Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-10-01

the civil war died to make men free.
1t is the shame of the Republicans to-
day that Lincolns present successor
would have our soldiers in the Philip
pines die to make men slaves.
The Democrats OF Ohio invite the
cooperation of all Republicans who
want freedom for all men. They abhor
the policy which would stif1e the aspir-
ations of ten million people to govern
themselves.
The population of the Philippines is
three times as dense as our own, and
they are contending for their natural
right of government They resist
invasion and subjugation by strangers.
If our right to govern them was as
British authority in the American col
onies, and if they had resorted TO reyo-
luton, their cause would still be the
same as that of our fathers of 1776,
which Burke, and Pitt, and Fox
thought it not unpatriotic in English
men to uphold in Parliament.
Another menace to the people Of the
United States is what is known as the
trusts. They antagonize the law of
supply and demand, substituting in
their place limited outputs of products
at prices enhanced TO the limit. I'm
der the plausible claim for "a fair re-
turn on the investment their work is
done. So friendly has the Republican
administration been to its creators that
the trusts formed within the last two
years exceed in capitalization all that
had been organized before. Individual
effort is rapidly being crushed by them,
and our young men just coming on the
stage of action look in vain for fields
of enterprise in which their fathers
1ourished and by which they developed
our country. Shall this great people
be bound hand and foot by the audac-
ity, the aggressiveness of a few able
men and let them become the perma-
nent rulers where now they only bear
temporary sway? We should not be
Americans if we permitted it.
A trust is consolidation, a combine,
of many interests that has for its OBJ
ject the benefit of the few, antagontz-
ing and breaking down the interests of
many. Under the spacious claim of a
cheaper and better service, they turn
thousands of men adrift, blight three
communities where they aid one, and
thus go on consolidating, combining,
breaking, crushing, destroying as they
go. The individual man no longer, or
is fast ceaSing to play a part in the
affairs of the commercial world of the
United States. His little store is closed;
ne becomes a stakeholder by force of
circumstances in a great trust, drops
his independence, his ruIership of his
own business and becomes an employee,
an adjunct, part, detail, as a men,
Der of this money octopus. 1t needs
but to be looked at and into to show
the men of affairs that if not opposed,
if not fought, if not battled with, 1t
will soon have their independent COM
mercial ventures in it's tentacles.
We are told to-day that if we an,
tagonize the trusts, if we fight their
aggressiveness, their crushing tactics.
we want to haul down the flag of the
hlllppines-that we want to destroy
the fame of our great country. No one
magnate of these great concerns saw
mt, when the cry of distress went I'D
from people now our own, to lend
their aid, their dollars, or themselves
for the cause; but individuals stood
forth and praise be that in many cases
love of country, love of patriotism,
stood above what wealth had given.
The money question is also vital
one. 1t has ever been a contest be-
tween the government and would-be
self-appointed agents.
The Democratic party holds that the
government, and the government alone,
may issue currency, may coin its
money. The Democratic party has ever
held that it needs no brokers, no COM
mission agents between it and the peo-
pie; that it was government preroga-
tive, a right belonging to the govern
ment alone. On the other side in
triguing men are found who want to
strip the government of that power.
1t has ever been their aim to make a
currency that should be as scarce as
possible, with which to carry on the
business Of the country. They wanted
that they should regulate the amount
of money, and then ~ the price at
which the people could have that
money. Every artifice that cunning.
that subtlety could command has been
exerted to reduce its volume. We find
silver pushed out of its rightful place.
We find a determined effort to substi-
tute an Understanding note for nom
interest-bes,cing note.
We claim that the government. and
the government alone, has the power
to coin and issue expressions of value.
This is rightful and just ground. and
one Tor which our party has always
stood and will continue to stand. Gov
eminent coming of money and the is
suance OF circulating notes are alike
solely a government function. The
government should decl;ie what shall
be money and what shall be its volume
Issuance of circulating notes is no more
within the province of private banking
corporations that is the coinage of gold
and silver, or the issuance OF govern
ment bonds. Banks of deposit and dis
count are as necessary to business as
the circulation of the blood is to the
body, but they should not be allowed
TO issue any form Of paper currency.
So much for capital. Now for labor.
All legislation should nave for its
object the betDerment OF conditions.
While capital should be protected. la
bcr should also find a champion in the
Democratic party. The wage-earner,
the man who earns his all by long
hours, by close application. be it with
his hands OF his mind, is entitled 10