The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-26
The Iowa DcmOcrats-The Meaning
Of Their Platform.


The two significant features Of the
Des Moincs platform are these:
The elimination of the issue of the
standards
The progress beyond Mr.. RoosEyELTs
furthest in the demand for Federal con-
troll OF private business.
Six DAYS before the Iowa Democrats
met Col. BRYAN addressed to them, and
to all other Democrats about to resume
the manufacture of platforms, an almost
pathetically earnest appeal. 1t appeared
on the first page Of the Conmoner. 1t
was the last call from the old headquar-
ters at Lincoln, Nebraska. 1t was in
substance a final adjuraton to remember
Chicago and Kansas City and the sacred
ratio. Col. BRYAN discussed deliberately
the prospects of the gold supply. The
money question: he declared, cannot
be eliminated from politics until avarice
is eliminated. To propose the elimina-
ton of the money question Is, when
rightly understood, merely an attempt
to deceive the public in order that they
may be led blindfold into the traps and
snares of the money magnates.
The ease with which prevailing COM
mon sense on this particular subject dis
posed by silence of an issue that belongs
to history and to the academy-and this
in the State next door to Mr.. BRYAN's e.
Observation-Disclosures that the Hon. NOR
MAN EDWARD MACK of Buffalo and the
Tr,p M,rC Y mn ~ ha
have been wasting both anxiety and ink.
No special formula of compromise was
necessary, nothing but the most ordi-
nary perception of the difference between
the issue that liveth in memory and the
issue that liveth in contemporaneous
politics.
1t will be observed that in treating of
the relations of Government to enterprise
and industry the Iowa Democrats have
been pushed to a position considerably
in advance of anything contained in the
Kansas City platform Of 1900 or the
speeches of their party's leaders in the
campaign Of that year. This progress
toward State socialism is the inevitable
consequence of the mastery appropria-
ton to himself and his own uses by the
Republican President Of the entire con-
tents of their antitrust arsenal Of three
years ago. In 1902 Mr.. RoosEvELT's
energetic genius emasculated in advance
anything the enthusiastically inclined
Democrats could propose in 1903 In the
way Of trust control, at least on the con-
ventional lines to which they had pre-
viously claimed exclusive proprietary
rights. They simply had to go further
than their illustrious competitor or trail
in ignominiously behind him.
The Iowa Democrats did not hesitate.
While their long step ahead does not
quite land them at Governmental owner
ship, as demanded three years ago by
the so-called Social Democrats in the
national platform Of that more progress
sive organization of political economists.
it gets them very nearly there. Indeed,
a considerable part Of the Des Moines
convention, about one-quarter Of the
whole number, voted boldly for reso-
luton looking toward Government own
ership of railroads. Bat the other three
quarters of the delegates were content
for the time with a plank favoring the
limitation by statute of dividends on
capital invested in transportation; and
another plank declaring that where
the market price of any product af-
fected by combination seems unreal
sonsble it is the duty of the Federal
Government to fix prices and profits,
so that the design of nature in making
provision for the wants Of man may not
be perverted into means for his OPP
preston"
This is fair progress for an off year.
They who welcome all signs of rising
tide Of socialistic sentiment know whom
to thank for I he Iowa contribution
The Chinese Question In South Africa
Advices from South Africa indicate an
increasing tendency on the part of the
authorities to approve and to support the
desire Of the mine owners in the Trans
wall for the importation OF laborers from
China. The situation is unquestionably
serious, and not little complicated. An
ADEQUATE loStti idOoi supply APPEARS W
be, for the time at least, an impossibility
Upon the operation Of the mines there
depends not only tho general prosperity
and development Of the region, but also
the payment Of that portion of the war
debt which has been imposed upon the
mining interests. Local labor being I'M
obtainable, the alternative is importation,
White labor from England or the Cont
nent is an impossibility. 1t is not to be
had nor will the mine owners pay the
wages which such would demand.
Undoubtedly, from purely industrial
point Of view, Chinese labor is the most
desirable of any that is at command. But
the protest against its importation is, on
the part OF the people of the country
both vigorous and outspoken. 1t is not
to be doubted that Gen. LOUIS BoTHA
stands as the representative Of the best
OF the Boer element. nor that he is . man
of force and clear intelligence, radically