The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-07-04
REPUBLIcAN MuITARIsN.

REPUBLICAN MILITARISM.
Human greed goes through a progress
sive development like every other human
motive and instinct. 1t feeds on itself,
and no food could be imagined more pro-
ductive of growth. In ordinary affairs
this fact has become almost proverbial.
We all know instances of men who in
tended to retire from business when
worth $4,000 or $4,000 or 100000. and
who on acquiring the sum to which they
originally aspired felt that they had only
begun to make money. 1.-The more you
have the more you want" is a common
form Of the commonly recognized trdth.
In this country the manipulation of the
Of a century has given most extraordi-
nary opportunity for the feeding and de-
velopment of greed. Colossal fortunes
have been made not only in protected in
dustries but also from government grants
and speculauons in government lands.
not to mention the enormous system Of
plumber that has been afforded by gov
eminent contracts. The star route con-
tracts. the Indian agency scandals and
the armor-plate frauds are well-known
instances.
sions by such means greed strives the
more to increase them and to hold them.
Hence the concentration of capital, hence
the reduction of labor to the lowest
terms. Instead of increasing wages the
inevitable tendency of the advantages of
protection is to decrease them. Give
monopolist an opportunity to increase mis-
boards by robbing the people in general
and you only stimulate him to increase
them by robbng his employees. This is
an inevitable result of the laws of human
nature. For the resistance that such ac-
ton necessarily breeds the monopolist
has no tolerance. He wants his pound of
flesh. The law gives it to him. Ee will
have it. If it be refused or if he be hin
dered in obtaining it, the enforcement Of
law cannot be swift enough or severe
enough for him. Interference with the
sacred rights of property! Just heavens!
What can atone for such an offense but
the most condign punishment?
1t was a clear view of this tendency
that impelled Attorney-General Smith to
utter theses words at the recent meeting
of the democratic central committee:
While the system of protection has
been cOndoned upon the spurious theory
that it's existence was necessary in order
that the wages of the American work
men might be kept above the wages paid
to like laborers of other countries, it, new
ertheless, has been the policy of the re-
publican party for more than twenty
years to invite to this country by false
signs and tokens the surplus population of
all nations purposely to lessen the de-
mand for and cheaper the price of labor of
our own citizens, and when they pro-
tested against this method of enforced
restitution and refused to be driven
from their employment into the streets
to starve, and the cry of hunger was
heard in the land, the republican party
has always been first to appeal TO
the strong arm of the military to shoot
down those whose condition in life is the
direct result of a system which has made
milliOnaires of a favored few at the eX-
pense of the laboring and producing
classes of the whole country. To this
brutal policy of the republican party the
democratic party has always been and
is now unalterably opposed
OF the fact that the tendency of the
republican party is to Capitalization of
power and to military control there is no
question. 1t is the avowed purpose of
that party. 1t is almost equally plain
that the strength of this policy in repuD-
Iican circles lies in the support of men
who have been made multi-millionaires
by governmental favors and who are now
interested in squeezing still greater
profits from all with whom they come in
contact These now feel satisfied that
the action of democratic traitors will
again put the republican party in power
and again open the doors to plumber. The
only thing then necessary to maintain
them in the qualification of their rapacity
is military government, and toward that
they are rushing as rapidly as possible.