Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-02-01
CURRENT COMMENT.
Votes and Comments, Political and
OtherNiae. Or Matters of Interest.
BY Andrew J. Palm.

BY Andrew ]. Palm.
Gold is to be made the standard the
only standard of value. Gold that has
played the coward and traitor in every
time of danger, gold that sneaked away
at the first alarm of conflict in our
wi war and did not come out of its
hole till long after the danger was
over, gold that never was true to any
nation in time of dire distress braZen-
ly comes to the front and asks to be
crowned king, and the demand has
been granted. Wall streets god, the
golden calf, is to be set up as a fetch
for the nation to worship. Great is the
power of mammon. Supreme at last
is the will of Wall street.
Who says that monopoly doesn't
pay? The Pullman Car company has
oeen declaring s per cent dividends o7
$4,000, 900 of stock, and in addition O
present of $4,000, 900 in stock has been
made to the stockholders. The stock
has been watered over and over again
until ii is now many times the amount
paid in, yet the public must pay big
dividends on the whole S54 900 000
since the Wagner nd Pullman COM
panies have united the last hope of
anything better from the Pullman
company has disappeared. If tlis we're
a government of the people, by the
people and for the people, something
would be done, and that right speedily.
Mark Hanna is annoyed by the many
suggestive cartoons in which he is
made to appear as the leading man.
With an air of injured innocence he
declares that the position Of United
States senator should be one Of dignity.
Marcus is quite right, but unfortunate
ly in this world, populated chiefly by
sinners, of whom Mark Is not the least,
and what should be Is not permitted
to be. Senators who get their seats
by bribery should be ousted and con-
signed to political oblivion, but in
stead of that they are sometimes
placed at the head of their party. 1t is
the man and not the position from
which dignity must come. Some men
would dignity a prison cell, while
others would disgrace throne. Mar
Gus Aurelius Hanna doesn't belong to
the first class.
The independents have been making
much ado over Beveridge's speech in
the senate. He was selected to 60 over
to the Philippines because of his spout
Ing ability and not because he is man
likely to say anything against his en-
ployer. His speech was the effort of
special pleader, and to u great extent
squarely contradicts Prof Schurman,
the head of McKinley's Philippine
commission. Analysed, Beveridge's
speech simply means that because the
Philippines offer a good opening for
American spectators and Office hold
ers and has abundant room on which
to plant the American flag we should
take the islands by force. All this, of
course, in the name of God and des-
tiny. Beveridge had spent months in
preparing his speech and repeated it
verbatim as written, yet Senator Hoar
punctured his bubble in a ten minute
speech.
The man who looks for the Republi-
can party to kill the trusts might as
reasonably expect a father to murder
his own offspring. The leaders of the
party are sharers in the plumber of the
trusts. and the policy Of the party for
years has been indicated by men prom
inent in trusts, syndicates, combina-
tions and monopolies. The party that
imposes high protective tariff to en-
able the manufacturer TO sell goods to
his countrymen at higher price than
he sells them abroad will never lay a
straw in the way of trusts. The G. o.
p. will, of course, threaten them with
dreadful things in it's platform to fool
the rank and file, as it has done for
generation on the silver question, but
do anything to curb the trusts! Never.
Why the senate few days ago killed
an amendment to the census bill which
proposed that the census should in
clude information regarding trusts.
Dictator Mckinley and his advisers are
sorry that the people know as much
about trusts as they do, and he will
take good care that the census doesn't
add anything to their information.
Prof. Jacob G. Schurman, president
Of Cornell university and chairman of
the United States commission to the
Philippine Islands, is of course an ad-
vocate of McKinley's policy of benevo-
lent assimilation. If he hadn't been
he would not have found place on the
commission. It's bitter dose, how
ever, judging from the wry faces he
makes when giving out information for
McKinley's benefit on the Philippine
question. In a recent article in The
Independent he says that he considers
Aguinaldo an honest man, animated
by the highest idea of loyalty to inde
pendence. This was about all that
could be said of BUR revolutionary fore
fathers. He says that the Filipinos
knew the white man by one specimen,
and they willno trust any of them. From
what the Filipinos have seen Of the
Spanish and Of our soldiers woulG
Schurman ask them to trust them?
Mr.. Schurman says the sight of a
drunken man creates disgust in the
mind of the Filipino, and this argues
that the Filipino is in this respect at
least considerably in advance of the
average white man. He declares that
he never saw a Filipino drunk. Take
it all in ALL it is hard to see where
Mr.. Mckinley is to find any comfort
in Prof. Schurman's article. Toward