The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-22

InotlNe or the large majority of bot
 the great parties. the matter has bee
 treated from start to finish as if tn
 sole question was whether there is any thing in it for congressman. If the could perpetuate for themselves pow
 CT of patronage they had seized in or ganizing the temporary bureau, the.
 would let the bureau be made perma
 nent; otherwise they would not. Ther
 are about four hundred and fifty sena
 tors and members of the House. Ther, 1 are perhaps two thousand employees O
 the census bureau, employed on the re I commendation of congressman. Thes, l twenty-five hundred persons, more ol less, were, in the judgment of mos
 congressman, the people," Our legis- lators were for the measure, or opposed
 to it, according to whether it could be
 ehaped to serve the personal interests
 of these: The interests of the eighty
 million other persons in the nation ''cut
 no ice'' in their consideration. Unless this beggarly few could secure a per
 sonal advantage, the bill was to be
 damned and beaten. Because the pres
 ident, acting for the interest of the
 pubtic at large, has found a way to prevent a portion of the intended wrong, these representatives of the people are making themselves a spec tacle of wrathful, roaring disappoint- ment.
 Consider another large public ques- tion about which congress is so con ducting itself as to make scandal. Nha nf pledged by those who had right to do it that concessions would be made to the Cuban people in the way of trade conditions, if the constitutional con- vention of the Cubans would accept the onerous, and in some respects humlia- ting, conditions imposed by the "Platt amendment" so called, although it should properly be called the McKin- ley-Root amendment. Senator Platt of Connecticut, however, was the agent whom it was brought before congress, and by that body the accep- tance of it was made condition pre- cedent to the ratification of any Cuban of government that the United States would recognize. Pros- trate, helpless, hungry Cuba did what was required. It has become our duty to perform our part of the obligation. The president at the beginning of the session, and the secretary of war in his report, notified congress that the full f1ment of the pledge given deeply con cerned the p1ighted honor of the ad and informed congress that the necessity of promptness in the l,a been accomplished.
 Why not? Are the people, the hon. est, plain people of the United States indifferent to doing justice to Cuba, 'areless of the national honor, willing o extort, by virtue of having an army n the island, mortifying relinquish- nent of important attributes of inde- pendent sovereignty, and unwilling to perform the promises by which a com | ,lete and peaceable. although reluc- ant, consent was won? The people of | his country are not so greedy nor so alse. We do not believe there is a tate of the Union where, if the issue vas put to vote in it's unobscured and | simplicity, there would not @ an overwhelming majority in favor l, f upholding the pledge of President F. IcKinley and saving Cuba from the k commercial disaster which onfidence in the good faith of the Uni- ad States has prepared for her if con- ress shall be perfidious.
 Congress is not needing the sentiment f the good citizenship of the country. here are certain great combinations of apitalists who have waxed fat and au- acious by reason of the enjoyment of oecial privileges. They are the en- odiment of heartless selfishness. hey think they see peril to their ab ormal and unwholesome prosperity in ny, the least, relaxation of the domes- e tariff oppression by which they have own so great and so impudent. hese have grown so great and so inn ldent. These have issued their edict
 the congress, commanding it to let lba starve, rather than lessen in any trticular or in any degree the peculiar Id partial privileges they desire to ntinue enjoying. Their agents have warmed in Washington, wheedling Id threatening, as their habit is. I
  rity, but they are bloated with riches, 2 d imagine that they are the people" s ley are not the people They do not . lly represent the people. They are ly a privileged class, grown sordid. 10 affect to own the people and the vernment, and they dare protest inn ratively against whatever is honora- }, righteous and humane, if, as most norab1e, righteous and humane lngs must do, it threatens or weakens cir high privilege of eXtortion. It is e trait of this class that they never nsent to yield a privilege once ac- fred, and never cease demanding W privileges And it is the misfor- 1e of the nation that the republican rty has come to regard this class as T } real people the only people to be | yarded.
 t is high time for the masses of the ton to begin to consider in earnest
 increasingly serious question, Who , the people?-Boston Herald.