The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-11-02

A Labor Leader Who Has Always Been
Democrat, Tell Why He Will Vote
the Republican Ticket This Year.

the International Typographical union,
ex-president of the Chicago trades as
sembly, and first secretary of the
American Federation of Labor, is
supporting the Republican ticket this
year, and will vote for Mckinley and
Roosevelt. He has always voted the
Democratic ticket heretofore, and his
reasons for not doing SO this year are
given.by himself as..follows:
I have voted the Democratic ticket
ever since l have had vote. have
acted with the party that, every four
years since 1860, had in their plat
forms ''viewed with alarm" the re-
suits of Republican success at the polls,
and the tendency Of Republican rule
towards imperialism. !"
With much mental reservation fol-
lowed the party in its declaration
that the civil war was a failure; its
opposition to specie payment its
gree nbackism it's ''tairff for revenue
only and last, but not least, its '16
to 1 heresy. But I must decline to
take another dose of "16 to II and
''imperialism" and shall vote the Re
publican ticket.
On Choking backward am i'm
pressed with the feeling that the war
was not failure that specie payment
not only came, but, came to stay; that
.greenbackism was only the result of
Indigestion that we tried "tariff for
revenue only to our SORROW; thus
closing our manufacturing industries,
paralyzing the business of the country,
and making paupers of millions of
honest working men.
We were told four years ago by the
apostle of 16 to 1 that unless the gov
eminent adopted the remedy he had
the devil. The people decided that,
inasmuch as he could not show them
where any of his prophecies had come
true, he was false prophet, and.there-
fore endorsed the standard of money
that the world has tried and not found
wanting-gold. The result of such
decision was marvellous, when we con-
slider the depth of want and gloom
into which tariff for revenue only
had sunk us.
Four years ago when the business of
the country was paralyzed. when
large armies of honest, unemployed
men were tramping the country seeking
work, when soup houses had to be es-
tablished all over the country to pre-
vent starvation, Mr.. Bryan said to
these hungry people "There is no end
to the gold standard. You think you
have suffered enough your suffering
has just begun. You think there has
been enough depression, but depression
has but Just commenced. HE FAIL
ED TO SAY THAT 1T WAS A DEMO
CRATIC ADMINISTRATION THAT
HAD CAUSED THE SUFFERING.
If the last four years are a sample of
the suffering" we are to have I'M
der the gold standard, l for one am
ready and willing to Suffer- The
gold standard is still on deck, and yet
the nation has never experienced any
more positive improvement. Property
has increased in value, business has
revived, and the great army of unem-
ployed has largely disappeared.
"Imperialism" does not brighten me
in the least. heard the Imperial
ism" cry against Abraham Lincoln in
the sixties, when those who were cry
ing the loudest about it now were
shooting holes through such grand
JeHersonian Democrats as General John
q. Black. l have heard it every four
years since, and yet the nearest ap-
proach to imperialism / now call to
mind as the official act of Democra-
tic president, by the advice of a
Democratic attorney general who is now
advocating the election of Mr.. Bryan,
in sending an army of soldiers into the
state of Illinois against the protests
of the local and state officials, during
the great railway strike of 1892
With me my patriotism stands first
and my politics come afterward. 1t is
time enough to talk government when
the cannon and the Mauser stop talk
ing. We have heard men cry in the
sixties for "peace at any price, for
compromise - ssWhat are you going
to do with us when you lick us, . etc
The answer was but two words, sfun-
conditional surrender. = Why should
we change our answer to Aguinaldo?
When the yan-Aguinaldo- Croker
Tillman combination stops killing
American soldiers it is ample time to
consider the government of the Philip
pine islands. The Cubans never fred
on the American flag and they know
their destiny.
We need man for president who is
conservative, broad and patriotic a
man who does not appeal to race, reli
gion or class; man great enough to
recognize the dignity attached to the
presidency of the greatest nation on
earth. We have heard nothing from
President Mckinley since his letter of
acceptance of the nomination for presi-
dent. By his dignifed silence he seems