Mexico weekly ledger., 1910-10-06
Predicted Present Status Of Monopolies
in Legislative Message While
Missouri's Governor
Asked LAWS To CURTAL POWERS
Of CORPORATIONS AND INTERESTS
Declares in Favor Of Abolishing Duty On All Combine
Made Products and Wants INSCRIPTIONS Lobby
Ousted From P~olitics-Unmas
Tariff Revision Pretcnse.

fSADeA VI ludt year, 1 NTOt6 u0Qer
date of November l9. as follows:
While ! agree with the advocates
of sound money in the tight recently
made, there are many principles ad-
vocated by some of those who have
been advocates of that cause to which
| eannot subscribe. II some legisla-
ton Is not enacted to check the grow.
ing influence of wealth and circum-
scribe the powers of trusts and monop-
olies, there will be an uprising Of the
people before the century closes which
will ~endanger our very institutions"
That letter was given wide publicity
and the New York Sun In an editorial
on November 20, 1896, under the cap.
tion of "A fool in the Cabinet" Sc
verely attacked me for the sentiments
therein expressed, calling them sen.
timental anarchy and irredeemable
ffub-dub." 1t is my conviction to-day
that the fears above expressed in my
inaugural of 1889, in my message OF
81, and in the above quoted letter OF
1896 were not without foundation.
Since March 4, 1897, both branches
Of the Congress of the United States
and the Presidency also have been IN.
der the control of the Republican par
ty. That party has been under the
domination Of trusts and monopolies
and wealth to an alarming extent and
while the uprising predicted In my
letter has boon delayed for a decade,
1t now Is upon us. 4,
Instead, however, OF endangering
II institutions, 1t promises TO place
them upon a surer foundation. The
public conscience has been ~quickened
Many patriotic citizens who have here
tofore acted with the Republican par
ty and many who are Democrats In
principle, but who have hitherto been
deferred from voting according to
their convictions by direful prophesies
that Democratic success would cause
commercial disaster, have come to a
realization of the meaning and drift
Of Republican policies.
AS a good citizen who loves his
country will not only sacrifice his own
material interests, but jeopardize his
life in defense of her honor-so tnere
is an innumerable army Of far seeing
citizens who are willing and anxious
to take the risk, If any there be, of a
change in a policy which II pursued
will 500 become, If 1t is not already,
a serious menace to Republican insti-
buttons. A moral idea is an irresist-
able potentiality in modern society.
Once impressed on the minds and
instilled in the hearts Of the people
it goes forward like an avalanche, and
woe be unto him who gets in its path
way OF attempts to impede its prog.
ress.
The Issues Of To-Day.
The great issue Of this 6 before
the people of the United States is
really between special privilege and
equality of opportunity. The p~articu-
lar phase 1t has assumed in this year
of 1910 is that Of taxation in the
shape Of a tariff by the Federal Gov
eminent. The question of taxation in
fact is the one around which all the
battles for civil liberty have been
fought.
Taxes should be imposed so openly
and definitely that all who are sub
ject to them may understand their
bearing and their effect. 1t was a
wise statesman who said: Conceal
the hand of the ta~x-gatherer and you
can tax the people to the point of i'm
poverishment. If not starvation, with
out complaint or resistance on their
part"
The great struggle between preda'
tory wealth and the interests of the
plain people, which is tho overshad'
owing question of to-day, may be
traced 10 the policies of the Republi
can party, and mainly or originally to
the tariff policies of the Republican
party.
Protection at the present time has
come to mean that degree Of privi
lege, in the shape of tariff, which the
influence of its be~neficlaries can es
tablish and maintain. Men schooled
by long experience in the i~ntricacies
OF customs duties have learned &c
frame tariff bills 50 ingenlously as tc
make them too obscure for the or
binary man to comprehend.
The method of framing a tariff bill
which under the misnomer of a reve
nue. measure, must originate in the
House of Representatives, gives tc
experts an all-powerful influence In
the hearings of the ways and means
committee of the House, and the
finance committee of the Senate
Hearings are seldom II eve attended
by consumers. The so-called repre-
s~entatives of the people on these oc
casions are the employees or interest
ed agents of the protected industries
whose statements and arguments arr
made from the standpoint of speeia.
privilege.
The History Of the Tariff.
It is not necessary to go back more
than rs years in the history of the