The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-12-04
A Gloomy Farewell.
President CleVeland's Last Annual
Message to Congress.
lie Finds the Citizen Trampled by
Trusts and MonOpolies,
While the Rich and the Poor are Di.
yiding into Glasses.
The Country, However, Seems to be
Getting on Very Well,
With Tranquility at Home and Peace
with Other Powers.
No Specific Recommendation Regard.
ing Tariff Revision,
Except The Old Demand for Free Raw
Materials.
The Regrettable Occurrence in Which
Lord SatkVilIe Took Part.
Our Financial Condition. Army and
Navy Matters.
Except the Old Demand for Free Raw
Materials.
The Regrettable Occurrence in Which
Lord SackVilIe Took Part.
Our Financial Condition. Army and
Navy Matters.

AS you assemble fer the discharge of the
duties you have assumed as the representa-
tives of free and generous people, your
meeting is marked by an interesting and i'm
pressive incident. With the expiration of
the present session of the Congress, the first
century of our constitutional existence as
nation will be completed Our survival for
one hundred years is not sufficient to assure
that we no longer have dangers to fear in the
maintenance, with all its promised blessings,
of government founded upon the freedom
of the people. The time rather admonishes
us to soberly inquire whether, in the past,
we have always kept within the course of
safety, and whether we have before us
way plain ard clear, which leads to happi-
ness and perpetuity.
When the experiment of our government
was undertaken, the charter adopted for our
guidance was the Constitution. Departure
from the lines there laid down is failure. 1t
is only by strict adherence to the direction
they indicate, and by restraint within the
limitations they fix, that we can furnish
proof to the world of the fitness of the
American people for self-government
The equal and exact justice of which we
stitutions should not be confined to the rela-
tion of our citizens to each other. The gov
ernment itself is under bond to the Ameri-
can people that in the exercise of its func-
tions and powers it will deal with the body
of our citizens in a manner scrupulously
honest and fair and absolutely just. 1t has
agreed that American citizenship shall be
the only credential necessary to justify the
claim of equality before the law, and that no
condition in life shall give rise to discrmina-
tion in the treatment of people by their gov
ernment.
DEMOCRATIC SIMPLICITY.
The citizen of our republic in its early
days rigidly insisted upon full compliance
with the letter of this bond, and saw stretch
ing out before him clear field for individu-
al endeavor. His tribute to the support of
his government was measured by the cost of
its economical maintenance, and he was Sc
cure in the enjoyment of the remaining re-
compense of his steady and contented toll.
In those days the frugality of the people was
enforced W by the free. thonghtfui and intelii.
gent suffrage Of the citizen. Combinations,
monopolies and aggregati0ns of capital were
either avoided or sternly regulated and re-
strained The pomp and glitter of govern
mCuto 1858 liCC Oucicu uQ ltlupLdllOu anu
presented no delusion to the plain people
who, side by side in friendly competition.
wrought for the ennOblement and dignity of
man, for the solution of the problem of free
government and for the achievement of the
grand destiny awaiting the land which God
had given them.
A FoREBoDING OF EVIL.
A century has passed. Our cities are the
abiding places of wealth and luxury; our
manufactures yield fortunes very little
dreamed of by the fathers of the republic /;
our business men are madly striving in the
race for riches, and immense aggrcgations of
capital outrun the imagination in the nlagni-
tude OF their undertakings. We view with
| pride and satisfaction this bright pictule of
| our country's growth and prosperity, while
| only closer scrutiny develops a sombre
| shading. Upon more careful inspection we
| find the wealth and luxury of our cities
mingled with poverty and wretchedness and
unremuneratiye toll. A crowded and con-
| stantly increasing u-ban population suggests
| the impoyerishment of rural sections and
| discomfort with agricultural pursuits. The
| farmers son, not satisfied with his fathers
| simple and laborious life, joins the eager
| chase for easily acquired wealth. We dis
| cover that the fortunes realized by our
manufacturers are no longer solely the re-
| ward Of sturdy industry and enlightened
foresight, but that they result from the
| discriminating favor of the Government,
| and are largely built up on undue exac-
| tioDs from the masses of our people. The
| gulf between employers and the employed is
| constantly widening, and classes are rapidly
| forming; one comprising the very rich and
| powerful, while in another aIe found the
| toiling poor.
TRUSTS AND MoNoPoIIEs.
| AS we view the achievements of aggre-
| gated capital we discover the existence of
| trusts, combinations and monopolies, while
| the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is
| trampled to death beneath an iron heel.
| Corporations, which should be the carefully
| restrained creatures of the law and the ser
| wants of the people, are fast becoming the
| PEOPLES masters.
is THE GOVERNMENT EXTRAvAGANT?
Still congratulating ourselves upon the
wealth and prosperity Of our country, and
complacently contemplating every incident
| of change inseparable from these conditions,
it is our duty as patriotic citizens to inquire,
| at the present stage of our progress, how the
| bond of the government made with the peo-
pie has been kept and performed. Instead
| of limiting the tribute drawn from our citi-
zens to the necessities of its economical ad-
| ministratl0n, the government PERSISTS in ex-
acting from the substance of the people mil
lions which, unapplied and useless, lie dorm
ant in its treasury. This flagrant injustice
| ana tnlS Dreacn OF 1altn ana 0Dllgatl0n add
to extortion the danger attending the diver
sion of the currency of the country from the
legitimate channels of business. Under the
same laws by which these results are pro-
duced the government permits many millions
more to be added to the cost Of the living OF
| our people and to be taken from our consum-
ers, which unreasonably swell the profits OF
a small but powerful minority The people
must still be taxed for the support Of the
government under the operation of tariff
laws, but to the extent that the mass of our
citizens are inordinately burdened beyond
any useful public purpose, and for the bene.
fit of a favored few the government, under
pretext OF an exercise of its taxing powers
enters gratuitously into partnership witt
these favorites, to their advantage aud to the
injury of vast majority of our people. This
is not equality before the law.
INJURIOUS TO THE BODY PoLITIC.
The existing situation is injurious to the
health of our entire body polite. It STILES