The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1894-08-23

of the executive office, the Democrats
have been impotent to carry out any sus
j tained plan Of action. One has but te
| mingle with crowd anywhere engaged
In the discussion Of politics to be con
vinced that the rebuke about to be admin
istered at the polls will be ono of the most
! overwhelming in the political experience
Of this country.
: Plscemeal Reconstruction OF Tariff Lava
| We are not even assured, if the Demo
cratic party is to be retained In power
! that this is the end of tariff agitation. Not
1 content with having turned everything
| topsy turvy for nearly two years past, the
| men who are not suited with the senate
bill announce loudly that the campaign
| he's hut begun, and that future bills, OF
/ which we have a foreshadowing In the
+, separate bills for free sugar, free iron ore,
free coal and free barbed iron wire, passed
, by the house and sent to the senate, will
continue this piecemeal reconstruction of
our tariff laws indefinitely. That threat Is
more terrible to the people than any other
that they could utter. Far wiser Is Gov
erhor Flower of New York, who is quoted
as saying: There is one plank which is
going in the Democratic state platform
= this fall, if / have my say, and that is a
plank giving the solemn pledge Of the
Democratic party that it will not pass
another tariff bill in 20 years"
The Democrats of Indiana, however, have
tumultously declared in convention that
they are in the fight for absolute free
trade; and the only hope of the country for
the continuance of stable conditions lies in
excluding totally from power this party
which is fit only to disturb and not to &C
complish. The tariff issue will stand at
the front in every congressional district
this fall, and will speak for itself more
loudly than the most eloquent of cam
.paign orators.
Public Favor Turns From the Populist
Party.
There has been during the past week a
gratifying indication of the decline of the
Populistic party in public favor, as shown
by the election in Alabama. Two years
ego Captain kolb came near carrying the
state. by gathering together the disaf-
fected farmers, a large section Of the negro
vote, and the opponents of Democratic
fraud and intimidation at the polls, under
the banner of the Populist party. 1t
was believed that his chances this year
would be better. It was reasonable to
suppose this, at least II there were any
truth in Populist predictions that they
were gathering strength everywhere and
winning new accessions every day. The
whole country, indeed, looked for the re-
suit of the Alabama elections with pc
culiar interest, as showing what the Pop
ulist party might be expected to develop
in the way of strength this fall.
The result is gratifying, as showing that
under the most favorable circumstances,
and when pitted against party that has
discredited itself hopelessly, the Populists
are not nearly as strong as they were two
years ago. The wave ofsympathy for their
peculiar doctrines that swept over the
agricultural portions Of the South and
West at that time has now subsidized, and
there is reasonable certainty that the Pop
ulists will show greater losses, where they
are confronted by the intelligent masses of
Republicanism. than they have in this
hidebound Southern state.
Free Silver Is Sort Of Populistic Theory.
There has been a marked subsistence of
free silver sentiment in the West and
Northwest Of late. For time this dan
gercus heresy made its converts from
every party, and men sincere in their ad-
vocacy of honest money had
lively fight on their hands. As the
campaign of November approaches the
lines are being more strictly drawn. The
Democratic party everywhere Is divided
Gu this issue, as on all others. In about
one-third of the states the honest money
Democrats are in the ascendant, while
most of the rest pas free silver resolutions
or their equivalent. Aside from this, it is
now becoming understood that free silver
is distinctive tenet of Populism which
no Republican can afford to countenance
The republican party, in which is now
conferred the best thought and hope of the
country, has placed itself sternly in oppo-
sition to the debasement of our currency.
Those who were waveripg on this issue
before are now convir ced or satisfied.
There was reassuring proof of this in the
action of the Seventh congressional dis
trict convention of this state. The senti-
ment in favor of free silver has always
been strongest in the northwestern coun-
ties of Minnesota, constituting the Sew
enth distriG5. Representatives from TIE
Seventh have earnestly sought for any
modification of pronounced Republican
views on the money question that might
not be too offensive to the voter i'm
bued with free silver notions. This was
the one district in the state with regard to
which it was possible to entertain doubt
of its soundness on the money question.
But its Republican congressional conven-
ton adopted platform which is out
spoken and unequivocal in favor Of an
honest dollar. of real bimetalism. and of
maintaining the parity of values, while a
free silver resolution received not a single
vote except tbet OF the man who offered it.
Within the next three months there will
h,o I'm, nlaf r1af cslx ov,Hyc
that Is to be traced to the education which
has been going on for several years past
among the masses OF the people on this
subject.
Mr Hall land the Bell Telephone Monopoly.
In making uo the record of the Demo-
cratic party, that Of it's representatives
from this state will be found locally most
interesting. There is something which
Mr.. Hall. of Minnesota, may find it desir-
able to explain to his constituents when
be comes back to his district There have
been introduced in the house Of representa-
tiges since list December FIVE bills con-
tanning provision intended to maintain
end perpetuate the hateful monopoly OF
the Bell Telephone company; and of these
five, three were offered by Mr.. Hall.
The Hon. Charles H. Aldrich, of Chi
cago, who was solicitor general during
Mr. Harrison's administration, has adj
dressed memorial to congress on this
subject, from which the interesting facts
tha5 follow have been taken. The princi-
pal patents on which the Bell Telephone
Conipany's monopoly is founded being
about to expire, and this great invention
promising to become the common property
OF the people, the great monopoly whose
net earnings from 1885 to 1899 we're over
twenty millions of dollars, cast about for
G way Of keeping the public under its
thumb. The result is seen in the issuance
during 1898 of four new patents for which
applications were fled in 1877, or sixteen
years before. 1t may be remembered that
the Berliner patent, issued to the Bell
company, was detained in the patent Of
flee in similar fashion until it could be
most useful to the Bell company.
Tho Monopoly May BE Continued.
II these patents are to hold good, tho
monopoly from which we were about to
escape will be prolonged for sixteen years
more. There is one obstacle in the way Of
the success Of this scheme Section 1887