Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-10-27
PARTY OF THE PEOPLE
Principles which Are Opposed ts
Glass Legislation and Combi-
nations OF Capital.

The democratic party is the party o.
the common people" as Abraham Lin
coin would put it. The trusts, the
monopolies, the capital combinations,
the money syndicates, the great bank
| ing institutions and the protected i'm
dustries do not belong to the demo-
cratic party. Their existence depends
upon class legislation and government
favoritism. As they understand the
philosophy of existence, the common
people are upon the earth to be hewers
of wood and drawers of water for
them, hence they could have no SYM
pathy with any political system that
demanded an equitable division OF the
joint product OF capital and labor, The
principles of the democracy are dia-
metrically opposed to the doctrine Of
caste based upon wealth filched from
the bone and sinew of the real pro-
ducers of wealth-the common people.
The democratic party does not recog-
nize the right of the government to
make favorites of any class of citizens,
and legislate opportunities for them
to build up individual fortunes at the
expense of the common people, and
very naturally the trusts and other
forms of favored capital combinations
would not take kindly to it.
But not all the common people APP
preciate the Importance of standing
together under the banner of democ-
racy. Some of them fail to see how
they are being drawn into the net of
the favored few. Spasmodic good
times" are not helps to better condi-
tions of existence. A system of d.
vision of the joint earnings of labor
and capital, which gives labor the she'll
and capital the kernel, is wrong in
principle and injurious in practice to
labor. Some of the common people
fail to see that they are being trans
formed more and more into mere ma
chines-not labor-saving, but money
saving, machines for the trusts and
'monopolies. Not all the common peo-
pie realize that the policy of the re-
publican party is to gradually circum-
scribe their opportunity to employ
their Drawn and skill until they are
firmly and securely bound to the con-
tract labor system. Not all the COM
mon people see that they are paying
from 25 per cent. to 200 per cent. more
for articles of consumption than is
just or fair, that our industries may
undersell competitors in markets Of
Europe and Asia. Not all the common
people see that the political control of
the country is destined to pass to the
trusts and money powers If they do
not array themselves in political hos
tility to the party that is doing thess
things.
1t is surprising that there should be
a single one of the common people who
does not see how surely and certainly
the leaders of the republican party arS
circumventing the rights and priv"
ileges of wage-earners. There is an
object lesson in the effort of the coal
barons of Virden, ILL.,, to force down
the wages of white labor by importing
degraded negroes, which the common
people might study with profit to
themselves. BUT they have had hum
dreds of such lessons In the past, and
they should have profited by them be-
fore this. More and more is the policy
Of the republican party Transforming
the common people into mere ma
chimes to grind out wealth for the
caste set which that party is estab-
fishing in America. But If the common
people like that sort of thing; il they
have lost their manhood and inde-
pendence of thought and character,
they belong to the rank and file of the
party that is using them as tools in
building up imperialism in America
Kansas CITY Times.