The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-10
IN HONOR OF TlLDEN
CELEBRATION or GREAT DEMo-
 CRAFTS BIRTHDAY.
Charla S. Hamlin of Boston, the Chief Speaker, Reviews the Is- sues at Present Con-
 fronting People.

New York, Feb, e.wA banquet in celebration Of the eIsary of the birth of Samuel J. Tiiden was held at the Tiidep Club tonight About 100 persons were p esent- Charles g. T. easu'y under President Cleveland, wss the chief speaker.
 Mfr. Hamln said in part
 Tt Is well to cons.der the great quest ens over which, the coming fight for the Pres deacy will be wased First, the foreign policy of the administF ation: escond, the treatment of trusts and monopolies; third. tarid reform; fourth. economy in Government sdratnistrs- ton
 The great question whether the Philippines are ultimately to be admitted as territories or States or whether they shall be given in- dependence is now before us for settlement. believe the vest majority Of the nemecrats Of the nation believe that constitutiqnally one or the other of these courses must ultimately be adopted. and tn this they seem to be sus' tained by the Supreme Court sf the united States. further believe that a majority are of the opinion that the Fiiipinos should be given complete Independence st an early date.
 Hitherto we have, as a nation, regarded the Monroe doctrine ss having relation solely to the attempt of European nat on to force its political institutions upon the South American republics. taking territory for that purpose, and our action has been guided by the instinct of self-presedvation. The present ad- ministration, however, has extended ths doe- Urine so far that 1t has practically made out ministers. pudges or referees in bankruptcy for all Southern American republics. who are cheerfuliy encouraged hy this means to evade the payment of any specinc obligation which their cit sens have incurred by putting fer ward many obligations incurIed to the citizens of other nations that the result would be that the individual nations copcerped could recover no dividend whatsoever.
 ''The proper regulation of industrial eombi- nations known as trusts ts also before the people and many bills have been int oduced which. under the guise of regulation would practically amount to such control over state corporations. as to wipe out State lines and establish . centralized form of government not unlike that of France. We should, there- fore. be careful not to invoke tho tremendous power vested by the Constitution in the Na- tonal Government in such way as to de- stroy the autonom yof the states
 There is a less comprising the consumers of the country, from whom the trusts seek to earn dividends on their watered capital TO earn such dividends. prices have to be main- tsined above the normal level indicated ey the cost of production. The members Of this class are entitled to every protection which can be afforded by State CT National laws. What is the best remedy;
 1T believe the frs tstep should be radically to revise our system of tariff taxation to the end that foreign competition may come in to take the place of that domestic competition which is being destroyed. Then by exanainins the effect of foreign compet ton we soon shall find what additional legislation is needed to control nonopoiies. Meanwhile the Federal Government should enforce existing law and provide new legislation to secure information as to what those combinations are doing.
 we should certainly strive not to faH Into the error from the Democratic standpoint, of using the taxing power of the National Gov ernment as an engine of destruction of State property as has been proposed in numerous bills. Nor can view with much enthusiasm the theory advanced that all trust-conti oiled products should be placed on the free list. believe in the long run 1t would be better calmly to lay down certain broad general prin- cinles in accordance with which radical iower- ing of taxation may take place."