Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-01-12


The above dispatch we find publish
ed in the New York Sun, the defender,
through thick and thin, of the Admin
istration In Its policy Of breeding
protection.
1t calls to mind the three sayings
Of Mr.. Hanna In his speaking tour
of the West In the last campaign, viz:
"There are no trusts" TRUSTS are
good things" "The Republican party
will take care of the trusts" That
the latter Is being done, in sense that
Mr.. Hanna did not intend to convey
to his hearers, but none the less effec-
tunlly for all that, Is true. This Is
being done in two ways First, in the
quite apparent policy Of the Republl.
can party not to pass any new trust
legislation, and to choke off all eifec-
tive prosecution of those laws which
still in form stand upon the statute
books; and secondly, by the operation
of the protective system, which, osten-
slbIy In the interest of home industry,
shuts out foreign competition and thus
gives entire immunity to domestic
combinations, from whose extortion
1t seems even the great Armour meat
trust cannot escape, except by pay,
ing tribute OF eight cents n hundred
weight upon the salt used by it,
Salt is the one commodity which
every class aud condition OF mankind
must have, or die, 1t Is the only uni
versal prime necessity which can he
bought and sold. A tax on salt Is the
only impost which viii reach every
inhabitant Of the jurisdiction within
which 1t ls imposed. For this reason
tyrannlcal governments those whose
object is to oppress all classes of their
subjects, have often retained the mo,
nopoly of bartering In salt, or have I'M
posed tax on It's consumption, and
often has such II policy been held up
by American statesmen and morallsts
and economists, to the execration Of "a
free people. as the awful example"
of despotlsms plunderng and impover.
Ishing their peoples. But this Justly
reprobated policy,--as short-sightcd
economically as 1t Is indefenslbe In
morals, this glnsplng relic of barbarlc
times. had at least the merit of having
Its wicked exactions turned into the
public treasury. Our government, ad-
minlstered supposedly for the equal
benefit of It's citizens, In the dawn of
the twentieth century, on the contrary,
pursues the same course of taxing that
which goes into every morsel OF food
eaten within Its borders, but having
laid the tax II turns over the collec,
ton and ownership OF 1t to n private
monopoly, whose extortion in the exer,
elise OF the power thus delegated TO II
has proved 80 impudent aud oppressive
that even It's fellow trust, which mo-
nopolizes the food upon which the
salt Itself is eaten, cries out against It.
We are not at all complaining OF
this one resultant IL is only one out
OF many like II. We are only calling
attention TO the fact and to observe
that II is just one of the many things
akin 10 II for which the majorlt,
voted in November. And were we giver
to speaking after the manner OF men
we might be tempted to add our hop,
that the people who so voted will ge
their iiil of that for which they voted
We do not wish them so III. The peo
pie, In this whole business of bein,
plundered in the use OF life's common
est wants, this power TO rob then
which our Administration hands owe
to the combines which secured IL
election, are the piece Of cloth between
the blades Of the sheors and in conse