Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1900 — TRUTH OR FALSEHOOD? [ARTICLE]

TRUTH OR FALSEHOOD?

Records on tlie Trust Question Which Will Trouble Mr. Bryan to Fxplaiu. In his letter of acceptance Mr. Bryan asserts that the Republican party has done nothing, attempted nothing, and can be expected to do nothing to protect the people from trust monopolies. If this is the truth, it is an important truth: if it is a lie, It Is a reckless, atrocious lie which should forever discredit the than who uttered it. Let us see. A few months ago, speaking at the Chicago anti trust conference, Mr. Bryan said: “I believe Congress has, or should have, the power to place restrictions and limitations, even to the point of prohibition, upon any corporation organized in one State that wants to do business outside of the State. * * * I am in favor of an amendment to the Constitution that will give to Congress power to destroy every trust in the country.” At tlie first session of tlie Fifty-sixth Congress the Republican majority of the House Judiciary Committee reported a constitutional amendment exactly in- line with Mr. Bryan’s plan of dealing with trusts, as follows: “To lodge in Congress the power to define, regulate, control, prohibit or dissolve trusts, monopolies or combinations.” On the roll call on the question of submitting this constitutional amendment for ratification by the various States of the Union tlie vote was as follows: Republicans—For, 149;agaiust, 2. Democrats aud Populists—For, 5: against, 129. In tlie light of this record, did the Popocrat candidate state truth or falsehood when in his letter of acceptance he asserted that the Republican party has done nothing, attempted nothing, and can be expected to do nothing to protect tlie people from trust monopolies?

Olney on the Duties of Citizenship. If one citizen may properly withhold his* vote, logically all.ferny, and all the wheels of government be stopped. To decline voting because practically assured that others will vote is but to give the latter an undue share of political power and to forfeit the right to complain of any abuse of it. The obligations of citizenship are avoided, not performed, by standing neutral in an election. The voting power is a trust which calls for use and is violated by the neglect to use. —From His Letter of Aug. 14. * v An Advertiser reporter called at the office of the Election Commissioners yesterday to ascertain if Mr. Olney had himself done the duty he so eloquently prescribed for others. This was the result: v Mr. Olney is not yet on the voting list of 1900. Mr. Olney was not on the voting list of 1899. Mr. Olney was not on the voting list of 1898. Mr. Olney was not on the voting list of 1897. Mr. Olney was not on the general voting list of 1890. Back of this the Commissioners did not have time to go, and research would be accompanied by investigation of musty volumes in the assessor’s department—but there is a suspicion that Mr. Olney voted for Cleveland in 1892. —From the Boston Daily Advertiser of Sept. 7. ' Farewell to Bryan. (Air: Johnny Comes Marching Home.) We’ll never forget “Sixteen to One.” Oh, no; oh. no! We’ll never forgive your “Scuttle and Run.” Oh, no! Oh, no! We’ve got no use for your croaking cry: “Oh, don’t you fear the miiitari?” So fare you well; we’re all McKinley men. So fare you well; we’re all McKinley men. We’ll never desert the dear old flag. Oh, no! Oh, no! We don’t admire that “fraud and brag, EMILIO! We’ll never believe in prophets sent To preach the gospel of discontent. So fare you well; we’re all prosperity men. So fare you well; we’re all McKinley men. We’re rallying up ten million men. Oh, yes! Oh. yes! To vote McKinley in again. Oh, yes! Oh, yes! No danger lurks behind the flag But the man who works the silver gag. So fare you well; we’re none of us silver men. So fare you_ well; we’re all McKinley men. —William Edwin Anderson.

The Army and Local Troubles. The army has never been called upon but twice in the history of the country to interfere with rioting that followed strikes, and tlien only after th*e resources of the local authorities to prevent trouble had becomd exhausted. Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, sent troops to Chicago in 1894, after the local authorities had shown their inability to cope with rioting and John I’. Altgeld, then Governor, had refused to call out the State troops. Governor Steurenberg (Fusionist) of Idaho called on the Government for aid to suppress rioting in Idaho. That is the record, and there Is not. as Mr. Bryan says, a growing practice of calling iu the army to settle lal>or troubles.’’ Significant Contrast*. In August, 1896. after two years of free trade, and with fear pf Bryanlsm, the failures were 1,175 in number, with liabilities amounting to $26,110,36*1. In August, 1900, after three years of protection and with confidence, in the re-election of McKinley, the number of failures was 706, with liabilities amounting to S6J2Sft,O92. ’