Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1898 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

TAXING CORPORATIONS. The House of Representatives, under the rule of Speaker Reed the Despot, no longer debates public questions. It has sunken into a dull and placid condition, such as might be expected to prevail In a Council of Stat A held by a Sultan, or a Pasha, or some such Oriental lord and master, and it does what it is ordered to do with scarcely a grumble. The activity and verbosity of the Senate somewhat compensates for the vacuity of the House, and It is In the former chamber that the war revenue measure has had the only discussion preceding Its enactment, and the only disclosure to the public of its purpose and nature. There are still some Senators who really’ appear to desire to know what the people want and to do It. They find that their constituents are willing and glad to contribute to the expense of carrying on hostilities provided that fairness and equity are observed in exacting the necessary contributions. That the war should be energetically conducted, all agree, but that Its (cost should be borne by all equally is a fieasonable demand. That those upon whom great favors have already been bestowed should contribute of their abundance is only just and right. The present generation has devoted Itself to creating corporations and bestowing upon them exclusive privileges, and that these should now escape their share of dues In a time'of public danger, would not nor wise. The debates In the Senate have taken a wide range. The Advocates of Incorporated capital have held the floor and uttered every excuse and every appeal In their power. They were met by the arguments of the champions of justice and honest dealing, and political divisions have been formed and lines drawn, which "will survive the present financial exigency. There is one class of corporations and only one—in which the great mass of producers in this country have a deep Interest. We refer to the savings banks—the depositaries of the savings of the industrious poor. They alone have a right to demand that their painfully’ earned boards shall not be depredated upon. All other corporations belong to toe class of well-to-do, and should pay their share. —New York News.

Bimetallism. The gold standard is wrong. Why Is it wrong? What was the occasion which brought us to experience its results? For two thousand years mankind has used both gold and silver as final money, ultimate money, foundation money, basic money. These are some of the terms that are employed to designate that money which is final payment and never has to 1> redeemed; which, when it changes hands in consideration of service or property, ends the transaction. It is itself a payment, and upon it may be -ared and is reared the structures of representative money, of paper money that has to be redeemed in it, and of credit, which, also, like representative money, is stated in dollars, and for which, in the last analysis, real dollars must respond. That is ultimate money. And I say /or over two thousand years the world so used both gold and silver. Why, the exigencies of the gold standard to-day have compelled its advocates to do what? They have Invented a new morality, for one thing, the doctrine of which is that the creditor has a perfect moral right to take a 200-cent dollar from the debtor, but that the debtor is a most reprehensive villain and moral outcast if he objects to it. And they have also invented a new political economy.

Is there anything difficult about that? And yet your friends of the gold standard say that is not a sound principle; they say, in the New York newspapers, In effect, that there is no distinguishable relation between the amount of money and the course of prices—a most marvelous discovery, if true. I say the instinct of mankind was always to the contrary; the experience of mankind was always to the contrary. Why, when gold and silver were coming in streams from the mines, mankind in all the past ages of its history found that it was a good thing for society; they found that it built up the waste placets; they found that it extended civilization; that it encouraged every kind of investment; that it developed and strengthened the great producing classes. They found that it was always coextensive and concomitant with Increased prosperity; and that, on the contrary, when the production of the mines fell off, the opposite effects were realized.—Charles A. Towne. Coat of War. War Is expensive. But It is only fair to say that the conquered nation will have to pay the /bills. Spain has a dismal outlook. r Fated to meet defeat, the dons will not only be forced to pay their own war debt but that of the United States as well. Down in Manila Bay lie the hulks of $5,000,000 worth of Spanish ships, and that’s only the first Installment of the debt which Spain will ha.ve to meet as a reprisal for the cowardly destruction of the battleship Maine. For the first week 1* May the expenses of this Government were $3,565,000, as against $865,000 for the corresponding week last year. Nearly $3,000,000 of this should be charged to the account of Spain. It makes little

difference whether the dons can raise the money to pay the war indemnity to the-Un I ted States or not. The Philippines and Porto Rico are good for It, and will be held by this country as security for the debt. People who are exercised over the amount of money which the war Is costing this country should be comforted. If that were all the loss to be expected there would be little to worry over, but there are lives that will have to be offered, and for those there is no indemnity. Nothing but the gratitude of a nation for their brave sacrifice can be given to the dead. Taxation Heresy. Heresy in taxation Is worrying the administration newspapers, and they are much exercised for fear corporations and plutocrats may be farced to help pay the expenses of the war. Whenever the Democrats in the Senate propose to make the Standard Oil Company pay a small per cent, of Its unearned millions to aid the Government under which it thrives and thieves, the administration press shrieks a protest against this “heresy In taxation." That the Democratic finance committee of the Senate Is a bold, bad band of robbers is shown by an esteemed Chicago contemporary, which, with a fine display of sympathy for the oppressed and down-trodden trusts, exclaims: “They would fix upon the people an Income tax, an inheritance tax and a tax on corporations.” * Such propositions as this are, Indeed, monstrous. Think of “fixing upon the people” that terrible Injustice of an income tax! Reflect for a moment how Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan would suffer If such an oppressive measure should be passed. The “people” who have incomes over SIO,OOO a year would really suffer for the necessities of life if an income tax should be levied. By all means tax the laborer who earns a dollar a day. Tax his beer and his tobacco. Let him understand that this is a “Republican war,” and he must pay for it. But tax Rockefeller and men of his class? Never! And then to tax Inheritances! Isn’t that dreadful? To make a man pay a small part of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars that he receives without labor as a gift? Never. But corporations also are threatened by these heretical Democrats. The Standard Oil Company, the sugar trust, the nail trust—in a word, all the trusts with their combined capital of two thousand million dollars cannot afford to pay taxes, and the esteemed Chicago contemporary is quite right in crying out In horror against such a suggestion. Sons of Senators. Sons of Senators, sons of millionaires, sons of political bosses have been given commissions in the army until the matter has become a public scandal. These civilians know nothing al>out war, and many of them know little about anything except golf and pink teas, but President McKinley has chosen to slight experienced army officers and confer honor upon ignoramuses. Why? Politics. That these young men are intensely ignorant of what they are expected to do is shown by the following story, told of one of them by a correspondent of the New York World: “One of these gilded youths went to an old officer in the regular army a few days since and begged for a consultation with reference to the duties of his office. He Is reported to have said: “‘Can I have •five minutes of your time while you tell me how to perform all of the duties of my new office in a satisfactory manner?’ A smile of amusement and derision curled around the officer’s mouth when he replied: ‘Young man, I have been in the United States army thirtyfive years, and I don’t know how to perform my own duties satisfactorily.’ ” So far the members of theHousehave not been allowed to play in this little game of military appointments. It has been a friendly gambol for Senators, beginning with Vice President Hobart and running all along down the list. But now that more volunteers are called perhaps the Representatives may get a chance to chip in and saddle some of their “greenhorns” on the Government. Old soldiers have been thrust aside to make room for Senatorial favorites under the new call, and they will doubtless continue to be thrust aside as long as there axe nephews and second cousins of Congressmen out of a job.