Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1903 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

Tha Cost of Living. The cost of living still continues abnormally high. The coal trust, the beef trust and the thousands of other combines are still doing business without let or hindrance. The railroad mergers are advancing their rates, claiming that their expenses have Increased and their revenue must be Increased proportionately. These high prices for about everything must of course be borne by the consumers, and as a great proportion of these earn wages or salaries that have not been Increased, or If any advance has been made, not to the extent that the cost of living has increased their plight, is a serious one. Some of the thoroughly organized labor unions have been able to force their employers to pay higher wages, but the great mass of laborers do not belong to labor organizations and their wages have been raised but a trifle compared to the increased price of what they purchase. But It is the citizen with the fixed income that trust prices press the most heavily upon, such as clerks and others whose wages do not raise with the cost of living. The small hotel and boarding house keepers are having a hard time to make both ends meet The price the coal and beef trusts extort from those who, with the strictest economy In normal times, only get a living Is disastrous In these times of trust prosperity. Such good Republican authority as the Chicago Inter Ocean, Sept. 16, makes a terrific arraignment of the result of the policy of its own party in which It said: “Yet It may be doubted if one-half the heads of the American families are In as favorable a position as they were In 1897.” That Is just what the Democrats have been claiming is the result of the high protection given the trusts by the Dlngley tariff and that prosperity to the trusts Is disastrous to the great mass of the people who have to pay trust prices. Republican voters should ponder on what this organ or their party admits and Democrats should call their attention to it and to another paragraph from the same article, which said: “The plain truth Is that fully onehalf the workers of the United States—the men whose Incomes are from $600 to $3,000 a year, the men who are neither In trusts nor labor unions, have not been getting their share of the national prosperity. They are working for the prosperity of Capital and organized labor, but no one is working for them. And under this burden they are becoming exhausted.” There is no doubt that it Is as the Inter Ocean says, “the plain truth,” but the Republican leaders will not listen to It, or, If they do, obstinately refuse to amend the tariff schedules that are mainly responsible for trust monopoly and extortion. They say “Hands off” and “Let well enough alone.”

The decreased purchasing power and forced economy of more than half the people Is having the effect of diminishing the trust prosperity. There are strong indications that the speculative boom has run Its course and that wages. Instead of being Increased, will probably decline. The press dispatches of Sept. 16 tell us that the National Metal Trades’ Association has started a movement to reduce the wages of machinists all over the country 10 per cent when the wage agreements with the machinists' expire Jan. 1. The cause given Is “fierce competition and diminution of business.” With all this evidence of the necessary legislation to curb the extortion of the thousands of trusts, great and small, the Republican cry is to “stand pat” and leave well enough alone. That is the clamor of the trusts and not the cry of the people. President Roosevelt has decided to call Congress into extraordinary session on Nov. 9, not to legislate against the trusts, nor to revise the schedules of the tariff that gives the trusts their monopoly, but to ratify the treaty of reciprocity with Cuba. Cuba, for whom the people of the United States expended hundreds of millions of dollars and sacrificed thousands of their sons. Is of more consequence than their own people, in the eyes of the Republican leaders. When it is considered that tbe Republicans who favor reciprocity refuse to take off the differential duty on refined sugar that protects the sugar trust and Insist that 25 per cent of the duty on raw sugar shall be deducted from all sugar Imported from Cuba, the enormity of such legislation is apparent The sugar trust would naturally be the recipient of this one-fourth reduction of the tariff on Cuban sugars under the reciprocity treaty and still be protected by the differential duty from competition. That many of the trusts sell abroad at a lower price than they sell tbe same article at borne, thus persistently robbing all of us and adding to the pecuniary difficulties of those with limited Incomes, is another substantial reason for tariff reform to reduce the cost of living.

Treats Control Republicans. The protective tariff is receiving some hard knocks by Its former friends and supporters. Many manufacturers find that their business is

curtailed by the tax on raw materials and Congressman Lovering, of the Taunton district, in Massachusetts, has declared that “In the case of all articles used in the manufacture of goods, which are exported, he would remove the duty altogether.” In an interflow published In the New York Evening Post, Sept. 4, he made the above statement and added that “the number of high protectionists in the country Is small and there is no strong tariff sentiment here In Massachusetts." He also made the remarkable statement for a Republican Congressman: “There Is a growing demand for relief from the tariff burden and It will make Itself felt before long.” He believed that “President Roosevelt meant to do the right thing, but he Is surrounded by all sorts of advisers, who oppose tariff changes and is Influenced by them.” “It seems to be the policy now,” he said, “to smother all agitation. It Is not only In Iowa that the demand for tariff reform Is growing, but It Is all over the country, and It is very strong In Massachusetts. So President Roosevelt Is struggling, poor man, “to do the right thing,” but the bad men of the trusts have control of him and his policy Is “to smother all agitation” for tariff reform. That must mean he has Joined Hanna and the “stand patters” and thinks it advisable for political reasons to “let well enough alone.” Well enough for the trusts and combines, but high prices and extortion for the American people. This picture of the control of the Republican party and the coercion of the President by the trust magnates and the monopolists, will open the eyes of the voters everywhere to the bard game they are up against. It Is evidently quite safe to say there will be no tariff reform by the coming Congress unless enough Republican members are forced by their constituents to Join with the Democrats In passing some measure of relief.

A Presidential Dilemma. The statement of Postmaster General Payne that President Roosevelt was fully aware of the deal that had been made for the division of the spoils of office In Delaware is rather hard on a civil service reformer, as President Roosevelt professes to be. It must be especially disheartening to those Republicans who were hopeful that their party would not be disgraced by complicity with the attempt of Addicks to purchase the Delaware Senatorshlp. That Mr. Payne should have given the Addicks faction their share of the political spoils was to be expected, but that the President acquiesced in supporting the notorious Addicks is a shock to all patriots who demand decent government. The offense that Miss Todd had committed and for which her dismissal was requested, was that she opposed the Addicks faction, and that, and that alone. Is why Mr. Payne, as official headsman, chopped off her head. There was no word against her personal or conduct, no petition from patrons of the office for her removal, but she and her family were opposed to Addlcks. That was crime enough for Mr. Payne.

A fellow feeling made him wondrous kind to Addicks and his ambition to represent Delaware In the United States Senate. The respectable faction of the Republican party In Delaware have been trying to stem the tide of corruption and have denounced Addicks as a debaucher of the voters of the State, but Postmaster General Payne has evidently determined to aid him. What will President Roosevelt do? Will he reinstate Miss Todd or stand by the action of bis Postmaster General? President Roosevelt an afford to be Independent of tbe Addicks faction for, In any event, they can but send a contesting delegation to the next national convention and their claim for recognition will be settled by that body where the will of the President, from the present outlook, will be omnipotent. But the voters of Delaware and the whole country will hold him responsible and expect him to carry out his own declaration that “Words are good only when backed by deeds.”