Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1903 — POLICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLICAL COMMENT.

Deprecates Class War. President Roosevelt’s Springfield, IIL, address was devoted to a definition of the ideal citizenship and the model government for a republic, and was delivered at the dedication of the new arsenal and armory. “The problems that face us as a nation to-day,” said the President, “are different from the problems which Lincoln and the men of his generation had to face. Different methods must be devised for solving them, but the spirit in which we approach them must be the same as the spirit with Which Lincoln and his fellows in counsel, his followers in war, approached their problems, or else this nation will fall. But it will not fall, it will succeed because we still have in us the spirit of the men of ’6l. “For weal or'for woe we are a great power, a great nation. We cannot escape playing the part of a great nation. We can play it ill but play it we must. A small naU<|k can play a small part, not a great y»son, and upon the success of the etqieriment of free government, conducted in a spirit of orderly liberty here on this continent, depeuds not only the welfare of this nation, but depends the future of free government in the entire world. “And it behooves ns soberly to realize our responsibilities. The republics of antiquity went down. The republics of the middle ages went down, aithorugh tried on a much smaller scale than ours, and fundamentally the cause of the failure of these republics was to be found in the fact that ultimately each tended to become not a

government of the whole people doing justice to eaeh member of the people, but a government of a class. “Sometimes they, in the control of the government, slipped into the hands of an oligarchy, sometimes It slipped into the hands of a mob. In either case the result was the same. It was exactly as fatal to the welfare of the republic if it was turned into a government which opp.vssed the many cr if it was turned into a government In \vhich the Bian.» plundered the few. Either form of perversion of the true governmental principles spelled death and ruin. “This is not and uevtr shall be a‘government of a plutocracy. This is not and never shall be a government of a mob. It is a government of liberty by. under and through the law. “The supreme safety of our country Is to be found in the fearless and honest qdmluistratiou of the law of the land. Aud It makes not the slightest difference whether the offense against the law takes the form of cunning and greed cn the one hand, or of physical violence on the other. In either case the lawbreaker must be held accountable and the luwbrenking stop. And when any executive umlertukes to enforce the law, he is entitled to the support of every decent man, rich or poor. No matter what form the law breaking has taken, he is entitled to the support of all In his efforts. And If ho Is worth Ills salt, he will enforce the law whether be gets the support or not. “All men are not merely wickqd, but foolish. If they break privileges to violate the law. All men are not only picked but foolish if they complain because they are forced to obey the law. But the most foolish man In making such complaints Is the rich man. For the rich man owes his "very existence. h!s prosperity, to the fact that the law throws its mantle around him, and he. therefore, is twice overfoolish If in any way he permits revereoice for the law to be broken down in a community ours. “It la Just ns wicked for the man who seeks to stir up creed against creed, class against class, one body of Americana against another body of Americans, aa for the man who seeks to stir one section against another. Let us remember here that this never must be allow M to become a government by any class; that it must be kept a government such aa U was aa Washington founded It, such aa It waa as' Lincoln prCeervad it, a government of the people as a whole In which every man is given Justice mb ft man and it guaranteed th«/ treatment, social and political, which he can show himself

entitled to receive. “We can never mifke this government a good government save on the basis of a fine type of individual citizenship. The stream cannot rise higher than the source. Upon the character of the individual man, the individual woman, must prove the long run the, success of our institutions, and I believe In you, I believe in thp future of this country of which you are.part, because I believe that the average American citizen has in him these qualities of honesty, of courage, of fair dealing as between man and man; that the average American citizen has in him the spirit of justice which shows in every deed and in every act of Abraham Lincoln.” Queer Kind of Wall. Those who regard the Dlngley tariff as a Chinese wall will probably revise their opinion when they learn that tha Imports into the United States during the twelve months ending January 31, 1903, aggregated $975,283,037. The Dingley tariff, like all well-drawn protective measures, tends to increase Imports rather than diminish them, as, by making the nation prosperous, it enables the people to buy more from foreigners. But while under the stimulus of a tariff like the Dingley act our Imports are increased, their nature is greatly changed. Instead of importing manufactured articles ready for consumption in increasing quantities, we increase our imports of raw materials from abroad for the use of our industries. Thus, in the calendar year 1902 the manufacturers’ materials Imported amounted to $453,000,000,

against $248,000,000 in the calendar year 1890. We also enlarge our takings of manufactured articles ready for consumption, but our increasing Imports in this classification are rnado up of things which we do not ourselves as yet produce as well as tho foreigner, but which we are rapidly learning to turn out aa well as he d*>e». —San Francisco Chronicle. Free Everything. l’rc“ hides would be followed by freo wool. Free wool would be followed by free manufactured goods made of wool. Thus the whole system of protection would fall. The people of the United States Lava reached that poiut where they must either stand by protection or froetrade. There can be no middle ground. Reciprocity on competitive goods Is only another method of tariff ripping and tariff reduction, and it is advocated for that purpose by those who advocate it. Reciprocity with Canada is advocated solely In tho interest of the agricultural Implement trust, which is perfectly willing to trade off the Interests of the farmer in their own country to advance their own in Canada. We are not surprised that Mr. Roberts, who bears the responsibility of editing the morning paper, should advocate free hides and reciprocity In competitive goods. Inasmuch as Mr. Rollers’ intimate friends know that be has practically become a free-trader. —Des Myines Capital.

Safe and ConeerVat fre. It la plain that the President lias come to the view that a general revision of the tariff before the Presidential election is inadvisable. He would not precipitate the uncertainty which such a movement would create. He would not let the tariff become the football (f a political cbnteat. But he would make the American people feel that they can rely on the friends of the tariff to make such modifications as may be shown to be w’ise nnd required in the general Interests. His speech outlines a policy on which his party cun agree, atid ou which it can safely enter ou the Presidential campaign.— Philadelphia Press... The Difference. A few years ago the streets of New York were full of idle then, idle because there was no employment to be had.* To-day the street* of tlwt city are also full of idle men, idle been us» of numerous strike*, although the demand for labor wa* never so great It’s the difference between Democratic and Republican times.—Mancheetet (la.) Pram