The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-18
AVAILABLE TIMBER FOR <.
 DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION
An Alabamian Fresh from New York Regards Ed.
 ward M. Shepard as the Man of the Hour. Bryan or Cleveland Impossible.

Democracy. He is a gentleman possess. ing the simplicity and modesty of the olo school: so 1 wish to say that this express sion of opinion is something for which he and his immediate friends are m no sense responsible.
 I think that one can gather something of the quality of the man from the fol lowing passage of the speech at St. Lotus to which I have already referred. In regard to Mir. Roosevelts vague remedies for the evils of the trusts, remedies to be applied through an amendment 10 the constitution, Mr, Shepard said:
 "The President seems driven tsurely he cannot wish) to leave undetned the body of evils which he tells us inhere in the trusts and to postpone the application of any practical remedy until some years when two Sundays come together. lie knows how enormously difficult and dila, tory is the process of constitution amendment involving the assent Of the two-thirds part of the Senate and the same fraction of the House, and then the vote of the legislatures of three-fourths of the States.
 "I do not believe that any such amend ment will be adopted or that 1t ought tc be adopted. The Democratic party Wili, l hope and believe, set it's face against any reduction of the power still vested In the several States to deal with cor porations. The idea ought not to be en- tertained unless the President ard his Republican associates makes clear to us what are the precise evils which can De cured by, and only by, an increase ot federal jurisdiction, and next what pre- cisely are the new remedies for those evils which are to be adopted by the federal government when 1t shall secure new jurisdiction or a further right of supervision. Grant of power Is not a remedy but only a means of providing one. Let us first know what is the remedy which cannot LOW be provided. Let us know why the comedies which are available are not used.
 " Nor would such a change bring solid and lasting advantage to the fortunes in control of great corporations. The Demo- cratic party, for the very reason that 1t stands for liberty, stands likewise for law and for the protection of every law full property interest It knows that as- sociations and corporations are essential features of modern business. When they ask only equal rights they are to be cherished, not threatened. We are rot hostile to the legitime accumulation of wealth. l challenge Republican orators to point out laws of that character enact ed by Democrats. We do not believe that men become bad as they become rich, or that they are good because they are poor We know that the instincts virtues and faults of rich men are the same as those of the rest of us.
 The Democratic party proposes nc spoliation, no invasion of liberty to pre- vent the accumulation of wealth or to in- terfere with the right of all men to inno- gently use their faculties as they see fit or by their use to acquire whatever re- wards, large or small. those faculties shall bring. But we do believe in equality of privilege and right, and that burdens should be fairly apportioned. If there be set up at Washington the enormous power which the President suggests, to regulate all corporations, those corpora tions which are legitimate and enjoy to- day no special privilege, must ultimately suffer.
 "'So the President now declares against tariff revision for the present-not even | the reduction of single duty. Indeed | he has made the wonderful discovery that | the tariff ought not to be political issue | That Is one way of saying that We should | all agree with the Republican program 1 He would postpone and evade the ques | tion by what he calls mon partisan in | quiry and action" For a man SC | strenuous and direct as he, his device: | of constitutional amendments and legis | lative commissions are singularly dila l tory and ineffective. Has not Congres! already gathered tons and tons of in | formation, partisan and non-partisan l Do we not all remember the tariff com mission authorized by the Republican | Congress in May, 1882? Though made III | entirely of protectionists, it reported z | reduction of 20 or 9 per cent; but tht | Republican Congress repudiated It's worl l and Instead adopted a tariff still higher
 
 | to be reformed.
 | Instead of the Presidents evasive | impracticable and absurd plan of a ron | partisan commission appointed by Con | gross to deal with the one genuinely poll | tical question most seriously and practi | cally dividing the country at the presen l time. the Democrats propose tarin com 1 mission of another kind. Let the peopl' | appoint its members by electing them t' | Congress. Let 1t be non-partisan, If yot i please, after the fashion of the Presi | dents -partisanship-only with thi! 1 detail alteration: That the Republican | members shall be in minority, and th' l Democratic members shall be in ma
 and genuine reduction of duties on trust
 made articles, and, after devising 1t, tt | place it upon the statute books.
 Everyone says Secretary Shaw, 1
 tariff from time to time as are advisa | ble.' He says he has never seen th' | time that he would not reduce the rat
 on quite a large number of items.' No
 does he deny that the present Is such | time Nevertheless he is against an!
 change of the tariff For one change
 he argued, would lead to another, and
 what Is more serious, any change woul'
 stir up discussion. In effect Secretar, | Shaw argues that the tariff is safe onl
 through conspiracy of silence. Tn | price of tariff. he in effect comedies
 Is silent submission to Inequality and Tn | justice. To this we Democrats sa,
 that the inequalities and injustice
 at least those that, are glarina | should be abolished, and that if the re
 maining fabric of protection cannot the
 stand, then the whole of 1t should gc
 Our best thanks are due to Speaker Hen
 derson for helping to break up the con | spiracy of silence.
 :" Surely no answer can be made to tn 1 proposition that the tariff ought to be a | once reduced on the products of thos
 great corporations of the country whic
 out of their protection have made an
 are making enormous and practically in
 calculable fortunes for a small number o
 multi-millionaires. The protection o
 Alexander Hamilton, of Henry Clay, o
 Horace Greedy, depended upon the propo sition that the infant industries of tn
 country should he given an Opportunit
 to grow to maturity. But we hay
 single industries like steel which. wit
 the aid of the tariff, has created singl
 fortunes of hundreds of millions of dollar
 and is now enormously increasing then
 and which now maintains the greates
 single manufacturing corporation worl
 has ever known. Is 1t not idle for tn
 middle and laboring classes to pay taxe
 in the form of increased prices, to aug | aIraadv