The age-herald., 1901-06-23
united states senate. May 15. ls0l.

In your letter of the 9th inst you re- quest my views of the policy of the Dem ocratic party with referenceSto success in 1904. I write with reluctance about such matters. I have never attempted to shape the policy of the party as to men, being thoroughly committed to it's estab- lished creeds and satisfied if the pre- vailing movements and the course of the leaders are reasonably near to its profes- sions. The ancient creed. which has never changed, and will not change as long as a true interpretation of the constitution Is to be applied to new situations, as they arise, is a perfectly safe guide for the people who wish to preserve the prin- ciples of government, in their purity and integrity, as these were originally estab- lished and understood by Democrats.
 I am chiefly concerned about the pres ervation of the old landmarks. These principles, applied to some of the prom inent questions now before the country for consideration reveal an antagonism between the true friends of the spirit of our government in the honest guardian ship of the rights and liberties of the people, and those who abuse it's powers for personal gain or party domination in even more distinct light than has fallen upon the history of our country since the revolutionary war
 The question whether the constitution Is as broad in its authority as the coun- try is, in its sovereignty would have been as startling to the country a hundred years ago as if King George has been proposed as the successor of George Washington. In either case the constitu- ton would be abrogated. Yet this ab- surd and destructive attitude is taken by the Republican party, for no better req son than that 1t Is necessary for the main- tenance of certain profitable abuses of the powers of taxation that enrich the mon ster trusts in sugar and tobacco
 If the platform makers for our national elections would say that the Democratic party Is opposed to all abuses of the pow CT of taxation, because such abuses are opposed to the ancient creed that de- mands equal rights for all, with exclu- sive privileges to none, and if the orators and writers would show up the many and terrible abuses of the power of taxation taxation that are inflicted upon the peo- pie, the fact would at once appear that there are many more than enough Demo crats in the United States to elect a Democrat to the presidency. We would then be able to have the collection of the income tax enforced, which stands as d Qetu fctlcT Oll liit olcitulC OOOhot ice- withstanding 1t was enacted by the Dem- ocrats in the Wilson tariff law, and was re-enacted by the Republicans in the Dingley bill, and has never been repealed,
 There is no other instance in history where a parliamentary government has enacted tax<aaw and the chief magis- trate has approved it, where its execution has been suspended and it's existence ignored because it would relieve the toil- rt.t of taxation upon the shoulders of people better able to bear them.
 The income tax law followed the prece- dent established by the founders of the government and was pronounced constitu- tional by Chief Justice Marshall The Fifty-fifth Congress, then being Republi- can, re-enacted 1t in the Dingley law, and the President approved it. and yet, when the country is engaged in war, taxes of the same sort are levied, as stamp duties, upon the people of little means and small industries, and these are collected with rigid exaction, while the great incomes that threaten nations with their power escape taxation because a Republican President refuses to obey the law and execute it's commands.
 This is a two-fold abuse of the power of taxation, that the old Democratic creed denounces. With such an issue, honestly presented, the Democratic party would not need a great leader to show the peo- pie the way to victory.
 The payment of the national debt, that Is always Q plain duty" is another liv- ing issue upon which the old Democratic creed speaks with commanding emphasis.
 The gold act of the Fifty-sixth Con gross has for its distinct purpose and it certain result the perpetuity of the na- tional debt. It affords splendid Invest ment for surplus capital, its principal att traction being that it exempts largely more than a million dollars from all taxa tion, Federal, state, county and muni- cipal. This is a powerful abuse of the power of taxation which compels the peo- pie who must labor to pay interest on the property owned by those who neither labor nor pay taxes. With our vast re- sources and annual surplus in hand to pay these interest-bearing bonds, those who are content to bear this unjust and unequal burden and to work to pay inter- est on 1t must be in love with servitude.
 If these bonds were all paid what would become of the foundations on which the 5000 national banks are reposing soN lux uriously? They would be swept away and banks would be compelled to supply their place with the old Democratic specie basis" or else they would be compelled to go out of business.
 The payment of the national debt, or even firm and honest Democratic assur- ance such as Andrew Jackson would have given that 1t should be paid and should not be increased by the machinery of the gold act of the last Republican Congress, would open every mine of sil- yer and gold in the world to enable our national banks to supply their necessities with a "specie basis"
 This one act would solve all questions efa nda rd the weight of bullion in coins; and the six teen ounces of silver and one ounce of gold in the dollar would make peace in the bank vaults and in the pockets of the people. They would sink into each other like drops of water on a plate of glass, and nobody would be hurt except the speculators, who would have to go to work, and the doctrinaires would have their evil spirits cast out and be at rest.
 The people will grasp this happy oppor- tunity very soon. They will realize 1t as soon as they count up their actual earn ings in the great prosperity that has just blown the top off the temple dedicated to Pluto and Mormus, in Wall street, and they will do as the people have done in all times of peril, confusion and suffer- ings, they will fall back for safety to the Democratic creed and plant their feet on the old foundations of just taxation ana the specie basis
 Another old Democratic doctrine is now in unavoidable demand, because it stands to save the country from most dangerous situation. It is that this gov ernment will not attempt to govern any people who are the citizens or subjects or a foreign power in foreign country.
 We deny the power of Congress to ere ate or conduct protectrate or a suze- rainty In any foreign country. We deny