Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1903 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

Currency T-he character and action of the Republican party 1® Congress has always been qnestionable, but If the opinion of a leading Republican business man, who Is not a politician, Is anyways near the actual condition of affairs. It certainly Is time that there should be a change in party control. An open letter ftom J. B. Corey, the retired .coal magnate, and uncle of W. E. Corey,, president of the United States Steel Trust, to President Roosevelt, which says: “It Is reported, and is going the rounds of the public press, that you propose to call an extra session of Congress to tinker with our national currency, in order to afford relief to the Wall street stock gamblers and multt-riiiHionalre adventurers, whose stocks (Mid bonds fill oar national bank vaults and which have brought on the present panic. As an American citizen, feelidg a deep interest and pride in the good name of the American people and the honor of our national, government, I sincerely hope that the dignity of our nation, the good name of tho American people, as well as the soqeeas of jmur own admlnlstra-« tlbn, w-Hl eause you to-refuse to commit such a grave mistake as that of calliug an extra session of Congress. If you will stop and consider for one moment, the fact will appear that the majority of the men composing ou£ national Congress are as mentally unfit to, teglMato upon a financial or currency measure as they are morally incapable of resisting the temptation to fall'victims to Wall street stock gamblers and adventurers.. It is a wellestablished fact that the political and business Interests of the American people are never as safe and free frpm disturbance as they are when Congress is not In session.” That Is a more Incisive and harsh Indictment of the Republican party in Congress than Democratic newspapers or speakers have ever made, and It is hardly possible to doubt Its truth, coming from one so well Informed as the writer Is. He appears to be as well acquainted with the Wall street elemeht that controls the Republican party as he is with the personnel of the majority In Congress. Ia It not a travesty on statesmanship that the business men of the country have to appeal to the President not to call Congress together? Congress, which should legislate for the benefit .of the whole people. But If It Is a fact that the majority of the Republicans are such scamps as Mr. Corey says they are, It Is no wonder that scandals are prevalent In the Post Office, the W’ar and Interior, and other departments of the government. The only check on these departments being the oversight of the representatives that the people have elected. President Roosevelt may refuse to take the advice of Mr. Corey and call Congress In extraordinary session, “to tinker with our national currency. In order to afford relief to the Wall street gamblers,” but that would not be a good card to play when just entering upon the presidential campaign. Those voters, and they are the great majority, who have no interest in W T all street stock jobbing are not asking President Roosevelt to call Congress together before the regular session begins, for they know that the legislation desired by them, namely, tariff reform and trust control, is not possible from Congress as at present constituted, The Republican majority in Congress will try and get together on some legislation to make a showing that will help the party in the Presidential election, but as the people are not calling for financial laws to suit Wall street, they will hardly be satisfied with the multi-millionaires being given the bread and themselves the stones. Extra session or no extra session, there Is no hope for the people from Congress and no probability that President Roosevelt will recommend the legislation that will curb the trusts and by reducing the tariff tax lower the cost of living, Instead of fattening the trusts and combines.

Labor Disputes. The Employers’ Association of Chicago pretended to have gone to a great expense to try and discover what the increase of the cost of living has been during the last five years. They employed a corps of experts to unravel the knotty question, who have reported that the increase has been 15 per cent daring the time mentioned. Another corps of experts employed by Dan’s mercantile agency have for years been figuring on the same proposition and every month publish the of their Investigations. Over a year ago Dun’s announced that the cost of living had increased 41 per cent ;from the lowest point in 1897, and as their figures are accepted, the world over, as reliable, the absurdity of the results of the Employers’ Association experts is apparent. Dun’s figures are jtased upon the average prices at certain dates of 350 articles of consumption, with due allowance for the relative importance of each. Since the highest point was reached In 1902, there has since then been a decline of nearly 8 per cent, and from Aug. 1, J 902, to Aug. 1, 1903, there was a reduction of 2.2 per cent, which will probably be again raised when the fig-

ures are published for August of this year in consequence of the large advance In the prices of cereals. Anyway, the Increase from 1897 to the present time has been about 35 per ’cent. Every provider for a household has probably discovered that this raise in the cost of living has taken place. Ever since the Dingley bill was passed in 1897, there has been a steady increase of prices until the climax of 1002 when the beef trust and the coal trust put the prices of their products dut of all reason. As most of the 350 articles of consumption are controlled by trusts and combines, it is unlikely that the price of their products will decline until the moutopoly that the tariff protection gives the trusts Is abolished or diminished. There will be slight fluctuations as during the past year, but.no great decline until a panic causes a lack of consumption of everything but the necessities or the monopoly of the combines through the tariff, is taken from them. The Employers’ Association of Chicago has been fighting the. demand of the labor unions for higher wages, and this one-sided attempt to prove that the cost of living has only increased 15 per cent and that therefore wages should be only Increased In like ratio, will hardly settle the dispute. Wages must keep'pate with the cost of living or the laborers cannot partake of the prosperity that the trusts, combines and corporations are boasting of and to-attempt to prevent that adjustment by fictitious figures is only to ►lncite strikes and lockouts. Graft In the Philippine*. The exploitation of the Philippines by those of our own trust magnates who are interested In extending their operations to those Islands has been quietly going on, but the big thing, the building of a system of railroads, is now to be undertaken. Secretary of War Root is evidently anxious to help his corporation friends by giving them government aid to build the projected railroads in Luzon and the other islands. The proposition is to guarantee the interest on the amount of the cost of the roads, which would be sufficient to Induce capital to invest In the enterprise. This of course means that a deal has been made between the War Department and the railroad promoters, for official information Is given out that “engineers have been making surveys In the lslahds and railroad men have been in consultation with the Secretary of War on the project and it has reached such a stage that It is believed early action will be taken looking to the building of railroads on an extensive scale.” The scheme seems to be that the government is to give the railroads charters and right of way over the government land and guarantee the Interest on the cost' of building the roads. ‘This will be an Incentive to swell the cost of the building of the roads so that the Insiders can *t once secure a good rake off. The railroads will then have to be capitalized for probably at least double what they actually cost and the government will have guaranteed Interest on the watered stock. This is a nice scheme for the friends of Secretary Root and as he is about to retire from the cabinet, there Is no reason why he will not himself participate In the proceeds. How the government—the people who pay the taxes —will come out In the deal can be readily Imagined and that freight and passenger rates will be exhorbltant is a certainty. That the government will be called upon to pay the Interest and eventually the principal on the securities issued on the railroads is the history of all like undertakings and that the taxpayers of the United States will be the eventual sufferers Is almost a certainty. Graft under the present administration is becoming epidemic.

Are W* t Nation of Chumps? Congress never raises any inquiry as to the goods that pass across the Mississippi; why should they worry about goods that cross the St. Lawrence? The two governments pay no attentlomxwhatever to the citizens when they go to buy, until they come Into the neighborhood of the national boundary. Then they become as restive as a cackling hen looking after her chickens. The citizen is trusted tmpliclty to his common sense so long as he trades all the way frqm Maine to Texas, but the moment ne looks at his next neighbor across the border the government must take him in charge and tell him that he can no longer be trusted with freedom, but must be herded like a sheep or a cow. What business is It of the government where the people go for their goods? Ducks have sense enough to find their way to water; geese have sense enough to find their best haunts; fish have wisdom enough to find the best feeding and spawning grounds; the wild ass and the wild horse know where to find the best pastures; but, according to the theory of the fence-’em-in-Itea, man, the highest add no- i blest of all animals, baa not sense enough to be trusted freely to go to the right place for hia groceries and dry goods.—W. A. Douglas, In “What’s j the User