Gilpin observer., 1904-08-25


not be elected to the presidency of the
United States, that will find its way
into the campaign. is the following ed
itorial written over his own signature
by Joseph Pulitzer, editor of the New
York World:
To Theodore Roosevelt, President of
the United States, Washington. ID. C.. ::
The paramount issue of this campaign
Is not, as you would have 1t. free trade
or free silver but YOU, yourself, Theo-
dore Roosevelt.
This issue is forced upon the country
by your unusual temperament and tai
ents-your own strong, able, ambitious,
resourceful militant, passionate per-
sonality, your versatile and surprising
genius. AS the French King said of
the state, you can with greater truth
say of the Republican party, 1T Is l."
More absolutely than any of your pre-
decessors in office ever did. you pro-
cured your own nomination. You die
tated the platform. You edited the
nominating speeches. You appointed
the campaign manager. You moved
your cabinet officers like pawns to
meet the exigencies of your game of
politics. By an act of executive usurp-
alton you added many thousands of
pensioners to a roll already containing
a million names, in order to make votes
for yourself-the first open use ever
made of the national treasury as par
ty's campaign chest.
You have glorified war and threat
ened the future peace of the country by
proposing a bullying overlordship OF
the other countries in this hemisphere
and Offering to constitute the United
States the constable and collector for
Europe in the rotten and irresponsible
states of Central and South America.
You have, by your recommendations
to Congress and your signature to its
extravagances. increased the national
expenditures during your term to more
than $500, ,0OO, ,OOO-an excess of SILL
900, 900 over the expenditures during
President McKinley's term (Which In
cluded the expenses of the war with
SPAIN. and exceeding the cost CT Pres
ident Cleveland's second term by $780,
000,O
You and the Congress of your party
have converted a surplus of $S0,000.000
in 1900 into a deficit of more than $40.-
o0O, 900 for the fiscal year just closed.
This extravaganza is encouraged and
in fact made inevitable by the high
tariff and the policies of war and i'm
perialism of which you are the most
strenuous champion. The greater the
revenue from customs the greater the
temptation for lavish expenditures. The
more colonies and dependencies we
have, the greater the need for more
warships. more fortifications, more
coaling stations, more soldiers. Every
high protectionist is a lingo and every
lingo a high protectionist. These car
.dtnal features of the Republican policy
are interrelated and interdependent.
They stand to each other in the relation
of cause and effect.
In view OF the surprising record of
extravaganza. 1t is perhaps not strange,
but will be regarded by the taxpayers
as significant, that the words "econo-
N.Y." "retrenchment" and reform.
once the rule of the nation and the
shibboleth of statesmen do not once
appear in your entire speech of accept
ance-NoT ONCE.
You say in your speech of accept
ance that prosperity has come at
home" Are there not many thousands
of workingmen who have great reason
to feel that prosperity is departing?
Does the army of striking cotton oper-
atives whose wages have been reduced
22h per cent. since 1900. find that
wages are higher than ever before?'
Do the tens of thousands of employees
dismissed by your great railway sys-
TENS share your roseate view? Are the
participants In or the victims of the
strike against the exactions of the beef
trust throwing up their hats over the
full dinner pail?"
Deserving your early convictions In
favor of freer trade you cultivate the
monopolistic campaign contributors of
your party by standing pat for tar
in higher in it's average duty than the
highest schedules of the war time-a
tariff which the Republicans of Iowa
have declared to be a shelter to mo-
nopoly" which the Republicans of Wis
consin demand shall be revised in the
interest of consumers and which tens
of thousands of Republicans in Massa-
chusetts and elsewhere insist shall be
modified by a reciprocity treaty with
Canada.
The principle of protection has been
maintained by every party that has
held power in this country since the
adoption of the constitution. includ-
ing the administrations of eight Demo-
cratic presidents. Representative
Clark, chairman of the st. Louis con-
vention truly said that "the Demo-
cratic party is not free trade party"
Protection however necessary under
some conditions is both needless and
unjust when infant industries have be-
come hoary monopolies. 1t is espe-
cialiy oppressive and exasperating
when perverted to enable favored man
ufacturers to maintain arbitrary high
prices in the home market while un-
derselling foreign competitors in the
markets of the world.
The free coinage of silver. which was
the decisive issue In the last two cleo
tions, Is no longer n living question,
though there are Indications In your
speech that you Will seek to revive 1t.
The overwhelming verdict OF the peo-
pie. regardless of party, In the last
iMn electIona: the law of 1900 re-e