The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-10-05

of citizenship, but equality of States
and equality of people
Against political Capitalization,

| ny Vic miooluS vi pOWcIe III Tile It Gu
eral Government, it fights for Wig
orous and healthy local government
as the safeguard ofpersonal freedom.
Against the Capitalization of wealth
by unjust taxation, it flights for
equality of burdens as the condition
of equal manhood. In all its his
tory, and never more zealously than
now, it has championed the cause of
the individual 1t has not sought
to add to the powers of the Govern
ment, but to the stature of the men !;
not to circumscribe the citizen with
increasing interference, but to wi
den the bounds of his free I'M
trammeled actions. Trusting to the
capacity and virtue of the whole
people to govern themselves, it has
never permitted a few to share in the
power Of taxation as reward for
their administration of government
or as bride for their support of
party. Knowing that under any
wise and frugal government, pros
perity and wealth would come by
natural laws to our people, its con-
Germ has not been how it might in,
crease trade or wealth, but how it
might preserve and secure liberty.
1t recognizes that to foster capital
is to make labor more dependent.
True Democracy means a chance
in life for every man. We have
loved to boast that under free and
equal government we had forever
rid ourselves of the class laws and
social prejudices that made honors
and social position and property the
heritage of privileged order and
condemned the great body of the
people 10 poverty and obscurity
from which there was no escape.
We have rightly pointed to our
young men who have risen from
lowliest beginnings by mere force of
virtue and merit as the most precious
fruit Of free institutions. Yet this
fruit is now threatened with deadly
blight. The corporation, steam and
electricity, the great forces of modern
industry are terribly centralizing in
their effects. BY their own free play
they threaten the integrity of gov
eminent and the liberty of the citi-
zen. But when the law steps in, not
to curb or chasten, but to aid and
increase their effects, to add to the
power of wealth, to cherish and
protect monopoly and to stimulate
that latest and most dangerous
form of commercial combination, the
Capitalization Of corporations into
trusts, shadow is flung across the
path of the American youth; bar
riers that cannot be surmounted are
rising before him; his heritage is
passing from him into the possess
ion of others. Glasses difierentiate
and society, as elsewhere, hardens
into its unyielding qualifications.
This is the great contest of the
future-the struggle between the
people and plutocracy. The Demo
cratic party, as the hereditary cham
pion of the people, is rallying to
their cause with an enthusiasm it
has never before felt. The Repub-
lican party is chained in helpless,
and, sad to say, seemingly willing
service to the money power. 1t has
made its covenant with that power,
keep us in control Of the Govern
ment and you shall dictate the laws"
No young man ought to hesitate
as to his duty in such struggle.
He discredits his manhood when
he enlists under the banner of the
Bloody Shirt. He was against
posterity when he consents to accept
service or command in the subsidized
battalions of monopoly. The fight
for lower taxes is fight for higher
manhood.
The fight for local sovereignty is
a fight for broader freedom.
There are, as Mr.. Cleveland well
says, no weak, weary or respondent
members of the true democracy to-
day. In it's success are involved not
only the issues ofrestored citizenship,
of just and equal taxation, but the
more momentous question whether
the race in life shall be kept open
equally to all American youth, or the
chasm grow wider between the rich
and the poor, as the power of the
Government is thrown in favor of
the one and against the other
W. L. WILSON.