The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-01
Midsnmrncr Politics.

Outside of such family matters as the
Croker Hill contest and the odell ques-
ton in New York but little is doing in
| the way of active campaigning. That Is
being left until the weather cools enough
| to Justify people in assembling in crowds
at public meetings. and to make it safe for
Hanna to unchain and unmuzzle the cow
hoy candidate and turn him loose upon the
country.
But other things are happening-things
of a character 10 worry Hanna and his
| coadjuters in the game OF continuing ire
irresponsible power of the trusts over the
Government for another four years 1t
is true that the financial condition of the
Republican machine is improved. Since
Hanna met the trusts at the New York
Life Insurance Company's offices the other
day, and read the riot act to them, there
is no dearth of cash around headquarters,
and Treasurer Bliss now has funds enough
to pay all of the legitimate, and perhaps
the ilIegirimate, expenses of the campaign.
Yet. in spite of present ability to buy
his way handsomely, the Republican Ma
| tional Chairman is not satisfied with the
outlook.
One of the things that are troubling him
is the wild and cranky scheme of the
4 Indiana Women's Christian Temperance
| Union to beat the Mckinley and Roose-
welt ticket by means of an endless chain
of PRAYER. II is evident that the PROPOSE
! ton has produced a definite scare, or else
Hanna and other Republican leaders
would not be as mild and placative in
their references TO its authors as they are.
Another and more serious cause for ap-
nrehension is the threatened coal strike
in the anthracite region. which. unless an
accommodation is not effected within a week, |
viii affect one hundred and forty-three |
thousand Pennsylvania miners. A des- |
perate but hopeless effort is being made by /
the trust leaders and their subsidized I
press TO create the impression that the .
strike movement is being engineered in /
the interests of the Democratic party, |
which. of course is nonsense.
The coal barons have only to concede |
the just and very moderate demands of |
the men TO nip the strike in the bud If /
thsy are amena5le to reason. there should .
be little danger OF trouble. as the Repub-
lican management will certainly urge /
them to a compromise or some other
moars Of avertiEg a recurrence of the
Homestead outbreak of 1892
Whether the anthracite strike is 20 ma
terialize or not. there Is more than enough
reason to look for serious labor disturb
anees before the election. In all the lead
ing Industrial centres plants are shutting
down and depriving workingmen Of en-
ployment and bread. The Leather Trust
has suspended the operation Of the mo-
rocco leather factories at Wilmington and
Newcastle. Delaware. The trust mills and
in the Indiana gas belt district
are idle The wages Of the New England
cotton mill operatives are to suffer a Sc
we're cut. The great Rogers Locomotive
Works at Paterson y. J., upon which
nearly ten thousand persons depend
for their living in one way or an
other. are to 20 out OF business perma-
nently as soon as present orders have been
filed. Almost everywhere the industrial
are such as to make labor IN
easy. suspicious. and Disconnected. While
employment grows steadily more precari-
Gus. the cost of living advances steadily.
Attention TO this fact is recalled by the
action Of the Sugar Trust on Wednesday
In advancing BY five points the prices Of all
grades of refined sugar. This rise, it may
be presumed. represents the increased in
come to the trust necessary to recoup
Its recent contribution TO the Republican
corruption fund. and from this point of
view it takes on the aspect Of an object
lesson. We may expect to see like ad-
yances in the cost to the consumer Of all
trust products; for every trust has been
held I'D and made to disgorge extrava-
gantly.
Sufficient warning to the masses is con-
seyed in the phenomena to which We
have alluded. II it is needed all will be
well in November II not. then the same
people who were frightened or starved
into electing Mr.. Mckinley in 1896 will
repeat the operation in 1860.
!