Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1904 — THE ISSUES [ARTICLE]

THE ISSUES

What the People of Indiana Will Ba Called Upon to Decide on Tuesday. November 8. »l //'•- ■ - '‘ J The issues In this campaign have not tyeen manufactured, but have come to the people as a natural outgrowth of Republican policies. The Democratic has met them freely and has taken the side of the people against corporate power where that power has been exercised to the injury of the masses, and, now that the vote is about to be cast and another verdict rendered, every thinking man should ealmly and honestly review the facts presented in the campaign and reach a conclusion that will be his Justification for the manner In which hts suffrage Is cast. When one stops to consider that the elective franchise is of all franchises the most important and that when his vote is cast it should represent the highest of human ideals, the suffrage becomes the best and dearest privilege that he enjoys, and as such should not be lightly esteemed. Some of the questions which the Intelligent voter, the true patriot, should ask himself before entering the polling booth are found in the following: Shall this country be ruled by a President who has traduced its statesmen, bullied its distinguished Generals and advanced an underling to the highest of military positions, ignoring the constitution and setting the law at defiance, or shall it elect a man who will bring the government back to its honored position as a peace-loving na- , tion, proud o. its past and glorified by the example of liberty which it has set to the world? Shall corruption continue in the executive departments of the government, men in high places be protected from the just consequences of their corrupt acts and Congress refuse to Investigate and lay the facts before the people, or shall a congress be chosen that will probe all corruption, wherever it exists, to the bottom and thus justify the confidence reposed In it by the people? Shall constitutional government be denied to the Filipino people on the specious pretext that they are not prepared for independence and an example of tyranny set abroad to be later invoked at home, or shall the American people, following the theory of their honored fathers and carrying Into practice their noble examples, make the American flag the symbol of liberty wherever it floats and thus loved and honored rather than feared and hated by these unfortunate people? Shall the trusts continue to prey upon the people of this country through license given by a national administration, eating up the hardearned substance of the poor, trampling into the dust the laboringman and his family, and growing richer and more arrogant each year because of contributions to the Republican campaign fund, or shall they be bridled by the law. their Iniquitous combinations broken up and competition with all its benefits to the consumer restored ? Shall the Dingley tariff law continue to rob the people and feed the corporations by enabling them to sell in foreign countries the products of American labor at prices lower than Americans can buy them at home, or shall these tariff charges be reduced to the actual needs of the government for revenue, thus putting the manufacturer, the fanner, the tradesman, the laborer, all upon that equal basis that w’as designed by the framers of the government? Shall the ship subsidy bill, which once passed the senate, but which has been permitted to lie dormant because of the nearness of a national campaign, be revived and the people robbed of uieir substance to enrich owners of steamships, or shall the merchant marine stand upon its own merits as the individual must stand when he goes out to make his own way in the world? These are a few of the questions which every intelligent voter should ask himself when he enters the polling booth and receives frOm the election officers the official ballot on which are printed the lists of Presidential electors. Then, turning to the state, congressional and legislative ballot, might with profit ask himself these questions: .Shall the legislature be again Republican In the face of the fact that every session in which It had a majority has increased the expenses out of all proportion to the benefits received by the people, or shall It be controlled by a Democratic majority that has always kept expenses down to the minimum and at the same time has enacted every law of importance that is now on the statute books, including the new tax law, the schoolbook law, the sinking fund law, the Australian ballot law and many others whose benefits the people now enjoy? Shall the state of Indiana be longer represented In the United States senate by men who have voted for the ship subsidy bill, who have favored the trusts and defended them openly whenever they dared, who are In favor of perpetuating the tariff and who are notoriously not in sympathy with the people whom they thus misrepresent, or shall they be displaced by conscientious guardians of the public weal, men who have proved themselves both honest and fearless in the discharge of duty? Shall a state board of tax commissioners which has increased the assessments on farm lands and form laßd Improvements $27,090,000 and re-

duced the‘assessments on corporations. $16,000,000, be indorsed at the polls and continued in office, or shall there be a return to the original purposes i of the law which were to make corporations bear their just proportion of the burdens of taxation and in which spirit the Isw was administered by the Democrats till the Republicans came Into power? The man who esteems his suffrage lightly, who Is controlled by prejudice rather than principle, who is a Republican because someone else is a Republican. whose ideas of existence are comprised in mere meat and drink and clothing for the body, may turn away from these questions as he would from hnything that would evoke a serious thought, but the man who loves hl& country, who despises wrong regardless of Its source and loves and recognizes right and defends it against whomsoever would debase it. who standß for high ideals in citizenship, in government, in law, should take them and ponder on them, for they represent in part the issues of a campaign whose result on November 8 may mark a new era either for good or bad in our country.