Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-06-20
p0WtR5 THAT pQ[1
Some BOT Shot From Wipdle's
iGatlipg Gun.
COMMERClALISM A DISEASE
The Nation is Drunken With the Lust
Of Empire and Crazed With
the Love of Greed"

the Love of Greed"
"From the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Words more true
were never uttered. If the spirit under.
goes change, our acts will also change
in spite of any effort to play the hyro-
critic.
This is a commercial age. We could
not conceal this fact if we would. The
Dollar is supreme. Most men bow ut
Mammon's altar. The democratic party
has become inoculated with the virus of
commercialism, and is breaking out in
boils, like McLaurin and Henry Waiter
son. A poultice will cure some, while
others may have to be lanced or ampu-
tated. The afiiiction, however, is COM
paratively light, and a few allopathic
doses of Jeffersonian Democracy will
effect complete restoration.
On the other hand, the republican
party has become so infected that its
case is absolutely hopeless. Compared
to it, the late lamented Job, seated on
dunghill and scraping himself with a
potsherd, was not circumstance. A
huge trust carbuncle has broken out in a
serious place. The cancer of imperial
ism, like a hungry wolf, is gnawing at it's
vitals. 1t has swallowed ten million in
digestible Filipinos and is suffering with
an excruciating and ungodly bellyache;
besides, its body is literally covered with
vile eruptions, with now and then a
putrid pimple like Johnny Hay, bless is
art. All the medicine SO far admins
tered by DR.. Mckinley has served only
to aggravate the disease.
This disease of commercialism, when
1t assumes malignant form, is as rule
fatal. It is contagious, and should the
body politic-the nation-contract it,
dissolution would follow in short order.
Athens got it, Rome took it, and persisted
utterly and miserably. The pathway OF
human progress is paved with the bones
of empires and systems OF government
that died of this malady.
The American republic now shows
every symptom of the dread aftliction.
Had the republican party been GUAR
antined" in 1895 the spread of this dis
ease would have been prevented. Now
it is a case of life or death.
The first sign of the disease appeared
in the rapid concentration OF the blood
(wealth) in the form of trusts. The in
PRODUCTION of 80 much "water" in the
system produced dropsical expansion
and we we're seized with a eft" to "be'
neyolently assimilate" Cuba, Porto Rice
and the Philippines. Immediately your
Uncle Samuel hitched his wagon to the
star of "destiny" and saw blazing in the
sky great Dollar Mark, and above 1t II
letters of gold the motto, "By this sigr
conquer" Since then we have beer
busy tearing down the Constitution ant
building an empire.
This is not the first republic to subor
dinate the rights Of man to the rights o
the Dollar. Around this Rock lies tn
wreck Of ages. Here Death rides ever.
wave, while Destruction sits enthrone'
in every cavern.
The latest manifestation of this diseas
of commercialism is seen in the ne'
issue of postage stamps. Hitherto GU
stamps have borne the faces OF GU
sainted dead. They we're illumined b
the heroic countenance of Jackson, q
ornamented with the features OF a Jeffel
son. a Washington or Lincoln. A
this is changed. These pictures hav
been turned to the wall, and their yer
memories left to rot.
The Mckinley administration. true
the damnable spirit that has controlle
it from the beginning. have instituted
new order of things more in harmon
with the times. The new series OF pos
age stamps conform to the eternal fitne
of things. Take the one-centers. In Il
place where Jackson, the hero OF Ne
Orleans, was wont to stand now proud
floats an ocean steamer waiting +
Hanna's subsidy schemes to be crysta
lied into law. The ship 10 typical
our supremacy on the high seas.
The two-cent stamp no longer bea
the portrait of the Father Of his Countl
but in its place you find q train OF ca
a pure commercial idea, showing o
supremacy on land. Thus has the ra
road trust. dominated by J. Pierpo
Morgan, displaced Washington in t
heart Of the nation, and engraven in
place railway train.
In face of these facts it is hard nj
ter to make some people believe tina