The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-25
WHAT SHALL THE ISSUE RE.

In a short While now the national
campaign will be actively progressing
i'm North Carolina. 1t is a, struoole
which. to our mind, involves the very
life of the Republic as the fathers
founded it. For years the tendency
of our Federal government has been
towards Capitalization, always the
forerunner of Imperialism and mill
tarism. After the election of Mr.. JEFF
ferson in 1900, the dangerous and de-
structive principles Of government
formulated by Alexander Hamilton
fell into disrepute. The government
was run upon Republican or Demo-
cratic principles until the Republican
party was organized just before the
war Since the war period, the idea
of strong government at Washing
ton has grown along the Hamiltonian
idea and has now lowered out in the
demand for colonial possessions and
big standing army. Already the i'm
perialistic idea of government is upon
us. We have a Congress subservient
to the executive who is controlled by
the money lords. He has plunged
this country into an unholy war, part
ly to get the tinsel of imperialstic
power and partly to avoid a discus
sion of reforms needed at home. i
he is reelected, while there will be
no formal announcement that the Re-
public has been converted into an En-
pire. the encroachments upon the
rights Of the States and the voters
will convert this government into the
sort of monarchy which Hamilton de-
sired.
In view of the crisis that threat
| ems our free Republic, the Democrats
| in Kansas City, representing a large
majority Of the white voters in Amer
| lea, declared that Imperialism was
''the paramount issue" and the North
| Carolina Democrats pitched their cam
paign upon the paramount issue.
The masses of the people responded
to this protest against the Republican
programme. for the laborer and me-
| chanic do not wish their labor to be
brought into competition with the
Filipinos and the Chinese and the far
mers do not wish TO carry a soldier
on their back as they seek TO earn
their subsistence from mother earth.
But, just as the campaign is to be
started upon hostility to Imperialism
and our eloquent speakers are prepar-
ing speeches to show its evils, the
Charlotte Observer, (the boss and
chief owner of which paper has re-
Gently got $500 Federal job from
Mckinley disapproves wholly of that
campaign and says the arguments
against imperialism are all rot and
thus dismisses with a wave of its hand
the question that is uppermost in the
public minds of the people of this Re-
public, so much so that thousands of
Republicans are leaving their party
because they are for the Republic and
against the Empire.
gan to urge the people to stand
| against trusts which are destroying
competition and booming young men
to a life clerllsihip, with no hope of ris-
ing into independence. But Editor
Bailey steps up and tells us that there
is really no danger in trusts, that
each trust has its rival, which will re-
move the danger of destroying cOmpe-
tition. and the Democratic party
is standing for ''reversiOn to individ-
ualism in commerce" And with this
| lullaby, the trust issue is put to sleep,
| the Morning Post, trust organ, rock
| ing the cradle.
The Democratic national convention
declared against government by in
| junction, and the aforesaid Charlotte
Observer dubs that a demand for
''free riot and removes it from dis
cussion
Then the Democrats began to dis
cuss the income tax and show that it
was the fairest of all taxes when other
McKinleyites cry it down by calling
such tax socialism,
The Democratic pledge for an
amendment to the Interstate Com
merce Commission to the end that dis
elimination and excessive charges
may lend gave a fit to the railroad or
| CANS which howled ''confiscation" and
''destruction Of private rights"
| Well, if they could not be permitted
to discuss these great issues, the
Democratic leaders resolved that they
could at least call attention to the
glorious record of the Democratic
.arty through all its history from
Jefferson to Bryan, contrasting its
wise policy of expansion. where like
was added to like, with the Rpeubli-
can policy of Imperialism that violates
the Monroe doctrine and tramples UNI
der foot the Declaration of Indepen-
dence. But up jumps Joseph IL. Will
son, in a communication in the Char