Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-07-12

by the enforcement of the law.
This country has never feared to
grow. 1t began with expansion. The
tree that ceases to grow decays at
the heart.
Jefferson and Monroe began the car
eer in the beginning of the century
that Mckinley has followed at it's
close.
| The platform that denounces all
foreign entanglements, criticises the
republican party for not taking an
active part in the South African war.
| Was it sympathy for the Beers that
led to the adoption of the African
plank in the Kansas City platform?
1 No. 1t was merely the hope of
catching votes. The German govern
ment has adopted no resolutions of
sympathy for the Boer people.
| Holland has taken no official action
on the subject. And yet it is assum-
ed that German and Holland voters
in the United States will be Influenced
against the republican party because
the administration, after rendering it's
good offices to secure an end of hos
tilities, did not Extensively assume to
take up arms in the contest.
| No party can escape history. By
it's deeds 1t should be willing to be
judged.
By this test there ought to be no
question as to the verdict of the Amer
lean people this year.
| If with the record that this admins
tration has made, the republican party
shall be condemned, no party in the
l frrfyr { -,
| Mckinley and the republican party
were called to power for the purpose
of putting our currency beyond ques-
ton upon the solid foundation of gold
for the purpose of returning our wan
dering laborers to fixed places of en-
ployment, for the purpose of repeating
the laws which had crippled every
sort of industry, and had even paral-
yzed the business which is the founda-
ton of all, the agriculture of the coun-
try Labor is now fully employed, COM
merce is again active. the farmers
products are in demand, for the men
! who consume these products have
again found remunerative employ
ment. Kansas has taken up and made
| a bonfire of her mortgages, and no.
where does Mr.. Bryan find the sur
roundings congenial for the consent
for the only kind of campaign that he
| is by nature or training able to con-
duct.
General Wheeler told me that a
Spaniard said to him. take all else
that we have, but spare, oh spare US
orr illusions"
This is the true secret of the weak
ness of our Spanish opponents They
cling to their illusions as sacred.
! When the first greenbacker was
elected to congress from this district,
in 1878, 1t was upon a platform declar-
ing resumption impossible. When he
| took his seat in congress, resumption
had taken place and experience has
demonstrated that resumption was
necessary and wise. In 1896 the cam
paign of our opponents was waged
upon the coinage question, and in
favor of reducing our money to the
silver standard. Experience again has
shown the wisdom of honesty in fin
ance. But our opponents cling to
their illusions and pirate of an Amer
lean system of finance made by them,
for themselves, which shall restore
and maintain a bimetallic price lev
| ell"
| Here is new illusion, freshly coin
ed at Lincoln, Nebraska. A price lev
ell! A bimetallic price level The
platform assumes that there has been
such a level and it is desirable that
it be restored" Do they want agri-
cultural products "restored?" to this
"bimetallic price level?" Do they
4 want wages reduced or restored to
their imaginary level
/ Let us spare them their illusions,
but let us be spared from their illus
ions.
The Kansas City convention de-
nounces the Dingley protective tar
iff and processes only to see evil re-
suits thru the upbuilding of recent
| trusts. Petroleum is on the free list
but the greatest of all trusts is the
Standard Oil. Ice is not on the duti-
able list, but the New York demo
Gratis have found themselves able to
organize trust big enough to put
their whole party in cold storage.
Trusts exist in free trade countries
and in free trade articles, but it is
an old cry of the free traders to claim
that all good under protection comes
in spite of the tariff" and all that
goes bad is because of the tariff. .
The proposition to crush the trusts
by making the money bad, or to
destroy them by overthrow of pro-
lection and the creation of another
industrial panic may be effectual but
we can hardly afford either method.
We cannot afford to burn down the
barn in order to kill the rats.
The supreme court of the United
States pointed out in the sugar trust
case, the constitutional difficulties in
dealing with this question in a ma
tional way by congress. The present
congress attempted to take the pre-
| liminary steps to amend the consti-
tuition SO as to enable the congress to
| control or prohibit trusts.
The gentlemen, who at Kansas
| City so vigorously denounced the
trusts, voted in solid phalanx against
giving congress power to deal with
| them.
This is national cam
paign, but our state will
also hold local election We
can cheerfully pause and turn for a
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