The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-08

Second 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people approve the legislation thus
obtained and justify such legislation as
the Dingley Tariff Bill, with all it's de-
vices for taxing consumers and wage
earners-that is, the great mass of the
people-in generation Of accumulated
wealth.
Third 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people uphold the policy of greed and
contempt for alien peoples whose retri-
butive consequences are seen in recent
events in China; approve of our joining
the ranks Of international land grabbers,
and sanction the rapacity, as we'll as
folly, by which, while pretending to buy,
we, in fact, forcibly expelled Spain from
her Philippines possessions and, without
excuse either in the demands of national
honor or in considerations of the ma
tional interest, have saddled ourselves
with the gravest responsibilities for
some 100000 or 10 000,0 600 of the savage,
or, at best, half-civilized brown people
of the tropics.
Fourth. 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people approve the tactless and bru-
tai policy pursued since the Philippine
acquisition was made whereby what was
pressed upon the country as a treaty of
peace was, in fact, but the signal for
another more costly, bloody and prolonged
war.
Fifth. 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people approve the extraordinarily
fatuous policy or impolicy, or no policy
at all, by which the Philippine Archipel-
ago, many thousands. of miles from our
shores. becomes an integral part Of the
United States while Cuba the cause and
inspiration of the war lying right at our
door, the key to the Gulf of Mexico, and
absolutely essential to our defense
against foreign attack, is declared alien
territory and entitled to all the rights
of an Independent sovereignty
ABDICATION BY CONGRESS.
'Sixth. 1t will mean that the American
people approve an abdication of it's func
tions by the National Legislature which
leaves millions of human beings outside
the pale of any recognized code of law
and signifies for our new possessions for
an indefinite period militarism of the
most unadulterated sort.
Seventh 1t will mean that the Ameri
can people, having in their President the
sole representative of the nation as a
whole approve of a national executive who
fails to uphold the dignity and the indie
pendence of his great office; who eXer-
cises its functions in subservience both
to other branches of the government and
to the clamor of special pecuniary inter-
ests; who condemning the acquisition of
territory by force as criminal agrees
sion,' wrests her possessions from a for
eign state by the menace of continued
war; who finds the plain duty of the
government to be one thing today and
exactly the opposite thing tomorrow, and
whose disregard of the elementary prin-
ciples of civil service reform is a scandal
as notorious as it is indefensible.
Eighth. 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people indorse the policy by which
the United States of America sets up in
business as an Asiatic power and well
come the large standing armies, the in
creased naval forces, the new admins
trative agencies, the enlarged and more
costly diplomatic service, the onerous
taxes the international complications and
the entangling alliances which, and all Of
which, are the inevitable incidents and
consequences of the Oriental role to
which McKinleyism has undertaken to
pledge us.
MONEY INFLUENCE IN POLITICS.
ninth. 1t will mean that the Ameri-
can people either do not see or, seeing,
approve the great and growing, if not al
ready overwhelming, influence Of money
in our politics. Our government was not
conceived or framed as a money making
machine even for the profit of all the
overned-much less for the profit OF
particular classes or portions Of the gov
erned. It's vital principle and it's crown
ing merit are that it stands for equal
opportunities to all; that by the main
tenance of order and the administration
of justice it is designed to give every
man a free hand in the struggle for the
prizes of life.
THE theory of the true functions of
government McKinleyism directly an
tagoniZes-by protective tariffs, by the
most intimate relations between the Uni
ted States Treasury and the general mon
ey market, by subsidies to particular in
dustries, by an aggressive colonial policy
and in other ways it practically holds out
the government as an engine for use in
the acquisition of private wealth. The
natural, the inevitable result is that
the money of the country holly pursues
the control of the government as
source OF more money; that the flag fig
ures as sort of commercial asset, re-
plete with possibilities of pecuniary profit
for its fortunate custodians.
THAT under the influence of Mckinley
ism such is the unmistakable trend of
things in this country at the present day.
giving to the best-devised policy of all
times somewhat the aspect of a stock
iobbng Democracy, is only too apparent
Should McKinleyism now again prevail
for example, it will not be because it is
not cordially distrusted and disliked by
the great body of American electors 1t
will be because of the influence of the
purse and of the felctous application of
an enormous campaign fund-because of
an investment scare, which, if in some
measure genuine, will be in much larger
measure artfully worked up for election
ends. To excite the alarm of voters for
their immediate pecuniary interests is
easy; to evoke patriotism, courage and
unselfshness required to effect serious
political changes and Indispensable to
dislodge a party which, comparatively
short intervals excepted, has been in
trenching itself in the government for
nearly 40 years, is infinitely more diff
cult