The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-07

Democratic utterance is not possible to be
| misunderstood. The country. and the
, trusts, for that matter, are told in
/ terse and pregnant terms exactly what is 70
happen TO the trusts, a- rar as Demo-
cratic President and House of Representa-
lives can control the subject, In case the
American masses shall return the party Of
the people to power in November. The
promise is direct and menacing and ough;
10 be worth hundreds of thousands of dol
lars to the Republican corruption fund in
subscriptions from frightened magnates
The platform reads:
eve pledge the Democratic party to an unceas-
irr u.tsa,, in uation State. and city against
! private monopoly in every form. Existing laws
/ aggir-t trusts must he enforced and more
strilccn; nnist I've enacted providing Tor
publicity thu fairs of corporations e..sagei
in interstate and requiring all corpora
tions to show iiore doing business outside of the
State OF their origin that they have no water in
their stock, and that they have not attempted and
!
business The production OF any articles OF mcr-
! candisc, and the whole constitutional power of
Congress over interstate commerce the mails. and
all modes o: interstate communication shall he
I exercised 10y the enactment of comprehensive
! laws upon the subject of trusts.
| 1.-The tariff laws should be amended by putting
the products of trusts upon the free list to pre-
vent mon, poly under the plea of protection.
'.Jhe failure of the present Republican Admins
! tration with an absolute control over all the
! branches al the National Government, 10 enact
any legislation designed 10 prevent or even cur
tail the absorbing. power of trusts and Illegal
combinations, or enforce The antitrust laws
already the statute books proves the insinceri-
ty Of the Understanding phrases OF the Republican
platform.
Corporations should be protected in all their
rights, and their legitimate interests should be
respected, bur any attempt by corporations to in
tsrfere with the public afairs of the people, or
to control the sovereignty which creates them,
should he forbidden, under such penalties will
make such attempts impossible
The reaffirmation of the sixteen io-one
silver plank is in existing circumstances,
more or less perfunetory, since the Replb-
licans have found means to retire the cur
rency question as an active issue for prob
ably several years to come. But as an
honest expression of answering fidelity to
the economic principle of bimetaliism, the
declaration is important. 1t would be hard
to frame a better rebuke to the single
bankers credit standard system foisted on
the country by Hanna and his combination
than is contained in the Kansas City cur
rency plank. 1t is as follows:
eve denounce the Currency bill enacted at the
last session of Congress step forward in the
Republican policy which aims to dscredit the
sovereign right of the National Government to
issue all mol.ey, whether coin paper, and to
bestow upon national banks the power to issue
and control the volume OF paper money for their
own benefit
"a permanent ssational bank currency, secured by
Government bonds, must have permanent debt
TO rest upon, and i: the bank currency is to in
crease with population and business the debt
must also increase. The Republican currency
scheme is therefore scheme for fastening upon
the taxpayers perpetual and growing debt
1--WE are opposed to this private co-operatoa pa
per circulated as money but without legal tender
qualities, and demand the retirement OF the ma
tional bank notes as fast Government paper or
silver certificates be substituted for them.
The Democrats assembled at Kansas City
resent the denied but well-known and ill
concealed alliance of the Mckinley Ad
ministration with Great Britain, and say SO.
They sympathize with the Beers In South
Africa, who are waging an apparently hope
less fight for their homes and independ-
They would have constitutional amend
ment providing for the election OF Senators
by direct vote of the people, in order to put
an end to such hideous mockeries as the re-
cent affair at Columbus, Ohio, presented to
the country. They want the war taxes re-
peaIed, and colonial satraps, viceroys. sui
tans, and high commissioners restricted in
their magnificent state and expense, and
their privilege of the till Their closing
appeal in the platform to the voters of the
Union is better than anything We could say
in description of it:
Believing that our most cherished institutions
are in great peril, that the very existence OF our
constitutional Republic is at stake. and that the
decision now to be rendered will determine
whether or not our children TO enjoy those
blessed privileges Of free government which have
made the United States great, prosperous and
honored. We earnestly ask for the foregoing dec
laration of principles the hearty support of the
libcrty-loving American people regardless OF pre-
vious party affiliations"
with the Democratic party N some or all
of the positions and purposes it announces
in the Kansas City platform, but they call
not question its directness and good faith,
or doubt that 1t means every word 1t says.
Is stntesmanship Purely Economic.
In an article on THE Republican Candi-
date in the current number OF The Re-
view of Reviews appears this paragraph:
ga great political leader is almost necessarily
type Of the nation he leads-the embodiment
of the characteristics Of his tme-the manifest
product OF the circumstances and conditions Of the
people he governs and directs.
And a little later this sentence occurs:
public questions have become more and more
Of an economic nature
The argument of the writer is. in brief.
that since, as he says, public questions
have become economic in their nature.
President Mckinley, as the embodiment
of the characteristics of his time, is the