Oakes weekly Republican. (Oakes, Dickey County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1898, 1894-08-14

sincere when 1t nominated CaSS against
Taylor; it was not honest when it adopt
ed the Walker platform; it was not sin
cere when it elected Pierce; it was dis
honest when it nominated Buchanan, the
representative of Pennsylvania quasi
protection, in Cincinnati. In not one of
those great contests did it represent what
the Courier-.J ournal claims to be free
to catch votes and thus carry elections
on the pretense of reforming the tariff.
In the halls of legislation it was never
sincere. 1t had in Congress what was
known as the Randall wing of the Demo
cratic party. That was the power that
controlled legislation. Randall was pro-
ability was honesty. He forced his party
to adopt his views. James Buchanan,
the last Democratic President, prior to
Cleveland, who was nominated as a COM
promise between divided factions, in a
message to Congress caused by the finan-
cial straits of his party, recommended in
the failure from a treasury standpoint
and the standpoint of our Industries of
the Walker tariff The war caused a
termination of all free-trade theories
1t then became a question of life or death
to the nation. Money was needed to sus-
tain the government in it's great
est emergency, and the Morrill, tar
if was adopted. The war ended, the ma
tional debt largely reduced, internal reve-
nue. taxes largely abolished, the Demo
cratic party again comes to the front with
the exploded Walker theories and enters
upon new crusade in the line of free
trade. But in this it has never been
united and never sincere. In 1892, as
we have shown, it was Numerically op-
posed in its platform to the ideas previ-
ously expressed by Grover Cleveland and
embodied in plank presented to and vot-
ed down at the Chicago convention. This
was a trick to defeat the nomination of
President Cleveland.
The outcome of this is now found in
Congress. There are free traders there
and there are protectionists there. There
are radicals and there are conservatives
There are time-servers and there are
cuckoos But of the whole lot President
Cleveland stands forth as the most con
sistent.'
Tho Situation as Viewed by the New
York Tribune.
President Cleveland is informed by the
action of the Senate that his pet coal and
iron trusts will not be allowed to dictate
legislation to the destruction of iron and
coal interests in this country. On which
side in the controversy will the American
people be found? These trusts include
some powerful American capitalists. In
the Nova Scotia coal syndicate it is un-
derstood that President Cleveland's
friend, Mr.. Whitney, and his secretary of
The iron companies are the Juragua and
the sigma, with headquarters at Phila-
delphia, and the Spanish American Iron
company, with headquarters at New
York, and these imported from the mines
in Cuba, of which they have exclusive
control, 413,999 tons in the fiscal year
1873, the average cost being about $3.50.
All other imports of iron ore were 269,-
O57 TONS. and the average cost about
S2.20. The few owners of the Cuba
mines include the Pennsylvania, Mary
land and Bethlehem steel companies, and
their interest in the success of Mr.. Cleve-
land as a free-trade champion has been
deep. But the mere threat of a change
of tariff has thrown two of these compa-
MES into bankruptcy during the last year,
and the imports of all iron ore have been
only about 100000 tons, not a third as
much as in 1898.
Such are the interests for which the
against the coal and iron miners of New
York. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio.
Maryland, the Virginias, Tennessee and
Alabama. The American capitalists in
terested in the foreign coal and iron mo-
nopolies may number about a hundred.
The coal and iron miners. against whom
Mr.. Cleveland fights, numbers more than
half million. Quite irrespective of party
platforms, or the personal rivalries of
party leaders, this issue involves the hap
piness of more than half million Amer
lean homes, and Mr.. Cleveland prefers to
serve the few rich capitalists, some of
them personal friends or large contrib
utors to his election, instead Of the half
million wage-earners. Plainly. American
voters in such struggle will not take
sides with President Cleveland or the
foreign monopolies.
Unfortunately, they cannot take sides
either with the senators who contrived
the bill of sale, for that was a robbery of
the people for the benefit of the sugar
monopoly. When the Sugar trust reached
out after profit of $3O,OOO,O 900 or more,
and wanted to buy votes. it captured
some with the cash profits of a ''specula-
ton secured against loss, but it capt
ured others with pledges that interests
necessary to their political future should
be protected. Of the forty-three senators
bound by compact to stand together,
how many sold themselves for political
benefits and how many for more ma
terial considerations no one can tell. The
Presidents letter placed him in the dis
graceful attitude of apologizing for the
sugar bargain, while pleading for the
coal and iron monopolies. But his sena-
torial opponents have bound themselves
to give $3O,OOO,0O0 or more to the sugar