Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1904 — WHICH SHALL IT BE? [ARTICLE]

WHICH SHALL IT BE?

William Randolph Hearst, congressman, editor and candidate for the democratic presidential nomination, in a recent editorial, said: “The trust is the most powerful thing in this country to-day—-with one exception. That exception is the genuine democracy, the body of the plain people of the country. ** * Behind the trust, stands the shrewd, conscientiousless lawyer, willing tosell his brain to provide schemes to cheat the people. Working for the trusts are all the legislators who are corrupt. All the judges who can be influenced in favor of the few against the many whose pay they take, whose servants they are supposed to be.” Does anybody who professes to have even a little bit of sense doubfrthe truth of the above extract? We hope not —for the boasted superiority of American intellect, we hope not. But there are a great many people who think —“O yes, we know S these things, but so long as it don’t effect us too severely, and eo long as there is a show for us to share in the distribution of the loot, we believe that it would be better to let things go as they are.” That is what is called being “conservative” and a great many people seem to think that “conservative” is a mighty word; that it was the rock upon which this nation, was founded. But no! This nation was founded upon the worst kind of “radicalism” which means originality, and if it is to be preserved and made to grow and prosper as it should, radicalism must again take the place of conservatism, and that before long. Conservatism means nothing more or less than “tending or desiring to preserve” not the United States, but the conditions which Mr, Hearst describes in the extract quoted ajjove. Now are there enough people in the United States who want to preserve the trusts, with all their attendant evils, to elect a republican president and congress this year? For the republican party is the avowed supporter of the trusts, just as the trusts are the supporters (and rulers) of the republican party. Forty years ago, if we had been a voter, we would have been a republican voter, for at that time the party stood for the weak and distressed, and was the moving spirit in the emancipation of four million human beings from the chains of slavery. But the party is now under the control of a few men, and instead of doing any noble work tending to the uplifting of humanity, it is trying to bind the country down with a commercial despotism, which in the end, would be but little better than the slavery whose cause the party espoused forty years ago. Very recently the supreme court handed down a decision in the Northern Securities case which ruled that certain millionaires were liable to fine and imprisonment for violation of the antitrust law. The President has since been reported to be “much amused” at the efforts now being made to induce him to enforce this law. He is afraid to enforce it simply because the men involved are rich men, and is trying to ignore the subject as fit only for cranks and “radicala” Verily it is easier for a millionaire to steal a million dollars than it is for a poor woman to steal .a loaf of bread. So much for “conversatism.” Let -the rich alone, and let ns all grovel at their feet, like so many dogs, thankful for the few scrape that fall from oar master’s tables. Let them disregard the law, let them buy legislatures and congresses, let them have everything in sight, and call it “prosperity.” That will be the dictation of the American people next fall if they

send the republican candidate to the White House. People are just beginning to wake up to Mr. Hearst’s strength as a presidential candidate. Two or three states have already instructed for him, and their action will have effect on| the others. There is a great deal of tommyrot now being exhaled in regard to his candidacy, none of which amounts to anything. The fact remains that he seems to have at present a better hold on the nomination than anybody else, and we hope that he gets it. Mr. Hearst is a rich man, he pays out more money in salaries to his employes in three days than the office of President of the U. S. pays in a year, being the largest single employer of labor in the United States, and yet he never had a strike on his hands. He is dissatisfied with present conditions, and he is determined to change them. If we want the Sherman anti-trust law enforced, and if /we want the anti-trust laws made stronger, he is the man to elect for president. It is a standing joke that Democratic success at the polls is a sure omen of hard times. Now just compare this country with a man that goes out and gets too much liquid cheer; that is, plain drunk. He may stay drunk for days, and be having a big time all along, but when a real friend comes along, (which the bar-keeper is not) he is hustled off home to sober up. Then he has a terrible time; head-ache, drowsiness, dizziness, pain in the back, and many other discomforts. But can this be laid, at the door of the friend that brought him hojne? No, it is the result of his over-indulgence. This sphering up process with the drunk man is identical with the country’s periods of depression, or “hard times.” The republican party takes Uncle Sam out and gets him drunk, then it falls to the lot of the democratic party to take him home and “sober him up.” The comparison is awkward, but it is correct. Tne country has lately been on a terrible “spree,” and it ought to be corralled before it breaks its fool neck. ***