Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 148, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1904 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

The Doomed Democracy. Senator Gorman has unconsciously hut effectively shown that Nemesis is camping on the trail of the uhfortuTiate Democracy. In a speech iii-the Senate he made a fierce attack on the administration's Panama policy, and intimated that it was entered upon for the purpose es getting votes during tlie presidential canvass. Asked by Senator Aldrich if the Democrats intended to vote against the canal treaty; Mr. Gorman replied that under the existing conditions they would. As the Maryland Senator is the titular leader of the Democrats in his branch, the chances are that he believes what he says about the attitude of his party associates. It it known.that Gorman all along has been urging union among the Democrats of the Senate in opposition to the Panama policy of the administration. This Hostility lias for its immediate purpose the defeat of the canal agreement. True, the Democratic caucus has not yet decided to make an ironclad compact to fight the canal treaty, but Gorman will unite all the Democrats against it if he can. The Maryland boss' intimation that the Panama policy of the administration would gain votes for the Republican party in the campaign of 1904 was based on fact, but it was a dangerous confession for a Democratic leader to make. It proclaimed that this policy

has the support of the American people, that it is sure to be upheld. and that the party championing it will sweep the country next year. As a declaration and as a prophecy all this Is correct. The vast majority of the people of the United States are on the side of President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay on the Panama question. If the Maryland man takes a glance at the more prominent Southern papers, he wili find that the Panama policy is ngtther sectional nor partisan. Njew Orleans. Mobile. Chattanooga, Atlahta and the rest of the South's’big towns have papers which indorse the action taken at the isthmus as heartily as do any Journals in New York, Philadelphia. St. Louis or San Francisco. This ought to teach Gorman ami his Bourbon associates that the party which opposes the things which have been done at the isthmus will pass sentence of political death upon itself. If the Maryland man is satisfied with this aspect of affairs, the Republican party lias no right to complain. lines the Maryland Senator realize the situation at the isthmus? Not only has the United States recognized the new republic, but every other great nation in the world has done this except England, and that country makes it plain that her delay in following the United States is due to her desire to protect the Interests of’her citizens who hold Colombia's bonds. If the bare issue of the United States' connection with the present situation nt the isthmus were submitted to the Amerlca'n people, separated from partisan entanglements, it would get {he support of nt least 112,000,000 of the 15,000,000 of the country's voters. It would carry every State of the fortytive, South as well ns North. Fnte is shaping things so tlmt Gorman and his unhappy partners will be forced to nld in Indicting on their party in 1904 a defeat which will be memorable for its dimensions and completeness.—St. Lpuls Globe-Democrat.

American Wage,. In some Interesting personal reminiscences of Mr. Blaine, ex-Senator Vest toadies Incidentally on the servIces of the Maine statesman, to the protective policy, and he recalls a conversation In which Blaine said: “There should be high wages for the workingmen, Iwth in factories nnd on the farms, and nt the some time the manufacturers should receive sufficient profits on their Investments." It Is a fact well worth the special ‘attention of the working class of the United States that the < Democratic party has never been In favor of any part of this proposition No Demo-

cratic platform has ever proposed even to have protection x enough to maintain American wages at the present standard, which is the highest in the world. Democrats hold that the workers should be left to look out for themselves against foreign competition, and that a decreased cost of goods, which is taken for granted, would <•■ ’upensate tne wage earners for going down to the foreign level of pay. In thes£ days when a single ship carries an immense cargo, and can cross the Atlantic in less than a week, the adaption of a tariff for government revenue only would tieod the country with foreign goods made by men who receive but half the wages prevailing in the United States. A short trial of this supreme folly would result in a speedy return of the protect 1 ve system that has brought about present conditions. Even a serious threat of free trade would convulse the industries of the country. In spite of these evident facts, the Democratic party still refuse to advocate enough of protection to hold American wages at the highest level, an arrangement that is perfectly right, and one that ought to be most zealously guarded as a distinctive feature of the national strength. As the Democratic party is not now, and never has been, for protecting the margin of

superiority In American wages, how can it reasonably ask for a working man’s vote?—St. Louis Globe-Demo-crat.

Prosperity ant! Saving,, There is no such thing as real pros parity in this country when the gen eral public is short of surplus money. Time Is iio abatement of real prosper jity when jXie general public goes on making money and saving some of it. The speculative gambler may be rolling in wealth or he may be absolutely poverty stricken, and neither the one condition nor the other reflects the situation of the general public and the country. Something that does, unfailingly and emphatically, is the total of the-savings banks deposits—the surplus wealth of the general publig. When we had “hard times'’ with tlr» advent of the Wilson law, savings banks deposits first ceased to increase and then actually decreased. From 1893 to 1894 they fell nearly S4O,(MM),O<H». or to a total of $1,747,901,000. By 1992 they had risen to $2,750,000,000. Controller Ridgley’s reportt, which hns just appeared, shows that the total of the savings banks deposits is now $2,935,204,845. From the experts who “went broke" ip speculative excesses we hear that national prosperity turned downward In 1901. In that year the savings banks' deposits were $2,597,000,000, so that since that time now there has been a gain of nearly $4(M),000,000. This gain, since the “turn of prosperity,” is larger than the gain from 1893 to 1898. It Is ns large as the gain front 1895 to 1899, larger than the gain from 1898 to 1900, when the boom was indeed booming, as no one will deny. Nearly three billions of savings banks deposits to-day—nearly twice what we had In 1894—does not look as If tin* general public were yet quit of prosperity. Nor will It be, if this nation continues a policy which keeps our industries protected against foreign Industries and our wage earners against foreign • wage earners.—New York Press. Ready to Meet Them. Protection to American industries Is Republican doctrine as much to-day as it was ten years ago. There Is no need of search for net? Issues. The policy which made the United States prosiserous, great and happy is good enough as the Issue for 1904. The revival of the Igsue nt thia time may be undesirable from a business point of view. but If the Democrats Insist upon starting the agitation of thia subject they will find the Republicans ready To meet them. —Grand Rapids Herald.

DEMOCRACY —Whither, O whither shall I turn In my plight! —Ohio State Journal.