Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-01-16
HALE ALIAS NERO

1.-The Dingley bill is a great, magni-
ficent, and munlficent gift to t. e
American people IN the cause of pro
lection and prosperity"
In the Senate a few days ago Mr..
Hale of Maine. gave voice to the above
uxorious sentiment in regard to the
beloved Dingley bill which is the
present tax bill fixed On the American
people, a measure, the onerousness OF
which is greater than any leading
nation of the world has inflicted on its
people. II the measure were placed
on us because we needed its provisions
to raise revenue for the government
then We might submit quietly. but this
is not so, 1t is cheat and thief at
one and the same time. 1t processes
to have been enacted for the protec
tion of American labor. which is a lie
deception and a fraud. For the pre-.
tended protection it affords American
labor the people have submitted to it
because they do not fully see the GLOW
en- foot as yet. 1T does not protect
labor, however, it protects the employ
ers of labor only, and was so Intended.
Ii the laborer gets'any Of its benefits
it is because the manufacturer, the
real afrson protected, is sufficiently
charitable to grant it to him, not be
cause the person protected is compell-
ed to, nor because labor has any real
or legal claim to it. The tariff is like
wise q thief. because it takes our
money under legal sanction for one
professed purpose, but dlverts it to
another.
Now had Mr.. Hale eaid that the
DiDgley bill was ''munificent gift"
to SOME of the American people, he
would have told the exact truth, as it
is he has uttered the greatest falsehood
he could have uttered. We do not
mean an Intentional falsehood, he no
doubt believes what he says. because
there are many who look on it as Mr..
Hale does. But to do SO they must be
bene ficiaries, and thus are SO warped
they cannot think otherwise, they are
blind. The poor freezing wretch in a
garrett who cannot obtain coal looks
upon the coal trust, and very natural
ly SO, as the most Ubiquitous engine of
modern inquisiton. while the coal
barOns are seemingly as welded to it's
beauties and as loud in it's praises for
its ''magnificense and munificense' as
the poor freezing devil in bis howell is
denunciatory of it, One rather natu-
rally looks on situation from the
point of effect as to him, and there are
many who can be cajoled by seemingly
truthful argument into believing most
We have read that Nero,
the most brutal of Roman emperors,
began his career of crime and debauch-
cry, by having his mother murdered.
This unnatural act of bar barity shock
I'D the nation, but he went before the
Senate and told them be had only done
so to save himself from ruin. On
hearing this high motive they approx
I'D the act and applauded the meas
IRE. Mr.. Hale would do well to recall |
his circumstance and keep a little |
nearer the shore when sailing on such |
WATERS
Nobody before him in such high |
,lace has ever had the audacisy to call |
he tax bill of this nation a ''munifi
ent gift" and few would have done
o in any other presence. If he had
lone so before an audience of people
ssembled in most any farming COM
nunlty in the United States, he would
lave been Kissed off the stand. In
Using such an argument Mr.. Hale and
Nero stand side by side. Nero had
murdered his mother, Mr.. Hale is
Wiling to see the poor freeze, and thus
'ecome particeps criminis in murder
aused by the laws, as the Republican
arty has made, construed and execut-
d them. just as Nero was applauded,
o will Mr.. Hale be, but at the same
ime both are guilty of a crime.