Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-08-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.


| dBTeeueuG IldS Deen TedCHeu anu
tariff bill will be passed. Yesterday the
Democratic caucus of house members
concluded to end the struggle of
months by accepting the senate bill,
having become fully satisfied that it
must be that bill or no bill. They made
a brave fight for their party's principles
and the interests of the masses, but the
shackles of monopoly are bound so
tightly about the Republican senators
and four or five Democratic senators,
that all their pleading or threats could
not change the vote of the debased
creatures who appear to have sold their
bodies and souls to the upholders of the
Mckinley law. The senate bill has won,
but the cost of the battle will never be
known. Since the passage of the Nc
kinley law the capitalists interested in
the heavily protected industries have
waxed fat at the expense of the people
at large, and when an attempt was made
to bring the tariff down peg or two it
was not surprising to see stubborn
| iN5he'iiSS iisANAS' DuG liittl llN iIiOllblp-
lists should be aided and supported by
some of the greatest men in our party
was surprise that can only be expressed
mildly in words. We expected the Re-
publicans would stand out for everything
that savored of high taxes and special
privileges; that is their creed, but it was
not thought the party would be betrayed
so shamelessly as it has been by German,
Brce & Co., who threatened to destroy
it, if they could, before they would part
company with the trusts. Let us, how
ever, thank the Lord the traitors in the
Democratic party in the senate number
less than half dozen; on the Repubi-
can side every senator stood out boldly
in favor Of class legislation as against the
interests of the masses. Remember
that, Democrats, and do not desert the
flag of our party. The day of reckoning
will come, and we will yet pass a genuine
tariff reform bill.
President Cleveland's veto of the pri-
vate bill for the relief of Eugene Wells,
late captain in the twelfth infantry, is
approved by army officers, and more
over it is based upon the principles of
the highest justice. This man retired
from the army in 1870, to ayoid court
martial that would have resulted in his
dismissal; was appointed lieutenant in
1888 and courtmartialed and dismissed
from the service in 1887, for drunkenness
and other causes. The vetoed bill pro-
vided that he should be appointed
second lieutenant of artillery and placed |
on the retired list without the usual ex-
animation. In plain words, that man |
who had been officially found unfit to
be an officer should be paid a salary for
the rest of his life as retired officer.
The fact that Wells has influential
friends merely adds to the credit to
which the president is entitled for veto
ing the bill, and brings out the strongest
trait in Grover Clevelands character
his absolute determination to do what
he believes to be right regardless of
whom it may please or displease.
| The Republicans in congress who were
deluded into contributing money to the
kolb campaign in Alabama-there are a
number of them-in the hope that the
movement might be made the entering
wedge to break up the solid Democracy
of the South, We're deeply chagrned
lot of individuals when the returns were
received. Needless to say that the
Democratic colleagues of Governor-elect
Oates were delighted at his success.
President Cleveland also had good rea-
son to feel gratiiied, as Colonel Oates
from the beginning of his campaign for
the nomination had been classed as the
Cleveland candidate. This election has
thrown a wet blanket over the loud
mouthed, but poorly informed, individ-
uals who have been prophesying tre-
mendous gains to the Populists in the
south at the expense of the Democratic
party.
Senator Jones, of Arkansas, says: "It
owning the senate. l believe that the
trust would willingly give million dol
lars to be assured that there would be
no tariff legislation, as under the exist
ing Mckinley law its profits are vastly
greater than under any Democratic
tariff law" STILL if the right kind of
Democrats were in the senate, the sugar
trust would have to earn its profits, and
would not be granted subsidy of forty
or fifty million dollars a year Cutting
down its special privilege to levy tribute
upon the American people is very good,
but it should be wiped out entirely, and
would be only for its friends in the SEN
ate, who, if they are not owned by the
trust, have acted in this tariff business
in way that convinces the majority of