The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-26

ney Mill, three miles north of Spartan burg, has gone down in the floods.
 Railroad transportation is at a stand still, the tracks being blocked by land slides and washouts.
 From Anderson, s. C., come the same stories of heavy rains, ten inches of wa ter having fallen in the last 16 hours.
 A train on the Charleston and West ern Carolina railway ran into a wash< out this morning and the engine vas ditched No loss of life in this acci- dent Is reported.
 The rain is still falling in those sec tions and further damage Is feared. s......s.sss.' of the country and eaders. The press of the count jut regard to party united in " lng relief. The people of the re -Sa unanimously sec onded the dema, 2 President of the United States % ne influence of his great office 1T .$ of the demand of out avail. oS infant forces within the republic Q Q ty had established in the lower Hol of Congress a parlia- mentary condition. in the interest of monopoly, under which the sole power to determine whether a measure should be allowed to become a law or not was lodged in the speaker of that body and his committee on rules and by the fiat of that one man the will of the press, the people and the President was set at naught. Behold the spectacle! On one side 80, 900 of free people demand ing legislation to right admitted wrong. On the other side few men en- gagged in public plunder, aided by the dominating power within the republican party, represented by the presiding off cer of the once popular branch of Con- gress. And the plunGerers and these un- faithful public servants prevail over the people of this great republici In this in- stance did the people rule?
 Restricted Market.
 The workingman understands that a restricted market means fireless furnaces and enforced likeness He knows that American workmen with their superior intelligence and ingenuity, with their im- proved machinery, with cheap raw ma terials and earning for their employers more than twice as much as the laborers of any other country, have nothing to fear from competition with workmen any, where when the products of their labor are set down side by side in the markets of the world The American workingman has had bitter experiences under the op- eration of the Dingley bill. Under the shelter of this tariff wall, trusts and com- pines have sprung up on every hand and with extortionate prices confront the con- sumer on every occasion when he seeks to buy the necessaries of life.
 Under this system the cost of living so increased as to abspEb the earnings of the laborer, after the most rigid economy and selfdenial on his part and that of his family And it is--a noteworthy Tact when as an inevitable result of the fiscal policy of the republican party, the panic of 1907 came, hundreds of thou sands of these American laborers who were thrown out of employment, instead of being able to draw upon the fabulous savings bank accounts so exploited in po- litical literature in recent campaigns, found themselves and families in a state of Restitution.
 Soup Houses.
 The soup houses of 19O7-S in the large cities of the country were a realization of but a part of the roseate expectations of republican statesmen.
 The farmer understands that while he has to buy everything in protected market, where on nearly every purcha SC he is compelled to pay tribute to the trusts and tariff beneficiaries, he is com pelled to sell his surplus products in a free trade market where he comes in competition with all the rest of the world.
 He looks no longer with indifference upon the fact that the farmer of Canada, Argentina, Australia and other civilized countries buys agricultural implements of American manufacture cheaper than they are sold to him. These American farmers read and think, and are fully ad- vised as to the evils of system which invites such enormties.
 Is Light Breaking?
 And yet, with all these facts and thoughts before me I am still of the opinion that daylight is breaking and that the dark clouds will soon roll away. f The departure of Vice President White, mention of which was made in my letter of yesterday, was closely followed by the departure from this state of Mir. Farley.
 Word has been sent out, as I am in- formed. to the waiting, idling miners that they must live close and economize the rations issued them.
 Contracts for lumber for tent floors and houses made by union officials have, I learn, been cancelled.
 Thinking people of all classes are be- coming interested in the moral aspect of this question. The President in vigorous language, pointed the evils which have grown out of the existence of swollen fortunes,' the most of which have been dTldSSeu Dy the DeneIlclarleS or tIllS SyS- tenn.
 Control of Business.
 Senator LaFollette, in a speech deliv- cred in the Senate last March. exhibited a list of less than 100 men, who he de- clared, controlled the industrial life of the nation, and held in their hands the busi- ness of the country. A casual reading of this list shows that it is made up of men who have been the beneficiaries of legs- lation or favorites in the administration of the law.
 The President rails against swollen for tunes as menaces to the public welfare and as promotive of evils which eat at the very heart of society.
 As remedies he has suggested an in come tax and an inheritance tax. that their growth may be to some extent checked.
 The national convention of his party is silent upon the question of these proposed reforms, while the possessors of most of these swollen fortunes, allied as they are with the dominant forces of the republican party, are giving gen. erous support to the republican na- tional ticket.
 Remedy for Trusts.
 The democratic party, while favoring the reform measures repudiated by the republican national convention. has an- other remedy. It would, by Legislation. in large degree cut off the streams of money which under the present system are flowing from every home in the land and emptying into the coffers of the trusts.
 It would leave in the pockets of the