Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-03-26

GENERALIZATION Of banking and financial
privileges. its adoption Of a colonial policy
of force-these and a hundred other fea-
lures of its policy, since its usefulness end
ed with the abolishing of slavery. have
borne normal fruit.
No Protest Against Combination.
Il make tonight no protest against mere
organization or combination of capital or
labor where freedom of others Is not i'm
paired and where the power of the govern
ment Is not thrown into the scale. The idea
of limiting individual wealth doubtless is
a pernicious dream. Great fortunes eve
in mean and unworthy hands and whether
they will or not serve a valuable economic
purpose so long as they represent creation
or wealth by genius or saving and not
through unfair privilege established by law
and so long as they do not enjoy immunity
from a just share of public burdens. The
democratic party has never made, and
never will make. an attack upon the free
dom of those who have lawfully made for
tunes, to make them larger. And very GER
tainly the democratic party, made up in so
large part of wage earners, can never be
otherwise than loyal to labor organization
or stand otherwise than for its usefulness,
It's moral and economic necessity, it's rights,
its general beneficence.
Tariff Question Discussed.
TO the one obvious effective step against
monopolist tendencies-that Is to say, the
repeal of their tariff pri~vileges-the pres
ident now peremptorily refuses his sanction.
All else that he has lone or will do is but
cnlds play compared with this. / shall
not dispute his sincerity, but until he at
tempts this his sincerity is not Of genuine
service. Here is the one remedy imme-
olately available and practical, even If not
complete, for the evils of industrial monop-
Oily. Before We proceed to restrictive leg
i%slation, the wisdom of which may be
doubtful, the practical inefficiency of which
Is hardly doubtful-and before we take up,
as In time the American people Will nave
TO take up, the question of taxation that
rich and poor may alike bear their full
snare or public burden, we can at least re-
peal the most odious and burdensome of the
high protective duties, the maintenance
OF which intact is the Fundamental purpose
of republican politics.
Body Of Trust Problem.
If l may borrow words of a philosopher,
the trust problem Is to-day the tariff
problem touched with popular emotion.
Indeed. sound politics is generally political
or social economy touched with emotion.
On the economical side the %defenseless
character of the high protective system has
been demonstrated again and a%gain-its
artl1clal Wastefulness. But Americans to-
day are not so much concerned with that
side OF the problem. 1t is rather the
problem fused in their profound and just
I.emotion over the unfairness and social
danger of the system of concentrated in
uustrlal power and wealth-producing priv
ilege.
Therefore, it is thai 1 should rejoice to
heal the democratic party propose not a
general revision of the tariff with all of it's
dlfncultles and complications and with all
of the widespread popular belief, faulty as
L believe it to be, of great masses of Ameri-
can business and laboring men in the pro-
tective tariff, but In the first instance a re-
moval or reduction to a revenue basis of the
duties on goods the production of which is
to-day practically m~onopolized. Instead of
dealing with the whole problem of free
trade and protection. instead of introduce
ing doubt into almost every business, the
democratic party ma well deal with the
few schedules In which through such prac-
t1cal monopoly vast fortunes have been
made by taxation upon the masses Of peo-
pie.
"For that campaign public sentiment Is
ready. In that campaign every argument
In favor of economic freedom can be read
lily made clear to the American people. Its
essential conservatism will readily appeal
to the average American citizen whatever
he may scientifically think of free trade.
such a particular assault upon the fortress
of monopoly would succeed and promptly.
And in its beneficent result the American
people would find, as the English people
found in the days of Sir Robert Peel, an
ail-sufhcient reason later to support a cam
paign for demolition of the entire fortress.
NOT Is this the whole of democratic duty
and opportunity at present. Nc wise man
can fail to see that the republican estab-
lishment of a new system of colonies held
for the American republic by force of arms
ami at nrnrrpnrG ~ { - L.,t 49, IT.
of the Capitalization of power and dis
paragement of equal rights.
me democratic minority of the senate
COMMITTEES on the Philippines did them
proposed for free trade between the Philip
pines and the United States during our
temporary occupancy Of, the Islands and
aeciarlng IT to be our policy to occupy and
govern them only until their people should
nave established a stable government, have
sufficiently guaranteed the performance to
t SPAN mo OF our treaty obligations related to
assigned to the United States suitable milf
tary. naval and coaling stations.
Ire American people are likely indeed
10 Pc awakened to the significance of the
problem upon a side which Is not sentiment
tai. The enormous increase in cost of pub
nc administration since President Cleve-
lands second term is alarming to the last
degree. And when the time comes, as come
1t by. and by must, when we Americans
shall be constrained to the harsh economies
of industrial depression. an annual ex-
penditure of $3.50, 600, 900 mot counting the
cost of the Panama canal, as against Sgsoo
W9,,OO, but eight years ago, will not be
tolerated.
Army and Navy Expenses.
AN army largely and permanently in
programme of naval expenditures in the
future far beyond the limits yet reached a
disparagemen of the moral glory and
m ana streh PleSt's pr 81 eHr pa 81 = tS s=ent in uons
mar armed as the supreme function OF
this industrial and democratic republic.
our demoralizing competition with Euro
pean powers to make our wasteful and un-
productive expense as great as theirs and
without their justification Of nearby and
dangerous rivals-all these are among the
results of our new imperial policy.
The republican party has of late years
affected to be the guardian of sound finan-
cial policy. Whether the party which made
gg=F6eenbaek s,i a legal : tender and passed The
even from gold republicans or gold demo-
Gratis Is well open to question. But ii is
beyond question that the republican party
leaders have deliberately, If not cunningly.
refused to give the national bank-note cur.
rency the sound and normal elasticity the
business of the country requires.
III we are to have a national bank sys-
tenn 1t should be permitted. or. perhaps,
compelled, to perform its duty in the
provision OF a currency made adequate and
iiohh LcuuIludlCy ny normal and |
automatic adjustment to the natural and
sufficient demands of business.
Look to BANKS for Currency.
"Slnce the volume of the g%reenbacks ia
fixed and their issue of necessity arbitrary
and not normal, we have come to look to
banks, national and state, for paper cur
rency. Not only should the currency have
slant r~edeemability into gold as the ma
tional standard Of value, but It should be
Issued by banks In every city and every
town of the land. For many purposes small
consequence than the great national banks
Of Chicago and New York. II the amount
of the national bank cur rency do not in
crease as 1t Is iegitimately needed and de-
crease when 1t Is not thus needed the very
for business.
Under influences now dominant in 1t the
republican party refused. after tha disniis.