The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-03

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 What more natural than that we should say we need great revenues. a great army and powerful navy that we may fulfll this mission to which we have been called.
 But in all human experience. to what uses have great revenues, great armies and great navies been putf Have they in fact been ever used by their possessors to elevate mankind7
 Distort the Point of View.
 If the country were left alone to decide for itself the questions of to- day we cannot doubt what its decision would be. But unfortunately there are many interested for selfish mo- tives in distorting the point of view, D disgusting the truth, that great sums should be raised by tariff taxa tion is necessary for their selfish pur- poses.
 But great sums when acquired by government call for great expendi- lures and reasons for the making great expenditures must in their turn be supplied if the people are to be lured into acquiesence. And in turn great expenditures call for the raising of still greater revenues and thus on- ly can popular cl1mor be stilled and a reasonable excuse afforded those who find their profit in debauching the people.
 Moreover. In its train this great evil of partial monopoiies fostered by the tariff has brought it's twin sister, domestic monopolies, to feed upon the people. Tt seems as though severy day e new monopoly Is uncovered. l need not recite to you the familiar names of the more prominent of the trusts. need not tell you that properly ad- ministered the law is sufficient to control them. But may be pardoned if ask you to contemplate for a mo- ment how they surround us in every direction and how we come across their unsuspected existence at every turn.
 A Trust Recently unearthed.
 Tt was only in this just past month of October, to cite the last issuance which has come, to my knowledge, that 1t was developed before the In- terstate Commerce Commission that the fruit growers of some section of the United States were bound hand and foot by a monopoly--were de- pendent for their profits. dependent for the reward of their labor. depen- dent for their existence, not on their efforts, not on the bounty of nature, not on their prudence. their care, or their foresight, but on the mercy of the private car lines
 There Is a still uglier page to the general story. An example is before us of how the effort of the people to free themselves from a burden can be seized upon by the interruptions and itself made the agency whereby the burden is bound more firmly upon their backs.
 The clamor of the people against the trusts rose to the point where recognition was necessary.
 "A new department, of the govern ment was created-the department of commerce. To this department was in- trusted inquisitorial power over the great corporations. Its head, the sec retary of commerce. was made a cab met officer. But, lest honest business interests should suffer; lest unscrupu- lous competitors should take unfair advantage. 1t was provided that the results of the departments investiga- tions into the affairs of any corpora ton should be confidential
 The Presidents Power.
 They were and are to be placed in the first instance at the disposition of the President, and in his discretion only are they to be made public and become general knowledge of the pco- pie.
 Extraordinary powers these, mark ing an extraordinary faith of a people in It's elected chief executive. And how has this administration respond ed to this trust7 It placed at the head of this new department as the first sec retary of the department of com merce of the United States the pri- vate secretary of the President What the department researches were we know not. Of the results attained by such research. we are not informed.
 When. however the present cam paign opened, the Secretary of Com merce resigned his office and at the request and as the personal represen- tative of the President, became the Chairman of the National Republican Committee, to bring about. if 1t might be so, the election of his patron to the Presidency. And lest any one should err, 1t, was, at the time of his resig- nation, authoritatively announced that at the termination of the campaign he would be summoned again to the cabi- net to fill another cabinet office.
 T leave 1t to you to say whether in your estimation the vicious circle Is complete.
 The Sides Aligned.
 What have we, then, before us in tniS election. we, the pialn people or the United States stand ranged upon one side. Upon the other. as I view 1t. stand the forces which make for evil to the United States. There we find the exaggerated tariff aggrandiz- ing the few and the trusts grinding the many; there the extravaganza that Is their bedfellow: there the insolent disregard of the rights of the weak and there the greed of empire,
 Behind them stand. not those citi- gems of the United States. who are the true Republicans, but those few who have for their own purposes seized up- on the power of the people and who rely on the traditions of the Republi- can party and the delusions created by their astuteness for the perpetuatiop in their hands of the powers which they have misused.
 "Aside from the evils which we may suffer ourselves, are we prepared to contemplate that the nations of the world shall come to regard us as their enemy. lying in wait to seek our per- sonal advantage at their expense7 Shall the distortion of the Monroe doc