Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-11-01
Address by John w. Lewis at
Catholic Fair.
THE TRUSTS AND IMPERIALISM.
Money Question Not Mentioned as an
lssue-CIaims Half Of Philippine
Population are Christian Civilized
People.
From Tuesdays Daily.


the Catholic church fair. The wealth
er was very unfavorable for large
attendance and consequently but few
people turned out to hear the speaker
OF the evening, Attorney John w. Lew
is. Major John F. Lacey spoke at the
Grand opera house last evening also,
and many would have attended the
meeting at the Turner opera house
mad 1t not been for the counter attrac-
ton at the Grand.
M. j. Whelan selected H. ]. Ostdiek
as chairman of the meeting. Mr.. Ost-
dick said he thought it was a good
thing to connect politics with church
fair, and after a few other brief re-
marks presented the speaker, Attorney
John w. Lewis.
Mr.. Lewis said in part as follows:
Our republican candidate for congress
is speaking at the Grand opera house
this evening. l heard him a few DAYS
ago and know just how he speaks. He
refers to the prosperity and the claims
OF the party. He says he comes to
proclaim the fulfillment of the claims
which We're made four years ago.
they haven't any patent on good
times. When they allude to the panic
OF 1893 and refer it to the demo
cratic party we remind them that
that panic did not begin in this country,
but in England, spreading thruout the
broad world.
1T is true, my friends, we have re-
covered from the panic, and am glad
OF 1T. cheerfully admit the fact that
the aggregate American wealth and
prosperity were never as high as they
are today. That it is generally diff
fused among the people OF that they,
the republicans, brought it, deny.
1T is true that the laboring men and
farmers have been benefited and it
is also true that when the Dingley
tariff bill went into effect trust stocks
advanced many millions of dollars.
While the laboring man has shared
some, we say that taking the other
side of the ledger what he has to buy
has advanced more than his wages
have been increased
Our republican friends boast about
our large bank deposits. We say
you don't find the names of many wage
earners on that list. If you want a
genuine index to the wage problem,
you have but to go down onto the
streets of our own city, early in the
morning, when you will see boys and
girls who ought to be in school, going
to the factory and shop where they
are compelled to- labor in order to as
slst their father or elder brother in
making mere pittance for the main.
tenance of the family and the home.
We say that explains more nearly the
conditions than all the talk of the re-
publican spell binders.
Trusts.
Trusts are menace to the people.
They say there are no trusts but then
Hanna admits there are, but says
some of them are good trusts and
some of them are bad trusts. We say
they are all evils that should be throt-
tied. What have the republicans done
toward that end?
During McKinley's administration
more trusts have been founded than in
all previous history. The republicans
have left the statute books the same
as they were when the party went into
power. They say we must amend the
constitution. We say enforce the
laws which we have already. We say
deny the trusts the right of the United
States mail and the Interstate COM
merce law. Withdraw from the trust
made article, the protective tariff. This
tar is bulwark behind which trusts
hide and carry on their depredations
on the American people. Mr.. Woodruff,
acting undoubtedly under the advice
of Teddy Roosevelt, the republican
vice presidential candidate, refused to
submit to the requislllon issued by the
governor of Texas.
1.-THE great trust promoters are the
men most prominent in shaping the
affairs of our friends on the other side
81 don't believe the play of the re-
publican party to change the constitu-
ton was sincere. The trusts trust the
republican party and the republican
party trusts the trusts
Imperialism.
"There is another issue confronting
us, rising far above those that can
arise out of home politics. If it be
true, as we say it is true, that the re-
publicans would change our republic
an form of government; abandon or
repudiate our former standard of lib
erty, would not every American citi-
zen who is thoughtful denounce it?
81 undertake to say that believe
such is the case, and If there be re-
publicans here l invite them to dis
cuss this matter. There has been too
much harsh language used in this
campaign; too much wholesale indict-
ing of the opposite party. The man
who does it shows his lack of good
sense and weakness of cause.
Our government unlike any that
has gone before it, does not depend
on the friendship of any man or set
Of men, but 1t is our boast that our
constitution is a free one. Our fore.
fathers repudiated the right of few
to rule the masses on the principle
that all men are created equal
This question is like dealing with
sin-there is no halfway. If you rec
ognize any part of it you violate the
commands of the right. Our fore
fathers say that the government shall
not be left to any one man nor any
set Of men, even If it be republic
They advocated the principle, the
rights of self government and equality
before the law 1t used to be argued
that that was for white men, but by
the fifteenth amendment all men in
the union and territory subject to-, it
should be self governed and free,