The times., 1897-05-23
That Prosperity Contract.


1t is now six months since Mr. McKinIey
was elected to the Presidency of the United
| States. Prior to that event we were as
sured by the united voice Of his political
friends and by the combined editorial force
of the great monometaIlic press, with the
| flushed confidence of sixteen million dol.
lar campaign fund, that the return of their
candidate was tantamountto the immediate
return OF prosperity; that, IL he should be
elected, prosperity would appear on the
next day.
The Undertaking is six months overdue
| and prosperity seems farther away from the
masses OF the people than il has at any
time during the years since the panic of
1893. Mr. Mckinley friends promised for
him that he would restore prosperity by an
| Immediate restoration of confidence What
has he done to redeem that pledge? What
has not he done to destroy what little con-
| fldence survived in the country at the date
| OF his elevation to power?
At that time perhaps several million Of his
fellow-countrymen really believed that q
fiscal policy which would increase the sell
ing price of every necessary OF life, destroy
competition, and abolish foreign markets
for American productions, hight restore
prosperity; because for years the country
had been assured by Mr. Mckinley and his
protectionist friends that such was the fact.
What did his administration give these be-
nevers to strengthen their belief? A fiscal
policy and a scheme of fiscal law so openly
and harefacedly formulated and dictated
by the trusts and monopolies; so flagrantly
and impudently planned 10 bring golden
prosperity TO these vicious, plutocratic COM
binations. and nothing but yexation. taxa
tion, distress. and misery to everyone else,
that upon disappearance thenationresound.
ed with amazement and indignation
Such project the people at large ac-
cepted as conclusive and darnning evidence
that they had been triclled into voting Into
place and power, Mr.. Mckinley, not as
the advance agent" of general prosperity
but Mt. Mckinley as the permanent agent
OF trust prosperity and trust domination
over the executive and legislative branches
of the Government. There Were other
millions who voted for the Democratic can
didate and who looked for nothing better,
and have not been disappointed. either in
the respect named or In Others.
Mr.. Mckinley does not need to be told
that, as long as his administration con-
tinues TO give evidence thatit is completely
under the control of the gold, bond, trust
and monopoly influences that contributed
the sixteen million dollar fund to carry
his election, the people of the United States
never will believe that 1T can bring them
prosperity. If he Were TO deny that 1t is
so controlled, how viii he explain the
latest sugar scandal in the Senate Subcom-
mittee on Finance? How will he explain
away the evident power of the sugar trust
to fix it's own tariff on the foreign product
in which it deals and speculates? How
will he account for the suppression of the
House Of Representatives in the interest of
trusts aud monopolies; and, finally, how
will he explain why 1t Is that the power Of
Spanish bondholders and the sugar trust
has made and to this day keeps our Govern
ment in alliance with Spain In the prose
cution of the most frightful war against
helpless womanhood and innocent child
hood in the annals of history?
In every direction the sad truth curlu-
lates. The Mckinley prosperity promised
us has come. 1t is of the kind 1t always |
was Intended TO be. 1t is the prosperity Of |
bond syndicates, of sugar kings, of the |
Carnegies, the Rockefellers, Pierpont Nor |
gans, AtkInses, and all the rest Of the tribe. |
And the peoplel Pray what do the |
people amount to in this country, any,
way?