Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-20

countries. Even those who Justify
the general policy of protection will
md 1T difficult to defend a tariff which
enables a trust to exact an eXorbitant
toll from the citizen.
Corporations in Politics.
The democratic party makes no war
upon honest.y acquired wealth; Meth
er does 1t seek to embarrass corpora
lions engaged in legitimate business,
but it does protest aginst corporations
entering politics, and attempting to
assume control of the instrumentalities
OF government. a corporation is not
organized for political purposes. and
should be compelled to confine itself
to the business described in it's char
ter. Honest corporations, engaged in
an honest business, will find it to their
advantage to aid i'll the enactment of
such legislation as will protect them
from the u~ndeserved odium which will
be brought upon them by those corpo-
rations which enter the political
arena.
Interstate Commerce.
The republican party has persist
entity refused to comply with the ur-
gent request of the interstate COM
merce commission, for such an IN
largement of the scope of the inter-
state commerce law as will enable the
commission to realize the hopes
aroused by it's creation. The demo-
cratic party is pledged to legislation
which will empower the commission to
protect individuals and communities
from discrimination, and the public at
large from unjust and unfair transpor-
tation rates.
The Financial Plank.
The platform reiterates the demand
contained in the Chicago platform for
an American financial system made by
the American people for themselves
The purpose of such a system is to re.
store and maintain a bimetallic level
OF prices, and in order that there may
be no uncertainty as to the method of
restoring bimetallism, the specific dec
laration in favor of free and unlimited
coinage at the existing ratio of 16 to
J., independent of the action of other
nations, is repeated. In 1896 the re
publican party recognized the neces-
sity for bimetallism by ~pledging the
party to an earnest effort to secure an
international agreement for the free
coinage of silver, and the president,
Immediately after his Inauguration, by
authority of congress, appointed a
commission composed of distinguished
citizens to visit Europe and solicit for
eign aid. Secretary Hay, in a letter
written to Lord Alderman in Novem-
Der, 1898, and afterwards published in
England, declared that at that time
the president and a majority of his
cabinet still believed in the great de
STABILITY of an International agree
ment for the restoration of the double
standard, but that it did not seem OBJ
perfume to reopen the negotiations
just then. The financial law enacted
less than a year ago contains a con-
Guiding section declaring that the
measure was not intended to stand in
the way Of the restoration of bimetal-
ism, whenever it could be done by CO.
operation with other nations. The
platform submitted to the last re-
publican convention with the indorse-
ment of the administration again sug-
gested the possibility of securing for
eign aid in restoring silver.
Now the republican party, for the
first time, openly abandons it's advo-
cacy of the double standard, and in
dorses the monetary system which it
has so often and so emphatically con-
demned. The democratic party, on
the contrary, remains the steadfast ad-
vocate of the gold and silver coinage
of the constitution, and is not willing
that other nations shall determine for
us the time and manne of restoring
silver to its ancient place as a stand
ard money. The ratio of 16 to 1 is
not only the ratio now existing be-
tween all the gold and silver dollars
in circulation in this country, a ratio
which even the republican administra-
ton has not attempted to change, but
it is the only ratio advocated by those
who are seeking to reopen the minis.
Whether the senate, now hostile to BIZ
metallism, a be changed during this
campaign or the campaign of 1902 can
only be determined after the votes are
counted, but neither the present nor
the future political complexion of con
| gress has prevented or should prevent
an announcement of the party's posi-
ton upon this subject in unequivocal
terms.
The currency bill, which received
the sanction of the executive and the
republican members of the house and
senate justifies the warning given by
the democratic party in 1896. It was
then predicted that the republican
party would attempt to retire the
greenbacks altho the party and it's
leaders s%tudiously concealed their in
tentions. That purpose is now plain
and the people must choose between
the retention Of the greenbacks, issued
and controlled in volume by the gov.
eminent, and a national bank note
currency issued by banks and CONTROL.
ed in their own interests. If the ma
tional bank notes are to be secured by
bonds, the currency system now sup.
ported by the republican party in.
wolves a permanent and increasing
debt, and, so long as this system
stands, the financial classes will be
tempted to throw their powerful infu.
ence upon the side of any measure
which will contribute to the size and
%permanency of a national debt. 1t is
hardly conceivable that the American
people will deliberately urn from the
debt-paying policy of the past, to the
dangerous doctrine of perpetual bonds