Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-10-05
Let Us Heed the Warning.

money power, coHtTolIinS the lnuuS-
tries OF the country, propose to adopt
again the methods used before for the
coercion OF the people, by bringing on,
just prior to the election, a panic.
This done, and it can easily be done
by the industrial and financial agen-
cics which Mark Hanna typiiies, the
cry will be raised by Republican news
papers and speakers that the panic is
wholly due to apprehension of the
success of the Democratic party at the
polls and that only by McKinley's re-
election can prosperity be regained.
No long political memory is needed to
recall the success with which this
game was played to force the repeal of
the Sherman purchase law in 1893.
True, in accomplishing their object,
the financiers nearly bankrupted
themselves and might have wholly
done so had not a supine and I'M
faithful Secretary of the Treasury and
Comptroller of the Currency allowed
the New York banks to violate every
portion of the National bank act and
to continue in business for weeks
willie admitting bankruptcy by refus-
ing to pay their depositors.
To-day, after four years of Mckinley.
ism, the monopolists of money and of
industry are vastly stronger than they
were in 1893 or in go. In '96, individu-
al employers coerced their workmen
Ivy declaring that they would shut
down their plants if Bryan were elect
ed. To-day one man sitting in a gor.
geous Office on Broadway or Wall street,
New York, can send like notice to
the thousands of employees of twenty
or forty formerly independent facto-
ries now welded into one trust under
his control.
In '96 the banks were an organized,
coherent and conscienceless force for
the coercion of their customers. To-.
day there are fewer small banks and
more big ones. The process of consol.
idation has proceeded there as in
other industrial enterprises, so that
again a word spoken from New York
at the behest Of the few men Can
shake the financial system of the en-.
tire nation.
The devices which were tried so sue
cessfully in 1876, by the electoral
commission fraud, which was success.
full even though it had been announced
through the Republican press that
should the result turn upon the vote
OF any Reconstructed State, q plan
had been formed whereby it would
amount to nought and the nominee of
the party that then claimed a monop.
oily Of patriotism would be seated in
the Presidential chair. The assurance
closed with "Let not the hearts of the
gallant soldiery which preserved the
Union be depressed by doubt. There
are enough untried resources in the
hands of our party to make success
sure" And it was sure, for the ma
ton had just emerged from the fiery
ordeal OF war and the sphinx-like mar
tinet Grant was ut the head of the
army to use it in doing the party bid.
ding. Then again in 1893 and 1896,
the election returns show the unmis.
taxable preparation of frauds innu-
merable, due only to the command of
unlimited use of money in corrupting
the ballot. If it has succeeded 80
often, there is no reason for belief that
1t will not be attempted again. If it
again succeeds, there is no reason why
time after time our national elections
should not turn on the within of few
millionaire monopolists. That would
be equivalent to the end of the Repub.
lican form of government. It lie for
the people of this nation to prepare to
meet this line of political warfare.
Let them bear in mind that though
there was promised an immediate era
of prosperity after McKinley's cleo
ton, there followed a period of multi.
piled bankruptcies checked only by
natural and not political forces. The
financiers may threaten and the
trusts bull-doze, but they cannot per-
manently crush down the industries
of the nation without themselves fall.
ing beneath the ruins. Their worst
will be done prior to the election. If
the people take the reins of govern.
ment into their own hands, there will
be no opportunity for successful repe-
titiOn OF the effort to coerce a whole
nation.
The Democratic National Commit.
tee has given out its first official fore.
roak nf tho