Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1908 — DO THE PEOPLE RULE? [ARTICLE]

DO THE PEOPLE RULE?

All the Recent Publications Convince the Voters that Trusts Control Legislation. After all the excitement over the publication of the Standard Oil letters, showing that trusts control legislation, has reached the stage where the voters sift the wheat from the chaff of sensational publications, what will be the logical conclusion In the minds of the voters? It will be: I—That1 —That the people do not rule because the national law-makers legislate to suit the trusts. More trusts exist today than ever, the people suffer more from them, and they practice more extortion. 2.—That the party In power Is the party through which the trusts rule. The Republican party Is now in power. It writes all the national laws. In a speech In the last Congress, Mr. Sherman (candidate for Vice-President), declared that the Republican party assumed all responsibility for everything that has been done and for what has not been done. That Is right The trusts write the tariff laws passed by Republican votes. If the magnates are not punished criminally, it is because Republican officials fall In their duties. For eleven years the Democrats have had no power to frame federal laws or to execute a Federal statute. If everything In America is all right as to Federal laws for eleven years, the Republican party deserves the credit if “evils have crept In” the Republicans are responsible. The only hope for a change Iles In the election of Bryan. Suppose some Individual Democrat has been employed by a trust He could not get a law passed, he could not get “an immunity bath,” he could do nothing effectively for the trusts unless a majority of the Republican . Congressmen favored the trust meaenures. The Republican orators can not •scape responsibility by trying to pick • pot some Democrat who has been em-

ployed by a trust. Recent disclosures prove that the people do not rule, but that the trusts owe their existence and fatness to Republican laws and Republican officials. w .