Birmingham state herald., 1896-12-04
EDUCATION AND AGITATION All Owing to Which Side the
 Fence You Are On. SENATOR JONES QUESTIONED And Talks of the Stuation-Oon't Believe the Republican Financial Policy will
 Bring Prosperity.

Washington, Dec o.-lopecldl'J- w ieh the organs of the banks and the corpora tions which supported Mckinley speak of the purpose of the republican national committee to continue the distribution Of gold standard literature, they call It edu- cation; but, when it Is suggested that the silver men may do little work along the line of distributing literature, they call it agitation. Or, as Senator James K. Jones, chairman of the natlonal democratic committee, said to me yestef- day, When Hanrla says he intends to keep up the fight, the papers smile; but when MT. Bryan, or myself, intimate anything of the kind, they raise terri ble howl"
 "Well, as a matter of fact what does the national democratic committee in- tend to do?" I asked of Senator Jones. q can't say, as yet" the senator re- piled. "The committee has had no meet ing since the election and l shall do | nothing until we can get together and talk the matter over.' "When do you think you will have meeting?" E. About the middle of December, may be, though I won't say positively. It will all depend upon events arising be- tween now and then"
 ''Even if the committee decides to keep up the WOFk, CnCD, u Will Dt lit lISl Ol the year before it is started?" r ''Yes, it will be that long, anyway, and it may be much longer. You see, while I have had some Correspondence with the leaders of the movement, I have not as yet learned exactly what the unani- nous opinion is likely to be as to our future action in respect to active work along the line of educating the people against the gold standard and in favor of bimetallism. For myself, want to es- tabish permanent headquarters here in Washington in comfortable, accessible rooms, keep a moderate number of good active workers constantly employed for the purpose of educating the people, and especially the business men. But the es- tablshment of such headquarters would cost money and I do not know whether the committee is going to deem such a step wise, in the first place, or, if it deems it wise whether 1t will be able to furnish the necessary funds So there are two very great uncertainties between the establishment of permanent head quarters and the maintenance of an act i've organization"
 Senator Jones went on to say that he did not believe the financial policy of the republicans would bring prosperity, and, on the subject of the necessity of further revenues, reiterated his belief, as ex- pressed week or so ago, that the best method of obtaining such revenues was through the medium of an additional tax of $1 per barrel on beer, which would in- crease the revenues about $30.000,000 an- nually and tax the consumer so lightly he wouldn't feel 1t, the weight of the tax falling upon the breweries.
 There has been much discussion, 1t may be, remarked in passing, as to whether a bill imposing such tax could be sue cessfully pushed through both houses of congress Very few believe that 1t could. An effort was made once before to place a tax on beer, but the wealthy brewers sent aslobby here so rich and so powerful that the movement was defeated. That. however, was shortly before national election, when neither party felt dis posed to offend the German vote: But this winter the conditions are different. The first general election is two years off, the republican party feels itself falsely secure in present victory, While the democratic party is conscious that it has nothing to lose, and, for these req sons, bill imposing an additional tax on beer would probably pass, If an effort is made to push it through. Again. as before, however, 1t would be opposed by a rich lobby, and they gay a rich lobby at the capitol can defeat any measure under the sun-a sad state of affairs for this country, if true.
 Whether the democratic national com mittee is able to raise money to continue an active organization or not, 1t came out of the recent campaign Tn re1nafk-i able strong financial condition compared to the conditions of the committee just { after the close of the two previous na- T tional campaigns. Eight years ago, when Cleveland was defeated in his sec-g ond race for the presidency, the commit il tee was head over heels in debt and 1t ] was many months before its bills were z settled. At the close of the campaign four years ago the committee owed S90,- GOO. Senator Brice had been one of the most active men in the fight which sent < Cleveland back to the white house for the second time, and was feeling elated over the victory which he knew he had done so much to assist in gaining, and, probably moved by his elation, he walk ed into the headquarters of the national committee one day and cooly handed over his personal check for $90,000 to wipe out the indebtedness of the com mittee and told MT Harrity. of Penn sylvania, then chairman of the commit tee, that he would wait patiently any length of time for the return of the money. Indeed, he didn't seem to care whether It was ever returned and, so far as I have ever heard, 1t is still com ing to him. s.te.ss
 Tn comparison with the conditions fol- lowing those two campaigns. the finan-