The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-07

Statements About Trust Legislation.
 .grhe temporary chairman then told the country that the act to expedite hear ings of the trust cases, namely, the aet of February H. 1903, was republican leg islation He forgot to say that every democrat voted for it. and yet that is my recollection. l have never known a more ingenious mind than that of ex-Secretary Root. His ingenuity Is never so mar velous as when its power is illustrated by the things which, he forgets to men tion. Probably he is the root of all evil when 1t comes to making the worse ap- pear the better side of reason
 "T'he ex-secretary then tells us in burst of eloquence that the fatal 14th of September. 1901, marked no change of policy that when the fraternal soul of Mckinley wended it's way from earth, he 1 left behind him no break-his policy was continued in spirit by his successor. Who is there in America of common sense who 1 does not know better? The changed 1 spirit of the policy of the administration with regard to reciprocity with foreign nations with regard to local self-govern- ment in the south, and in twenty respects which it would take too much time to particularize, will suggest themselves to your mind at once.
 
 terance of the republican party in con vention assembled, The platform, like the l temporary chairmans speech deals chiefly 1 in the boast that the republican party is responsible for everything good which l has happened. It also deals much in an l cient history It did well to go back fif- 1 ty years ago. The present republican party needs a running start of at least l fifty years to enable the imagination of the American people to jump over It's present Instructions and it's evasion of live issues which lie in it's pathway to success in this year of 1904 The plat form. in speaking of the access of the i republican party to power after MT. Clevelands second administration had ex- pred, uses this language:
 Accession of Republicans. i !" We then found the country after l four years of democratic rule, in evil 1 plight, oppressed with msfortunes and i doubtful of the future. Public credit had l been lowered revenues were declining, the debt was growing, the administra- ton s attitude towards Spain was feebe l its standard of values was threatened 1 and uncertain Labor was unemployed. Business was sunk in the depression which succeeded the panic of 1893. Hope was faint and confidence was gone
 Suppose l paraphrase that utterance 1 by saying that when MT. Cleveland suc- ceeded to the presidency in March, 1893, after four years of republican admins- tration under MT. Harrison, the demo- cratic party found the country, after 0 i long period of public misrule and ex 1 travagance in evil plight, oppressed with i misfortune and doubtful of the future. Public credit had been lowered, the rev i enues were declining Fhe outgoing ad- ministration was preparing and had pre- i pared to issue bonds. A government de- felt was confessed.
 The panic which had devastated the world was relentlessly approaching our shores. A long saturnal of extravaganza, public and private and of reckless spec. l ulation had been already followed by 1 depression. Corn was burned for fuel in Kansas and elsewhere in the west in i 1890, and after. Cotton was at or below i the price of production. The acute reac- ton which we call panic was inevitably approaching even before Mir. Cleveland 1 was elected.
 Depression Before 1893. l Business was sunk in the depression 1 which preceded the panic of 1893. Labor was unemployed or poorly remunerated l in factory or field, especially In the lat l ter. Indeed, business depression, espe- cially in agriculture and the lack of ad- equate remuneration for labor, taken to- gether with the high prices of manufac- I turers under the Mckinley act (hgh 1 prices especially accentuated to public realization by the contrasting starvation prices of agricultural products which had begun to prevail in 1890 and had continued more or less persistently since), these constituted the chief industrial reasons ia, tIa lir gnH for Mr. rison and the republicans out and putt | ting MT. Cleveland and the democrats in. To go on with the paraphrase under Harrisons s administration for three years hope was faint and confidence gone. The l plight of the people was so desperate I that like drowning men, they were
 catching at lstraws} Many nostrums were being suggested. Agrarianism and state socialism in the shape of sub treasury and other schemes were rife from 1890 and thence on.
 1 '"The two old parties as they were. called, were blamed for 1t all. but the one in power was blamed most hence. the out-of power got in. Men advocating these nostrums in the state of public des- peration, then existing, counted their au- dences throughout the suffering west and depressed south, no longer by num- bers, but bySthe acre. Who will deny the historical truth of a single sentence of the paraphrase? Why pretend to have forgotten all this? Why not be honest with the people as men ought to be-? l It is true that after the election of Mr. Cleveland the chronic. business expression I continued It is true that 1t became acute; in a word. reached the banks and the fright or panic of 1893 came, which | was not a local or an American condi- ton, but one which had existed from where Vienna nestles on the Danube to where Buenos Ayres commands its bay one whose foundations had been laid long before 1t reached us. almost last among the nations.
 More Nostrums Suggested.
 Then when the panic came upon us more nostrums of a national character were suggested to cure an evil of world character. One of them, as you will all remember, was the repeal of the pur- chasing clause of the Sherman act. The nostrum was suggested by wise men and 1t was administered to the patient. Ii did no good, of course. The panic went on; it went on until the boil on the body commercial having burst the poison of speculation boom values and credit op- erations was released from the system
 1t went on until agriculture, the basic in dustry, revived In the midst of the panic all the wise men, and chief among them the republican leaders, told us that it was lack of confidence in the money of the country that had brought on the panic. The democratic administration. with Q sufficient number of votes of both parties in the two houses behind it, took