Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-11-12
BLIND LEADING THE BLIND.
Republicans Fear the People, There.
fore Try to Foo Thcnl-What
Democrats Believe.

Republicans Fear the People, There
fore Try to Fool Thenl-What
Democrats Believe.
1t is really wonderful that any voters
of ordinary intelligence can be fooled
by the rubbish that cabinet officers and
republican senators, not to say anything
Df the small fry spell-bindeTs, declaim
upon the stump. In Ohio we hear of
Senator Hanna predicting disaster to
the country if he is not reelected and de-
claring that to stand pat is the acme
OF political foresight. Then Senator
Allison is reported to have said, in what
the republican organs as "a
clear and forcible exposition of the trust
question that the tariff had nothing
whatever to do with the trusts. That it
IN no way benefited the steel trust, the
meat trust or any other trust. Those
are not the senator's words, but is the
substance of his remarks. Yet, only q
year ago, the republican platform OF
Iowa declared that the tariff gave shelter
TO the trusts and Senator Dolliver de-
tended that position in a speech in the
united States senate in reply to Senator
Aldrich, who, like Hanna, is in favor
OF letting well enough alone. To cap the
cll1naX, Mr.. Shaw, secretary of the treas
ury, who was congratulated by President
Roosevelt on being able to stump Ohio
for Senator Hanna, deliberately telling
the people of that state that:
The plan proposed by the minority
party is to throw our commercial doors
wide open for the free importation OF
the products of foreign labor. Members
OF that party insist that il we do this We
Will OF necessity have unrestricted ac-
cess to the markets of other countries.
They urge that if we will but allow Eu,
rope to clothe us, furnish our glass, ou1
earthenWare, our hardware, our stee.
rails, our structural iron, and everything
else we produce, we will thus secure a
most wonderful export trade"
: NOW Secretary Shaw must have known
he was romancing and enormously ex.
agerating when he made that statement
n last national democratic platform
declared: Tariff laws should be
amended by putting the products of the
trusts on the free list, to prevent mo-
nopoly under the plea of protection
The platform of 1896 declared:
We hold that tariff duties should be
levied for purposes of revenue, such
duties to be so adjusted as to operate
equally throughout the country, and not
discriminate between class or section
n that taxation should be limited BY
the needs of the government, honestly
II economically administered"
The platform of 1892 declared:
we denounce republican protection
as a fraud-a robbery of the great ma
1ority of the American people for the
benefit Of the few. We declare it to be a
fundamental principal of the democratic
party that the federal government has
no constitutional power to impose ant
collect tariff duties, except for the Dur.
poses OF revenue only, and we demand
that the collection of such taxes shall be
limited to the necessities of the govern
ment when honestly and economically
administered"
Are any of these declarations of the
democratic party anywhere approaching
"A plan to throw our commercial door,
wild open for the free importation of the
products of foreign labor?" Can Secre.
tary Shaw quote any democratic speaker
or newspaper in speaking of the tariff
saying anything that can be contorted
into words he has put into democratic
mouths?
1t is so necessary to deceive the re.
publican voters about what democrats
stand for to prevent them from voting
against their WI frauds with which
their own party is tainted?
Secretary Shaw knows and everyone
who reads understands the position OF
the democratic party on the tariff and
trust issues. Democrats believe in a
tariff for revenue to yield enough to sup
ply all the wants of the government
honestly administered. They also be.
lieve that it is wrong to tax people for
mo- VI uJliuio SUI pluS 10 Dp lOGlEG
to favored banks, like Secretary Shaw
has been doing. They also believe and
will probably declare in the next ma
tional platform that the tariff should be
revised so that those trusts products
that the trusts sell abroad cheaper than
they sell the same products to our own
people should be placed upon the free
list.
That is the shoe that pinches Secre-
tary Shaw, he sees the danger to his
friends, the trusts and corporations.
that are monopolists. in the democratic
position. He fears the people if they
know the truth and therefore tries to
blind their eyes to the true issues be-
tween the parties.
ROBERT MILLER.