Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1904 — Shots From the Commoner. [ARTICLE]

Shots From the Commoner.

Ex-Senator Mason says he must stand up for the "infant industries” before he stands up for “Infant republics.” In other words, the dollar before the flag. It is said that Senator Fairbanks never makes a speech without referring to a cemetery. The senator Is always thinking about the final outcome of his vice presidential aspirations. With the ability to set the price of the raw material and the finished product, to say nothing of injunctionless Injunctions, the meat trust is still of the opinion that it has nothing to arbitrate. Panama Is said to he seeking investment for about two-thirds of the $lO,000.000 paid to it by this country. Here is a chance for Secretary Shaw to borrow enough to make up one month’s deficit. There is one kind of reciprocity that the Republican party managers are willing to practice. The receipts for campaign contributions and the maintenance of the “tariff wall” will locate the reciprocity. The Inter Ocean, which complained so bitterly because Mr. Bryan made speeches during his presidential campaigns,. is criticising Mr. Parker because he has seen fit to decline all invitations to make public speeches. Democratic ability to please a Republican organ and the arrival of the millenium are dated for the same day. “Americans never haul down the flag,” theatrically declared Mr. Fairbanks from the speakers’ stand when the flag fell over him. That sounds very pretty, but it is the average Republican spellbinder claptrap. 'We hauled it down in Mexico, and the hauling down was the one bright spot on that unnecessary struggle. We hauled it down in Cuba, and the effect, of that example was better than all the armed hosts we ever put in the field. We had it up in Canada once, but we hauled it down. The American flag should be hauled down whenever to leave it flying would mean departure from American principles. This is a fact that all of the cheap fustian of Republican spellbinders cannot alter.