Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-06-02
Leading Issues Already Well Defined

Leading Issues Already Well Defined
The l'cm"'ra,ic party Is harder
pressed Tor All issue just now, than it
ever has been since slavery was abol-
i>hrd.-O'yHrt,n.
Oh. no, OIy. that is not true, and
your better Judgment tells YOU it is
.A.~r. The i->ur- stick ont on the
corrupt Republican administration
Ike warts on 4 frog, ii there were 4
disposition to make up platform of
ncgations, but there are several issues
vi such transcendcnt Importance that
il is absolutely necessary to consider
them a important details in the Wig
orous campaign which is to he made
in the closing year OF the century.
Ever since the Republicans sold out
their party organization, body and
brccche>, to tho goidbug millionaires,
1t has been the apologist for and sup
I''it'i VI tIl IOI Ills vi lIuStS. IL ScclllS
to have abandoned all the moral feel
ing it once proiessed, and We really be-
lleyc at the time felt, for those things
which seem OF right and necessity to
belong to free government OF the
people. 1t was once conceded by all
parties that no greater menace could
arise against popular freedom than the
aggregation of the wealth OF the
country into the hands OF the few, and
that no more powerful foe to Liberty
could rise than unrestrained Ayarice.
But, like examples in individual life,
the fall has been complete, and the
sacrifice once made, the party has
seemed to rush into all manner of ex-
ccsscs against which it once would have
held up its hands in lively horror.
Realizing that right here is an dis.
sue" which will not down at the mere
bidding, our neighbor endeavors to
dodge responsibility by asserting that
the party has at times placed in their
platform planks condemnatory of
trusts, with just about as much sim
certify as they declared in 1896 that
they favored international bime.al-
lism, but they always took good care
to either ignore such pledges or enact
laws which it was easy for the SUI
preme Court to set aside, or render in
operative.
1t does not require much reflection
to convince anybody who can reason
from cause to effect, that the protect
i've tariff has been a prolific aid to the
formation OF trusts. 1t has always
been prohibitory duty for the ad-
,ancement of the moneyed interests
of the few. What better basis can a
trust have to rest upon than the pre-
vention OF competition from any given
quarter? By this system it was posi-.
BILE for a few to agree upon its policy
OF extortion and control the extent of
products and their prices, as we'll as
the amount of the stipend paid to la
Dor. In practice, despite the claims to
the contrary of the party, it was in
variably found that the more securely
capital entrenched itself behind the
protective schedule, the more closely
it ground down the wage.rate paid to
labor. This is the secret of the aggre-
CATION of phenomenal riches-the big
crop OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
sprang into existence under the rule
OF the party that actuated the
Hamiltonian element which consti-
tuted large following at the forma-
ton of parties.
1t is doubtless true that the success
OF republican institutions, in the
course of time, eliminated to some ex-
tent, the feeling that something be-
sides the bra;n-force possessed by
muscle and Drawn OF the country
should constitute the balance of power
and control its political destinies, but
the absolute sale of the party organi-
cation in 1896 to the cohorts OF greed
and avarice, demonstrated that there
was enough of the leaven left to per-
meate the whole mass and make men
unblushingly stultify themselves in
the endeavor to preserve a party
record.
Take the money issue, for example.
Nobody has the audacity to claim
that the State of Washington to-day
favors the gold standard, on fair ex.
preston of sentiment, and nobody will
claim that the st. Louis convention
would have accepted it without the
promise that silver coinage would be
restored on the 16 to ratio by inter-
national agreement. Still the party
last year, managed by superior gener-
alship to hoodwink the people into a
support of the gold unit, and the obi
GUS national platform was apparently
endorsed in 1896 by Inauguration of a
reign of terror to the wage-earners
and finesse at the ballot-box.
This issue, backed by seven millions
OF independent voters of the country,
will not down At the bidding of the
gold.bug party. Many honestly be-
lieve the election was carried by fraud,
and they know that individual prefer.
ences were in thousands of precincts
swayed by acts of coercion-threat
and bribery going hand in hand at the
hastings. The Democracy do not
have to look very far for an issue, in
one 30 well-defned in the last cam
paign and which came an near succ.ss