The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-10-11
..standing Pat" With Prosperity
From the baltimore Sun.

At Akron, Ohio, on Saturday last Senator
Hanna recalled the temporary cry which he
gave to his party a year ago-.Let well
enough alone''-and added, To-day say
stand pat" His obvious meaning is that
the prosperity of the country is so great that
anyone who proposes to change the tariff for
the purpose of curbing the trusts is q disturber
of an altogether satisfactory state of things.
Unfortunately for the Ohio Senator's COM
placent 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-Republican as well as Democrats
are deeply dissatisfied. Not with the pros
perity, but scith their share of 1t. Statesmen
of the deeper sort discovered as long ago as
Adam Smiths time that prosperity to nation
is a good deal like fertilizer on farm--it
must be well spread to yield the best results.
Mr.. Hanna entirely overooks 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 coun-
try is blessed with peace and plenty as no
country was ever blessed before That fact
forms the very basis of the prevailing dissatis-
faction 1t is because we are living in a yer.
liable land of Goshen, flowing with milk and
honey, that so many people want to know
why and what for Why, with so much pros
perity, is the cost of living so much higher
than FIVE years ago, before Mr.. Dingley smote
the rock with his high tariff rod and caused
the stream of prosperity to flow? Why, with
our enormous exports of over s., ZOO. OOO, 600
of farm and plantation products, and over
$4OO, 0O0, 900 of factory and mill products,
are workingmen striking in such unprece-
dented numbers Why, as we are told by
non bipartisan authorities like Dun's Review,
has the cost of food, clothing and fuel risen
not less than % per cent, while wages have
not advanced on an average over 10 per cent.
in these past FIVE years of plethoric prosperity?
Why are beef and other meats so high in price
that in thousands of homes they have disap-
peared from the table altogether, as Incl
dent of this golden period of amazing abun-
dance? .And how basit come about that
coal has gone to famine prices-pr ohlbltive
prices to multitudes of working people in all
the cities of the Eastern seabord-all because
145, 900 miners say they cannot live on wages
that average less, as their employers admit,
than 81. AZ day for 200 days of the year, and
their employers, though they are very near to
the head waters of the marvellous prosperity,
say they cannot afford to give them any more?
These are the questions that cover the
country with interrogation marks touching
the distribution of our admittedly splendid
DrOSDefllV. NOb Ill lOWd OulJs Uut oil ONCA
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 to the trusts? Such is the
stuff of which our infirm human nature is
made that men may see prosperity being de-
livered, in no matter how large quantities, at
other mems doors without feeling the slight
est thrill of enthusiasm. Hence the demand
of the Iowa Republican platform for ''any
modification of the tariff schedules that shell
ter monopoly" Hence the echoing calls in
the manufacturing Eastern States, where even
Republicans are heard inquiring where they
and their industries are coming in on the d.
vision of the prosperity pie. With her great
shoe and leather industry handicapped by
Dingley duties on hides, which benefit no.
body but the Beef Trust and her wooden
mills weighted down with the duties on their
raw material, which help nobody but the
Ohio wool growers combine, even Massachu-
sets shows a disposition to call for an inquest
on Mr.. Hanna's prosperity.
The belief, indeed, seems to be widespread
among voters of both parties that while the
nation, as whole, is on the crest wave of q
most extraordinary era of industrial and CON-
mercial development, quite without parallel
in the worlds history, yet the distribution of
it is being so controlled by artificial combina.
tons of men and money that its benefits are
unequally enjoyed by comparatively small
class and unjustly withheld from the great
mass of the people. And the fact, certified
by the census returns, that the great majority
of trusts that now control the supply and fix
the prices of the staple necessaries of life for
the American people formed since the passage
Of the Dingley Tariff act of 1897, confirms the
growing popular belief that the trusts are TAX
ing the lions share of all this prodigious
prosperity
The inference is irresistible that the Ding
ley tariff is, as President Havemeyer, of the
Sugar Trust, said it was, ''the mother of
trusts" That as why Senator Hanna cam
paign cries of "Let tceU enough aloner' and
''.Sfand patr' are Intellectual ANSWERS to the
reasonable demand that tariff rates that make
it possible for trasts to charge more for their
goods to american buyers than they sell them
for to foreigners, after paying ocean .freigltts,
shall be reduced American consumers are
quite ready to ''stand pat soith the feast Of
prosperity, but first Of all they soo,tld like a
seat at the table