The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-10-29

laborer, is obliged to use sugar for himself
and his family every day of his life and
when he comes to buy it he finds an artifi-
cial price has been placed upon it by the
Mckinley Bill, as recompense to It's
wealthy manufacturers for the money they
contributed to assist in the election of
President Harrison four years ago. And,
as if that was not enough, he then discov-
ers that another artificial price has been
added to it, contrary to law, in order to
swell the already vast fortunes of those
who receive these bounties. Meanwhile,
he finds himself oppressed also in the other
direction, for just as Il monopoly Illegally
restricts production, it deprives his fellow
workers of employment and adds to the
numbers in the labor market competing
with him for bread.
That | may not be accused of exaggera-
ton on this subject, | quote the words Of
leading newspaper of this city, which
says: ''The Sugar Trust bids defiance to
the laws and goes its way not honorably
earning money, but by combining so as to
create an absolute monopoly and entirely
to control the manufacture and sale of
sugar, getting profits and surplus in a
way no more honest than that of high
wayman who bids his victim, who is incom-
petcnt to help himself, to stand and de-
liver"
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the
Republican party has done in respect to
chief necessity of life 1t is hardly, there
fore, astonishing that bishop of the Epis-
copal Church should declare the other day,
that the cry of the workingman was utter
ly ignored that the laws as they stand pro-
tect only the rich, that the capitalist con
trolls everything, and that the laborer is
looked on only as beast of burden. Nor
is it very surprising that Methodist cler-
gyman of Brooklyn should solemnly de-
| clare that Mr. Carnegie and his associates
were responsible for every drop of blood
shed at Homestead
These are not the rawlings of foreign
Anarchists They are the solemn utter
ances of Christian teachers of our own
| blood. mistaken, no doubt, but such mis-
takes are due to capitalists themselves.
| HOW THE PENSION ROLL Is USED.
And what is true of the Mckinley Bill
and the great group of gigantic monopolies
which have mainly grown ont of ii is true
also OF the reckless pension Legislation which
! followed it. If money found its own way
into the Treasury, it would still be wicked
to vote it in the name of the nation under
| the pretense of rewarding gallant service in
the war to vast numbers of people who had
never entitled themselves to the gratitude
of the Nation. But the wickedness of
such legislation is far more apparent when
it is remembered that every dollar so voted
involves a distinct dimnution of the wages
of labor and the necessaries and comforts
the laboring man is able to provide for
himself and his family, in sickness and in
health. Eloquent gentlemen of ample
fortunes speak glibly of S150,000,O00 a
year as payable in pensions, forgetting that
men of our class hardly pay penny of it,
but by one device or another manage to
shift almost the entire burden of that vast
sum upon the back of those who toll.
Now, do not let us have the slightest
misunderstanding upon this subject
Everybody is in accord upon the granting
of pensions Of every man, woman, and
child who can establish any Just claim
upon the national gratitude, but it is as
! tt;FlIororssl.ls-- ----i-----.Il;4e,s- and sailors
OF the nation as it is oppressive on those
who earn their livelihood by labor to thrust
the public moneys upon undeserving per-
sons in order to swell the profits of the
pension agents at Washington in order
that they in their turn may support the
Mckinley Bill and the trusts to which it
has given birth. In return for these re-
cent laws, breaking down all barriers be-
tween the Treasury and any person who
asks for a pension, the pension agents are
expected to bring to the support of the
Republican party vast army of voters
who can be relied on to support the new
system of government by bounties to
favorite interests, because they themselves
were sharers in it, and under the influence
of such an alliance, economy in expendi-
ture becomes a byword of reproach and
appeal TO patriotism a mockery.
And again, as wish to avoid any charge
of exaggeration, will read to you the
grave words of another eminent American
divine, who says: every skulking camp
follower and deserter, every fraudulent
and tainted claimant who has the etFrontery
to demand his bribe, can have it if only
his vote shall thus become commodity
within the control of partisan dictation.
OUR SILVER LEGISLATION.
In the year of grace 1890 almost every
intelligent person who had given any at
tention to the subject knew perfectly well
that the rapid fall in the price of silver, in
consequence of the vast quantities of it
which were being mined and the low cost
Of mining it, rendered it as impossible for
use as a standard of value or tool of ex-
change among civilized and commercial
nations as lead or iron. Indeed, competent
Judges then foretod that the fall in its
value would be much more rapid than that
Of lead OF iron, and such is tho case. II is
now known that in the present year vast
quantities of it have been mined at net
cost OF 30 cents per ounce and sold to the
Government at over 40 cents per ounce, SCI
that it is entirely probable that our silver |!
dollar is not now fairly worth more than
30 cents. We have hundreds of millions
of them coined and stored away from the
sight of men in costly dark vaults, and we /
have thousands of tons Of uneoined silver |
stored in the same manner; and We 90 on /
-----''.''' one nepnDllcan party T6dsI 55r7,Y,
quantities OF metal becoming each dag |
~, leis ana less valuable and less and less poss-
I: lpie 3l ever being used for the purpose for
II