The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-08-23

partner in their infamy, sits as Judge
and DEGREES that the people shall pay
the pound Of flesh.
| More trusts have been formed in the
three and a half years Of republican
rule than in all the years Of our ma
| tional life prior to 1896. Their extor-
| ton Is admitted, their high-handed
methods are known to all, yet the rul-
ing party refuses to pass an amend
ment Strengthening the Sherman anti
trust act, refuses to give the interstate
commerce commission more power to
prevent discrimination in freight rates
| favorable to trusts. When the people
demand that the attorney general of
The United States proceed against
trusts. he responds that the matter is
one entirely within the jurisdiction of
the states and devotes his time to
hunting flaws in procedure to keep
Carter out of Jail. With ample con-
stttutional powers the dominant party
contents itself with an abortive at
tempt to pass constitutional amend
ment that may not be ratified, or il
ratified only far in the future, when
the evil designs will be fully accom-
plished and the loss beyond repair
Thus does modern republicanism, a
slave to privilege, bargain away the
peoples birthright for mess of pot
tage. Thus does 1t trifie with the rights
Of those 1t processes to protect.
The Remedy Proposed.
The democratic party proposes to
deal with this question Of Industrial
combination In ways vigorous and SEN
slble. 1t has no fanatical quarrel with
wealth, but 1T does believe that wealth
Is designed to the use of the people
and not to rule them. It believes that
men are Of more importance. than dol
lars and that all the clemens of civil
ization are subordinate to manhood.
1t proposes. first, the enforcement of
every law on the statute books. state
and national, for the regulation OF
trusts; it proposes. secondly, to in.
woke the power of the courts against
all combinations in restraint of trades.
1t proposes, thirdly, to place every ar
ticle produced, sold or controlled by a
trust upon the free list; it proposes.
fourthly, absolute publicity in all the
acts OF corporations; it proposes, fifth
y. to strengthen the hands of the in
ter-state commerce commission to the
end that discrimination in freight rates
may be revenred; and finally, it pro-
poses to make the Sherman antitrust
law strong up to the constitutional linz
it.
And, my friends, these methods are
practicable and feasible. They can be
brought into action at once. They
are neither cumbersome nor slow, If
honestly carried out-and they will be
In democratic hands-every trust in the
land may be efficiently controlled. If
you ask US to go further than this. 1
say to you that it is the plighted word
Of the great democracy of the nation
that every trust that cannot be con-
trolled must be destroyed.
Foreign Policy.
The policy Of peace has been hon.
ored time out of mind by the Amer
lean people. Peace, friendship and
honest commerce with all nations, en-
tangling alliances with none," has been
our rule of national conduct declared
by rulers and approved by people. In
1898 we laid aside, temporarily, with
the approval of all the people, this
policy Of century, listened to tale
of wrongs from a helpless people n
tyrant's grasp, and undertook war
that the bounds Of constitutional liber-
ty might be widened and a new nation
born under the blessing of God into the
sisterhood of the worlds republics. We
fought for the weak in their fight for
freedom. We did not stop to ask, Are
these people Caucasian or Malay?"
Are they educated?" Are they sta
BILE Tentons or violent Latins?" We
only knew that they were men who
loved liberty and who would fight and
die for it, We fought for people
without an organized government.
without capital, without system OF
courts, without a congress, cabinet,
constitution, a seaport or a navy.
And we fought that the Cuban peo-
pie might have these things that GER
tain to nationality, that upon Cuban
soil Cuban government of Cuban
representatives might be erected and
maintained by virtue Of the self-sover-
eighty of the Cuban people.
We knew from our own history what
We're the weapons of the tyrant and
the oppressor; we knew the trials of in
surrection and rebellion. Our own in
dependence was declared by a congress
~SSSA
of insurgents. In the name of self
government we unfurled the banner of
rebellion and denied the authority of
Great Britain. With scarcely three
millions of widely scattered people,
with constant quarreling and pickering
among the thirteen colonies, with a
tory party so strong that it threaten
ed to control some of these very COL
onies, with congress that at one time
numbered but thirty members and fled
from capital to capital pursued by
British soldiers so that during the war
1t sat in nineteen different cities. with
a populace that sold provisions to the
enemy and left the continentals of
Washington to starve, with confeder-
ated government without power or
money or respect, with treason among
our generals and cabals in congress-
with disorganization SO rife that ii was
found necessary to make the commas
der-in-chief dictator in fact, with al.
army that at times was but a rabble
OF wanderers, with cities burned, towns
looted, fields wasted and women raped
by the Hessians of Howe, is it any
wonder that our nation knows the
worth of liberty and prizes self-gov-
eminent as a boon to be bought at tho,
price of life itself? And Is liberty to
US more valuable than it Is to others ?
Shall we deny to our neighbors, to
alien races, weak and ignorant though
they may be, the things for which our
fathers fought? All, my friends, the
love of liberty is universal; it is born
in the breasts of the lowly and hum
h1a whathor n,