Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1900-03-16
LIS REAS0N


CONTINUED FROM SEVENTH PAGE.
sword and the shrapnel is savage
civilization and a cruel religion.
Porto Rico is now a part Of the
United States territory, and yet at
the bidding Of the protected inter
ests of this great country, this new
ly acquired island, with a half-ciy-
ilized population, down-trodden by
a century of Spanish mlsrule and
oppression, is Disseminated against
in our tariff duties. Can this be
justified, or who has within his
breast the spirit of fair dealing to
attempt to defend it? One might
as well attempt to Justify a dis
elimination against the iron ore OF
Alabama or the coal fields Of Penn
sylvania.
am unalterably opposed to the
present policy of the Republican
party by which the United States
treasury notes are to be retired,
and the whole usual Of the credit
money of the country is to be turned
over to the nationa banks, therel y
rendering not only the people but
the government itself dependent
upon Wall Street and the money
sharks for an adequate medium Of
exchange. After the financial bill
now pending before congress be-
comes a law, which it will do, the
national banks and money trusts
can create a panic ad libitum, beg
gar the people, and force the gov
ernment to a choice between bank
ruptcy and borrowing. and this
they will do whenever they desire
to make investments of their i'll
gotten.mlllions.
am opposed to any policy
tha, fosters and encourages
trusts and combines which,
vampire like, are sucking the
life blood of the nation. 1t is weak
and puerile to claim, as some do,
that trusts are evils, but that the
government is powerless to destroy
those evils or check their growth.
Surely if we can find authority in
the constitution to govern by force
the unwilling inhabitants of islands
situated eight thousand miles from
our nearest coast line, we may, by
diligent search, be able to find con-
stitutional warrant and authority
| by which to rid ourselves of these
internal foes. At least let us make
an effort, for it is un-American to
surrender untilwe have been forced
to the last ditch, and have exhaust
ed our last round of ammunition.
But dropping from national to
state affairs, l must confess that |
am unable to see how any Kentuck-
ian, who loves liberty and respects
law can longer affiliate with a party
that has trampled the laws under
its feet; converted the state house
into an arsenal; the capitol grounds
into military bivouac; subordlnat-
ed the civil to the military power,
suspended the writ of habeas cor
pus in a time of profound peace,
treated with scorn and contempt
the courts and theirprocesses; driven
the general Assembly from the legis-
lative halls; attempted to wipe out
state laws by appealing to the fed
eral courts to interfere in our local
concerns; and last but not least in
point of gravity and Importance,
such in1ammatory, incendiary and
riotous utterances and demonstra-
tions by the leaders and those in
| authorlty IN the party as was cal
culated to, and did arouse the pas
sions of the bad and lawless ele-
ment in our state; and as a natural
sequence of all this we see one Of
our state senators, while on his
way to the senate chamber, shot
down in q cold blood nv an unseen
foe, concealed in the executive
building And after this great trag-
edy, which shocked the whole
country, had been enacted and
Senator Goebel1lay weltering in his
gore, in the very shadow of the state
capitol, the ,irl authorities were
refused .rH.,r 'e into the execu-
tive | l@.rg, fcl e the fatal shot
W. &C. -5E scrt8 'ose of search