River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-09-15

American official and in the port of Tan
gier when an American citizen had been
abducted? and that in each case the wrong
complained Of was righted and exptated!
and that within the last few days the visit
of an American squadron to Smyrna was
followed by the long-delayeG concession
of their just rights to those Americans con-
cerned in educational work in Turkey?
Do they object to the trade treaty with
China, SO full of advantage for the Amer
lean people in the future? Do they object
to the fact that the ships carrying the
national flag now have higher standard
than ever before in craftsmanship and in
seamanshfp, as individual units and as
component parts of squadrons and fleets?
we join issue with them.
Executive Encroachments."
croachments by the executive upon the
authority of congress or the judiciary, ap-
parently the act they ordinarily have in
view is Pension Order No. 78, issued under
the authority Of existing law. This ORDER
directed that hereafter any veteran of the
civil war who had reached the age of 62
should be presumptively entitled to the
pension of six dollars a month, given UNI
der the dependent pension law to those
whose capacity to earn their livelihood by
manual labor has been decreased so per
cent, and that by the time the age OF ~
was reached the presumption should be
that the physical disability was complete;
the age being treated as an evidential fact
in each case. This order was made IN the
performance CT a duty imposed upon the
president by an act Of cor gress which re-
Quires the executive to make regulations
to govern the subOrdinates Of the pension
office in determining who are entitled to
pensions. President Cleveland had already
exercised this power by a regulation which
declared that rs should be set as the age
at which total disability should be con-
clusively presumed. Similarly President
Mckinley established 65 as the age at which
half disability should be conclusiVely pre-
sumed. The regulation now in question,
in the exercise Of the same power, supple
mented these regulations made under
Presidents Cleveland and Mckinley.
eff our opponents come into power they
can revoke this order and announce that
they will treat the veterans of 81 to 20 as
presumably in full bodily vigor and not en-
fitled to pen 3ions Will they now authori-
tatively state that they intend to dc this?
If SO, we accept the issue: If not, then we
have the right to ask why they raise an
issue which, when raised, they do not ven
ture to meet
Criticisms of the administrations set
Element of the coal strike and the suit
against the Northern Securities company
are cited, and the president says:
Such mutually destructive criticisms
furnish an adequate measure of the chance
for coherent action or constructive legiSla-
tion if our opponents should be given pow
err"
Democratic Policies.
OF the policies for which the democratic
party processes to stand the president says:
$50 much for what our opponents openly
or cOvertly advance in the way of an at
tack on the acts of the administration.
When we come to consider the policies for
which they profess to stand we are met
with the difficulty always arising when
statements of policy are made that they
can be interpreted in different ways. On
some Of the vital questions that have con-
fronted the American people in the last
decade our opponents take the position
that silence is the best possible way, to
convey their views. They contend that
their lukewarm attitude Of partial ac-
,quiescence in what others have accom-
plished entities them to be made the Gus
mercial interests which they have but re-
Gently sought to ruin"
He reviews the history Of the republican
party's efforts to establish a stable national
currency, and says:
Until our opponents as a party explicit
ly adopt the views which we hold and upon
which we have acted and are acting, In the
matter of a sound currency; the only real
way to keep the question from becoming
unsettled is to keep the republican party
in power"
He points to the record of the admins
tration in it's dealings with both capital
and labor, and carefully outlines each step
that has been taken for the enforcement
need of such laws on the national statute
books in opposition to the democratic claim
that the common law, as developed, af-
fords a complete legal remedy against mo-
nopolies," and of this he says:
But there is no common law Of the
United States. It's rules can be enforced
federal court or officer could take any
action whatever under them. 1t was this
fact, coupled with the inability of the states
to control trusts and monopolies, which
led to the passage Of the federal statutes
known as the Sherman antitrust act and
the interstate commerce act; and 1T is only
through the exercise of the powers con-
ferred by these acts, and by the statutes
of the last congress experimenting them,
that the national government acquires any
jurisdiction over the subject. To say that
action against trusts and monopol1eS
should be limited to the application of
common law is equivalent to saying that
the national government should take no
action whatever to regulate them"
The Tariff Issues.
He charges the democrats with insin-
certify and eVasiveness in their statements
regarding tariff policy, and says:
Undoubtedly it would be possible at the
present time to prevent any of the trusts
from remaining prosperous by the simple
eXpedient of making such a sweeping
change in the tariff as to paralyze the in
dustries of the country. The trusts would
cease to prosper; but their smaller COM
petitorS would be ruined, and the wage
workers would starve, while it would not
pay the farmer to haul his produce to mar
ket."
Continuing on the subject of the tariff, he
says:
''From time to time schedules must I'M
doubtedly be rearranged and readjuSted
to meet the shifting needs of the country;
but this can with safety be done only by
those VINO are committed TO the cause of
the protective system. To uproot and de-
Stroy that system would be to insure the
proStration of business, the closing of fac
tories, the impoverishment of the farmer
the ruin of the capitalist and the Starya-
tion of the wage-worker
1T is matter of regret that the pro-
tective tariff policy, which, during the
last 40 odd years, has become part of the
very fiber of this country, is not now ac-
| cepted as definitely established Surely
we have a right to say that it has passed
beyond the domain of theory, and right
to expect that not only it's original advo-
Gates but those who at one time distrusted
it on theoretic grounds, should now ac-
quiesce in the results that have been proved
over and over again by actual experience
These 40 odd years have been the most
seen; more prosperous years than any
other nation has ever seen. Beyond QueS-
ton this prosperity could not have come
if the American people had not possessed
the necessary thrift energy and business
intelligence to turn their vast material re-
sources to account. But it is no less true
that 1t is our economic policy as regards
the tariff and finance which has enabled
us as a nation to make such good use of
the Individual capacities of our citizens
and the natural resources of our country.
the protective tariff. During the last few
! years the merchant has seen the export
| trade of this country grow faster than ever
| in our previous history. The manufa cturer
! could not keep his factory running if it
! were not for the protective tariff The
| wage-wcrker would do well to remember
! that if protection is robbery and is to be
! punished accordingly he will be the first
/ to pay the penalty; for either he will be
! turned adrift entirely, or his wages will be
! cut down to the starvation point AS con-
J clusively shown by the bulletins of the
! bureau of labor the purchasing power of
/ the average wage received by the wage
worker has grown faster than the cost of
living, and this in spite Of the continual