Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-10-12
scALy TRICKS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERS
Defense of the Trusts by Hanna's
Henchmcn Batting Starving
Workmen Mckinley Making
Ready for Plundcr-Thc Philippine
War Not Over.
Especial Correspondence

(iOy. Mount openly crlIlclSeS uduHd.
But the mischief is done.
Hanna now lamely explains that he
used trusts in technical sense. That
does not better his position, because
in that speech he failed to say a word
which indicated that he knew of
any sort of a combination hurtful to
the people. He failed to indicate that
he or his party We're in favor of re-
straining trusts or combinations of
any sort.
The gas belt of Indiana has suffered
especially from trusts, and the men
who have been rendered idle by them
are furious at Hanna's selfish indif-
ference to their troubles.
Right on the heels of Hanna's fias-
co comes campaign report prepared
for the republicans by Carroll D..
Wright, of the bureau Of labor sta
tistics, which assumes to show that
trusts pay higher wages and employ
more skilled men than did the sep
arate industries.
He takes IA selected" trusts. Very
carefully selected. The Standard Oil
and coal combine, for instance, are
omitted.
If there is not such things as trusts,
why this defense from CARROLL D..
Wright?
The bureau of labor statistics, like
the Industrial commission and every
other governmental bureau. is being
| pressed into service by the admins
tration. Statistics are manufactured
to order to prove anything that the
republicans desire.
1t is not necessary to show the
flaws in Wright's statistics-though
there are plenty Of them-let every
workingman Judge for himself. If
he is working for trust Is he get
ting higher wages than before the
trusts came into existence. II he,
is, does the slight increase in wages
cover the increased cost of living?
Let the strike of 10000 coal miners
against one of the greatest trusts on
earth answer Carroll D. Wright. These
men are striking for living wages.
They do not aspire to prosperity or
the full dinner pail.
Let the parade Of hundreds Of chill
dren from the coal mines Of Pennsyl-
vania answer the republican conten
ton about the blessings which trusts
bring to workingmen.
No man puts his eight-year-old
child into a coal mine to work, un-
less forced to do so by the starva-
fipp auae Maid fo himco1f
Let the reduction of wages made to
the 10000 employees of the steel and
iron trusts answer Carroll D. Wright's
statistics.
| These men have been idle since June
80, locked out while their trust en-
ployes decided whether OF not they
would pay fair wages.
| Now, having been starved into sub
mission, the men are invited to 20
back to work at reduction. They
are glad to go, in order to live, but
they are not going to vote for the
party which puts into the hands OF
a trust the power to starve them
into submission.
The Miners Strike.
The coal miners strike is likely
to be long and bitter one. The
trusts secured Euorpe for years ant
imported the cheapest labor that
could be had there, under the i'm
! preston that it would submit to low
J wages and bad conditions more meek
, ly than the Independent American
workman. The foreign workmen were
, tractable enough until they found
that they were starved worse thar
slaves or dumb beasts of burden. Nov
they have come to the conclusion thai
they may as well starye idle as work
ing. Their habits of passive endur
ance will keep them out on strik,
. longer than the American. Thus tn,
! coal operators are reaping harves
which they deserved, but did not ex
pect.
The administration press has bee,
bowling about the danger of violenc
and bloodshed from the first day o
the miners strike. It seemed to know
what was going to happen. Sur
: enough when some miners began t,
: throw stones lot of Pinkerton's mel
shot into a crowd Unfortunately
and then the militia was called out
How convenient for the coal opera
tors to have republican governo
and 1000 militia at their beck an,
call. No wonder the trust refuse,
arbitration.
ii Last Sunday the militia desecrate
/ the day by parading in the mimi
villages with Calling guns. Not tina
: the miners were disorderly. Oh, n<
. but to show them what they may e,
\ pect in the next two or three weeks
! 1t is to be hoped that violence an
e bloodshed may be avoided, but thi
: batting of starving men is pawn
g the way for something worse tina
Homestead or Hazleton.
A Clumsy Back Down.
The administration has executed
!, rather clumsy back-down on the Oh
j, nese situation, and it is purely TO
j, campaign purposes.
n Frightened by the popular uproa
\ against any further alliances or med
: ding with foreign powers, the admin
t istration now intimates that GU
e forces will be withdrawn from Picking
0 They have not marched out, how
( ever, and if they do, it will only b
to the coast.
Six warships have just been OF
dered to Asiatic waters. What for
Time will show, but it is clear no.
: that Mckinley proposes to be right o
the ground when there is any Chimes
plumber to be had. He is making