The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-28

I recommends aware of the fact that Democrat introduced | in the Senate an amendment to a bill exactly embodying the Presidents suggestion ana recommendation concerning publicity anent trusts and that 1t was voted down by solid Republican vote in that body do not blame thsm therefore for ignoring this whole ques- tion and apologizing for the attitude Of the President on this question. l have been mere Iy waiting before mentioning this subject for 6 final denial that the Republican Campaign R. ok Is to be revised on account Of the fail- ure to present this trust question according to the ideas of the President, also his atti- tude on the Cuban reciprocity question have received that denial. The book is being is- sued and it is announced that there is no con- ftct between the President and the Campaign Committee on the subject
 Ut must be remembered that this book Is the text book of the party, the political Btbie of the campaign from a Republican stand point and presumed to contain ar. exposition of all the issues which .he Republican man agers recognize as being preesnt In the cam paign. If 1t Is true that the President IS sat isfed with the book. the public has a miscon- ception of the attitude of Mir. Roosevelt with reference to reciprocity and to tN trusts. ''The question of reciprocity is ignored as not being of sufficient consequence to De considered. presenting an issue Tor which the Republicans organization Is not wiling to take responsibility. The accept ance by the President of this disposition Of the question amounts to an acquiescence m the position of the campaign managers or the Republican Party and an abandonment or the proposition and estops him from advocating Cuban reciprocity on the hustings during his swing around the circle which begins In September. 1t Is a practical admission that the Republicans have abandoned this position and that he must depend upon Democrats Tor | support if anything is to be accomplished with reference to the trust question, the acceptance by the President as satisfactory | the presentation made by the Republican | Campaign Book is a reversal from the posi- | tion which the President is publicly supposed | to have taken, and which he evidently did | take from the extracts above quoted from his | message. The spirit and argument Of the Republican Campaign Book is in the defense | of trusts in general, 1t being merely conceded that there Is a possibility of some trust being | objectionable. They not only have done this, | but apparently fearing that to much impor- | tance might be attached to the apparent hos
 tility of the President towards trusts, they nave | apologized for his position
 | "The public may draw it's own conclusions. There is no question but that a very large l majority of the people favor Cuban reciproc- | ity' as proposed by the majority of the Ways | and Means Committee, and erroneously termed the Presidents policy said Representa- | tive Eddy of Minnesota today. Although | do not agree with the public in this matter any other statement would be a perversion Of | fact. The public of the opinion that we | are something to Cuba that this proposition | would benefit the Cuban planter, that it Is | inimical to the interests of the sugar trust and thet 1t originated with the President | Holding these opinions the people. following | the lead of eel tain papers, have dubbed those | who opposed the scheme. insurgents. and l think their opposition is based either upon | corrupt motives through ignorance. | Public opinion is generally right and as | rule it is safer for a legislator to follow the | well considered opinion of majority of his | fellow citizens than that of the wisest states | man.
 Sometimes however, such opinion is based | on passion. mistakes or sentiment, and when | such is the 1t goes wrong and awfully | wrong and when a legislator believes this to | be true and bows to the blast instead of reso-
 iutely performing what he believes to be his | duty and earnestly endeavoring to correctly I point out the on which such opinion is
 formed and patiently waiting for time to vim
 dicate him. he is unworthy to represent any | constituency.
 | 'I am one of those who do not think we owe | Cuba anything. morally. politically or hnan- | caly We spent hundreds of millions of dol | lars and drenched her soil with our best and
 bravest blood to give her independence and
 she is independent Her people possess | the most favorable natural resources in the l world Why should now contribute to her | finances? Cuba moral and financial | debt she can never pay and we are generous | enough to never ask or expect such payment | but the idea that we are Cuba's debtor Is | absurd.
 | | able to show how the people of Cuba. of the
 l United States, outside of a few interested
 l parties. would ever receive a dollars benefit | The sugar trust would he relieved of six mil
 | lion dollars duty their imports of raw
 | sugar. but that they would donate this to the Cuban planter American consumer unless
 compelled to is palpable absurdity and that | such compulsion is impossible Is self-evident. l Members of the sugar trust testified in | favor of the proposition. They contributed | literally to bring public sentiment bear in | favor of it's passage. Sugar stock went up
 when the prospects of the measure being
 passed favorable and went down as fail ure became apparent. In view Of these facts
 the theory that Cuban reciprocity was de-
 feated at the behest of the sugar trust is too | ridiculous for consideration.
 | The President unquestionably favorsl reef | procity with Cuba but the plan of the much | discussed measure is the creation of ma | jority of the Ways and Means Committee and | if any one believes they would eroginate leg
 islaton inimicaI to the sugar trust or any
 other, formulate any scheme of tariff revision unless forced to do so by public sen | timent, he is at liberty to do so.
 ''The almost universal impression Is that l the ultimate settlement of the Cuban ques- | tion will be it's annexation and that this will | be eventually brought about by the request
 of the Cubans themselves is generally be- | lieved."
 l 'So far as the action of the Republican | Party is concerned, writes Representative | Newiands from his home at Reno, Nevada. in | a letter received in this city yesterday. what | ever may be it's verbal expressions. it is against | the President and is not in sympathy with his l reform views, though it will exploit them be- | fore the public for the purpose of securing an 1 extension of power. The trust issue is bound | to be the most prominent in the campaign. | Te Republican Party will go into the campasn | this Fall relying mainly upon the expressions | of President Roosevelt in his message and his ffc1t,r fndi of
 trust proclvities but the question Is not what | Mir. RooseveIt's views are. but what the views | of the Republican Party are this question; | and. above all. what the action of the Re | publican Party has been during it's six years | of power just passed" After giving his sons for his belief that the President and the | Republican Party not in accord on the | trust issue, Mir. Newlands says, ''our conten- | tion is that the public utilities and the trans portation facilities and the corporation laws | of the country being perverted as to | permit the formation of immense combinations | of wealth. which on the one hand are escaping ] the burdens of taxation and on the other hand | are obtaining an undue profit of production. hTe antitrust sentiment is not hostile to
 wealth as such. It recogizes that there must | be inequalities of fortune arising from df- | ference in ability and opportunity. But it 1 does seek to oblterate inequality so far as | the laws are concerned and to prevent the ma chinery of the law from being used in such a way as to unduly promote the wealth of the | few at the expense of the many
 The Republican Party has been in power | for six years and yet 1t has done nothing in
 the way of legislation to meet these evils.