Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-06-24
Taken to Dayenport.
DEMOCRATS MEET IN IOWA

Continued from First Page.
we moved up from the platform of
1884 and won. In 1896 we advanced
from the position of 1882, and saved
the party from destruction. In 1900
we added that noble appeal for right
eousness against Imperialism which
raised the party to moral altitude
superior TO that of the churches. And
now let us take counsel as to how we
shall apply the eternal principles of
liberty and democracy to the new
conditions of 1908. For that there
are new conditions who can deny?
Let us not now make the mistake
which the convention of 1892 so mar
rowly avoided-the mistake of wor-
Shipping the verbal expressions of for
mer platforms as fetishes. Therein
lies the backward road to ruin.
Chief Issue of 1896.
The chief issue of 1896, in the form
then put forward is dead. TO attempt
to galvanize it into life is to be false
to the spirit of 1896. The spirit max
eth alive that the fatter killeth-let
this text shed light upon your deliber-
ations. The paramount issue of 1900
must wait. The conscience of men
were and still are wrung by our ar
guments against Imperialism. but the
fancied welfare of their pOcketboOks
prevailed on the day of election. And
now the new feudalism of the trusts
so overshadows all else in mans
minds that they will not shape their
political course by considerations of
our foreign or colonial policy. The
issue of today was implied in every
past platform year, in the declaration
of 1879, in Magma Charta, wherever
right has striven against might But
it awaits expression at our hands.
All forms of oppression have been
bound into single shcaf and named
the trust. In it is slavery for the pro-
ducing masses. In it is the tariff
wrung. In il is the currency monopo-
Iy. reaching out for the banking bust
ness of the world. In it is government
by Injunction invoked by corporate
employees of labor. In it is imperial
ism Selling the home of weaker peo-
people for the exploitation of capital.
At the trust we must aim our blows,
confident that when the Goliath falls,
down with him will go all the hosts
of Philistine evils at which we have
been hacking.
The problem were simple if il were
as easy to do as to know what to do.
Three roots bear upon the domina-
ton of the trusts. These are high
way monopoly, tariff monopoly and
land monopoly. Land monopoly in
the form of ownership of mines and
forests has so far come forward as
to have been made an issue by the
democrats of New York in Il tariff
platform denouncing the anthracite
trust. This great evil demands the at
tention of all who hope to see indus
trial wrongs set right.
Tariff Monopoly.
The tariff monopoly alone seems
to me insufficient to account for any
of the great and powerful trusts.
They rose under its shelter, but, con
trolling as they now do, our mines,
forests and railways, most, if not all
of them would still live though trade
were free. Yet. any movement towards
free trade is in itself good, and how
can we better serve the cause of truth
than to couple the name of such in
dustrial giants as the trust with tho
ancient and absurd lie, protection to
infant industries Furthermore,
while free trade might not kill the
trusts, it would establish line be-
yond which their robberies could not
extend. Hence, we should renew our
war on protection, unfurl again the
tariff reform flag, and demand free
trade in trust made goods. OF the
very essence of liberty is the right
to remove from place to place and to
transport property. He who is
bound to the place where he was born