The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1902-05-02

system is incalculable. 1t is hard to
tell what the Republican Senate will
do with this bill. fit acceptsitin its
present shape it would be acceding to
a Democratic measure and thus sur
render a leading point ofparty policy
to the control of the opposition. If
protection is abandoned on sugar it
cannot be defended on steel or hides
and the removal of the "differential"
is the first step in tariff reform.
There is sentiment growing even
among the Republicans themselves
that protection has been breeder
of trusts. This has been the conten-
ton of the Democratic party for
years and its newspapers and orators
in the campaigns of 1888 and 1892
predicted that unless radical reforms
were effected, in the way ofreduction
of duties, the aggregation of capital
would cause a combination that
would annihilate competition. These
words fprophecy we of the older
school can we'll remember and can
assure the present generation that,
at that time, it seemed to many per-
sons almost as absurd as the present
prediction that the Government of
the United States is drifting towards
a monarchy. The only fault of the
prophets of those days was that they
did not go far enough. No one ever
dreamed that the entire output of
petroleum would be controlled by a
single company, such as the Standard
Oil Company is today, nor did it
seem possible that the vast steel in
dustries of this country would be
combined together under "billion
dollar" corporation, las it is sometimes
called, at the head of which is man
not yet forty years old who receives
the princely salary of 81 900, cooper
year. Had it been said that all of
the shipping interests of the world
would become "Morganized" before
half of the first decade of the twen-
tieth century had passed, the narra-
tor would have been put down as a
silly fool indulging in harmless pipe
dreams. Such however, in the case.
Where we will stop unless the
hand of Congress intervenes, no one
can tell. Now with all these vast
combinations where capital has
worked in unison, how much benefit
has been gained by the average citi-
zen? Is he any better off than he was
before? How many men of fair in
telligence and small means in these
days of prosperity" have been
enabled to amass more than a mere
pittance? The answer to these ques-
tions is unnecessary. The poor to-
day are as badly off as ever they
were and there is no prospect oftheir
condition being battered. Every
single, solitary article that is in use
has been advanced in price without
a corresponding increase either in
prices for products to be sold by the
farmer, or wages by the wage Garner.
The purchasing power of the dollar
has been almost cut in two during the
last FIVE years and yet wheat is
seventy-fve cents per bushel and
wages are no higher. 1t is therefore
plain to be seen that tarifflegislation
benefits only the rich whose Golfers
are even now OVERLOOKING with gold.
1t is the common people, if poor
makes a person common, to whom
this appeal is directed. They hold
within their own hands by the right
of the priceless gift of the ballot, the
power to bring about changed
of things. We cannot
blame the wealthy for voting to pro-
tect themselves, but we do blame the
farmer or working man to
allow himself to be deluded by the
false cry of prosperity" when all of
it that he has seen is the quotations
of the stock market.