The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-08-15
WHICH SHALL 1T BEs

The danger to our free institutions
from the Capitalization of wealth, and
the possibility of the money power
gaining control of the reins OF govern.
ment, was one which our early states.
men sought to guard against, and in
eloquent terms did they warn the
people to beware of this threatening
menace to popular government.
Washington, Jefferson; Jackson and
Webster all raised their voices caution
ing the masses against risking too
much authority in the hands of the
classes. And the martyred president,
Abraham Lincoln, whose sympathies
were wholly with the common people,
and who was nearer to the people than
any other man of his time. soon after
the close of the war, saw this danger,
and he asserted that it caused him
more anxiety for the safety OF his
country than even the rebellion.
In message to the thirty-seventh
congress (see pages 309.2lo Barrett's
Life of Lincoln) he said:
MONARCHY itself is sometimes
limited at as possible refuge from the
power of the people. In my present
position I could scarcely be justified
were I to omit raising a warning voice
against approaching despotism. There
is one point to which ask brief at
tention. 1t is the effort to place capt.
tai on an equal footing with, if not
above, labor in the structure of the
government. Let them beware of sur.
rendering political power, which
they already have, and which If
surrendered viii surely be used
to close the door of advancement
against such as they, and to fix new
disabilities and burdens upon them,
till all of liberty shall be lost"
Then in subsequent letter Mr..
Lincoln expressed his fears of the en-
croachment of the money power as
follows:
ut has indeed been trying hour
for the republic; but see in the near
future a crisis approaching that un.
nerves me and causes me to tremble
for the safety of my country. AS re.
suit OF the war;. corporations have
been enthroned and an era" of corrup-
tion In high places will follow, and
the money power of the country will
eadeavor to prolong its reign by work
Ing upon the prejudices of the people,
until all wealth is aggregated in few
hands and the republic is destroyed.
] feel at this moment more anxiety for
the safety Of my country than ever in
the midst OF war. May God grant that
my suspicious may prove groundless."
Indeed the great Lincoln was almost
prophetic in his suspicious. What he
feared would result has come to pass.
We find at this time our government
in the hands of corporations and the
money power. In every branch Of
govern ment, in our state legislatures,
in our house of Representatives, in Our
senate and on the bench we find the
representatives of corporations pre-.
dominating. And as President
Lincoln said they would do, the money
power is endeavoring to "prolong its
reign by working upon the prejudice
of the people" imploring them to main
tain the honesty of the currency and
at the same time elect to; the highest
Office in the gift of the people, one who
is bound body and soul to admini-ter
a government for the classes. Will |
the people be thus gulled into barter.
ing away their liberty by electing to
the presidency the direct representa-.
tive of the corporations, and aid the
money power to tighten the yoke of
financial bondage about their necks?
Are they ready to surrender their |
right to rule this nation and turn it |
over to the classes? Or will they heed /
the warning of grand, old honest Abe
Lincoln and elect to the presidency q
man whom the corporations, the trusts,
the mopey brokers abhor?