The Tucson citizen., 1902-11-03

only one ticket and one platform in
any State of Territory to be acted on
tomorrow. Republicans and DEM
ocrats would make it a unanimous
thing, for it is sheer nonsense to pre-
tend that any of them, merely because
they are Democrats or Republicans,
are unwilling that the country should
prosper, or take their individual
shares of prosperity.
1t is we'll to clear the ground of all
partisan cant in this matter and con-
slider the facts as to the trusts and
their relation to the tariff exactly as
they are. To- begin with, it is we'll to
recognize that when Senator Hanna
says the country is prosperous, con-
sidered as whole, he is simply stating
a cheerful fact. But when he goes on
to say that the best thing to do is to
'let well enough alone" he assumes
that all classes of the people should
be satisfied to know that the nation is
producing and exporting more goods
/ of all kinds than it ever did before.
! and that it's finances are in good
shape, and that the big rows of figures
that indicate it's general condition-its
population, wealth, bank deposits,
crops, manufactures, mining, etc.-ex-
ceed all previous records. Mr.. Han
mas stand pat theory is that nobody
should even suggest the improvement
of so fine situation, for fear of MAX
ing it worse.
Unfortunately for the Ohio Senator's
complacent belief that everything is
for the best in the best of all possible
worlds there are signs all over the
country that great host of people
Republicans as Well as Democrats-are
deeply dissatisfied. Not with the
prosperity, but with their share of it.
Statesmen of the deeper sort discov-
cred as long ago as Adam Smiths
time that prosperity to nation is a
good deal like fertilizer on a farm-it
must be well spread to yield the best
results. Mr. Hanna entirely over
looks the matter of the distribution of
the prosperity. And that is really
what the whole trouble is about. We
are all alike, Republicans and Demo-
Gratis glad and proud to know that our
country is blessed with peace and
plenty as no country was ever blessed
before. That, fact forms the very ba-
| sis of the prevailing dissatisfaction 1t
| is because we are living in a veritable
land of Goshen, flowing with milk and
honey that SO many people want to
know why and what for
Why, with so much prosperity, is
the cost of living SO much higher than
five years ago. Why, as we are told
/ by non-partisan authority, has the
cost of food, clothing and fuel risen
not less than 25 per cent, while wages
have not advanced on an average over
10 per cent in these past five years of
plethoric prosperity?
These are the questions that cover
the country with Interrogation marks
touching the distribution of our ad-
mittedly splendid prosperity. Not in
Iowa only. but all over the northwest,
Republicans, most of them farmers,
are asking, Who gets this prosperity? :?
| Where is it being delivered? Does it
belong to the people or the trusts?
Such is the stuff of which our infirm
human nature is made that men may
see prosperity being delivered, in no
matter how large quantities, at other
mems doors, without feeling the
slightest thrill of enthusiasm Hence
the demand of the Iowa Republicans
for "a modification of the tariff sched-
ules that shelter monopoly" Hence
the echoing calls in the manufacture
ing eastern States, where even Repub-
icans are heard inQuiring where they
and their industries are coming in on
the division of the prosperity pie.
With her great shoe and leather indus
hides, which benefit nobody but the
beef trust, and her wooden mills
weighted down with duties on their
raw material, which help nobody but
the Ohio wool growers combine, even
Massachusetts shows disposition to
call for an inquest on Mr.. Hanna S
J prosperity.
The inference is irresistible that the
! Dingley tariff is, as President Have
: meyer, of the sugar trust, said it was,
"the mother of trusts That is why
: Senator Hanna's campaign cries OF
J ''Let well enough alone" and stand
, pat are Intellectual answers to the
reasonable demand that tariff rates
that make it possible to charge more