principle, and that we shall one day return to sounder and nobler principles, we refuse to take the pessimistic view. But that there are grave dangers abend of us cannot, we think, be denied. We insist that the pulpit has here a chance that it is certainly not Improving. We need to hear a call back to the old Ideals and principles.—lndianapolis News.

Roosevelt's Anti-Trust Rpeeches. The Republican President Is declaring on the stump that the trusts are productive of evil and must be controlled in the public interest. The Republican party for six yearst has had full power to curb the trusts, but has done nothing. While President Roosevelt advocates governmental control of the giant combinations, one of them, the Coal Trust, Is harassing industry and, pillaging all classes In the community by keeping the mines closed and doubling the price of coal. The President could proceed against the Coal Trust by ordering bls Attorney General to prosecute Its members under the Sherman law. And Mr. Roosevelt’s Attorney General chooses this time to make a trip to Europe! The Republican conventions of lowa and Idaho, giving voice to the sentiment of a large and growing element of the rank and file of the President’s party, have demanded, to the distress and alarm of the leaders, that the tariff shall be so revised as to deprive monopolies of its shelter—so revised, this means, that trusts which sell their wares cheaper abroad than they do at home shall be subjected to foreign competition. But Mr. Roosevelt, who knows, of course, that the tariff is the chief bulwark of the trusts, has not a word to say about the tariff. Nevertheless the President is doing a good work. He recognizes the existence of the trust evil and admits the Justice of the Democratic complaint against the unbridled freedom enjoyed by these combinations to plunder the people. That Is a great Republican advance upon Mr. Hanna's position during the Presidential campaign of 1000: “There are not trusts.’’ Ami upon Mr. Hanna's announcement made only a few weeks ago that “the only monopolies we have in this country are those protected by patents.”

It would be gratifying to hear from Mr. Roosevelt on the tariff and on the Coal Trust, but his speeches neverthen less are excellent in spirit, so far a, they go. Yet no relief from trust monopoly and trust robbery can be looked for from the President’s party, which, while he Is making his popular speeches, is campaigning to secure again a do-nothing majority in the House of Representatives. The reason why no relief can be expected from the President’s party is this: The Republican party is owned by the trusts.— Chicago American.

Fiuht for Real Democracy. Mayor Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, Ohio, is the kind of reformer that the profilers by abuses fear and hate most. He is not an earnest poor man, an outsider, who can be laughed at as a sentimentalist, a crank, nor an envious disturber. Johnson is a millionaire, a born money maker, whose business capacity compels the respect of the monopolists against whom he is warring. He knows all about them and their methods, and they know that he does. So Johnson is hated by the predatory rich as a traitor to their order, as every man of wealth is sure to be who declines to think that because he is a millionaire he is freed from the duties imposed by conscience and patriotism. Mr. Johnson is standing in Ohio for the Jeffersonian principles of equal rights to all and special privileges to none. The Democratic party of his State has accepted his leadership with enthusiasm, and the party of privilege and monopoly, led by Mark Hanna, finds Itself with a hot fight on its hands. Tom L. Johnson has brains, ardor for the cause of popular rights and tremendous energy. Every citizen who believes in government by the people Instead of government by money will rejoice if the Democracy, commanded by a chief who stands for so much that is worth while, shall rout the Republicans in Ohio.—Chicago American.

Will Balk the President. While President Roosevelt's advocacy of the Cuban reciprocity bill proves that there are Republicans who oppose their party's policy of breaking faith with Cuba and of starving the people of that island into begging for annexation, it does not by any means lessen the responsibility which rests upon the Republican party as an organization. The President Is doomed to defeat in his fight with his own party on the issue of reciprocity with Cuba. The high-tariff monopolists who control the machinery of the Republican party will defeat the President in the next session of Congress just as they did in that recently ended. The party as a whole will be held responsible for this violation of our national honor, and if Mr. Roosevelt suffers politically therefor It will be due to the fact that he is found in bad company.— St. Louis Republic.

Roosevelt and the Combines. The charge Is freely made that hfs speeches about restraining trusts are only declamation; that he knows nothing can be done; that his constitutional amendment will take years to get, if it is ever secured at all. But In cutting away the tariff protection of trusts there is something definite that can be done immediately. The Republicans of the West are demanding that it be done. Unless the President is willing to rest under the suspicion that he Is talking clap-trap for political purposes he will soon take occasion to say that he agrees with those ardent supporters of his in tlie West.—New York Evening Post.

Shaw's Confession. “The Republican party,” says Secretary Shaw, “never attempts to defend a tariff schedule, but does defend the protective principle." Since the tariff schedule is the practical application of the protective principle. Secretary Shaw’s assertion amounts to a confession that his party is standing for a principle that when reduced to practice Is Incapable of defense.—Rochester (N. Y.) Herald.

Great Industrial Wrong. The facts which the last census have brought out regarding the boy and girl wage w’orkers of the country are a national sorrow. Approximately there are 50,000 children In the factories of the South alone. In the North, despite more rigid laws, there are other thousands of laborers under a fit working age. Some day this burden of industrial wrong will be lightened.—New York World.

What May Happen in Michigan. General Alger should keep a record of those papers which are sportively and sarcastically treating his candidacy for the Senate. Michigan does some queer things in polities and ho may be elected. Then will come the sweetness of revenge.—Cincinnati Enquirer. , .

Reward for Weak Effort. The doctor of law* degree which ths University of Chicago is to give President Roosevelt when ho visits there may be called forth as a testimonial to his efforts to doctor our weak and falling anti-trust laws during the summer. —Boston Herald,