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Aug. !, 190a
The Dallas '(Tex.) News makes proper xdistinc
tlom when It says: "The accumulation of wealth
by American citizens is not
A wrong, provided it comes by in-
Proper telligent and honest effort. It is
Distinction, the accumulation of money
through legalized privilege and
the oppression of the masses by exacting from
them tho fruits of their labor unjustly that plays
the mischief. Tho trains of prosperity will not al
ways be able to make time on tho Dlngloy sche
dules." In a recent address Rudyard Kipling said:
''Recent experience has taught us that we must
j not allow a whole population to
Teaching grow up In Ignorance of shoot
Men Ing. Rifle shooting should be
to War. taught tho same as are the A, B,
C's. Such a course would not
'produce barbarians. Everything must be sub
ordinated to shooting quickly." Mr. Kipling's re
mark certainly represents the spirit of the times;
but there are yet" a few old-fashioned people who
will bo content if rifle shooting is not made a fea
ture of kindergarten Instruction. In striking con
trast with Mr. Kipling's suggestion is the state
ment of King Victor of Italy that tho heads of
monarchies will better accomplish tho, work of
"heading off the American invasion" by decreas
ing military armament and using tho money thus
saved to promote industries. .
The estimate placed upon J. Pierpont Morgan
by the German emperor and the leading men of
his domain haB created consider
Genlus able indignation, among Mr.
' Fully Morgan's countrymen. The New
Appreciated. York Post is surprised and dis
appointed to learn from the Ger
man press that Mr. Morgan abroad was not the
(eminent and important personage which Mr. Mor
gan is at home. The Post says: " 'Reporterphan
tasies' is tho name tho Berlin Tageblatt gives to
the stories which crossed the ocean a fortnight
ago, and it adds some Bharp comments on what it
terms our 'worship of wealth.' Surely the Ger
mans are in an uncivilized and barbaric state
when they not only decline to see in our wise
prince of Wall street a man as good as any king
on earth, but also fail to recognize that he is the
greatest of living mortals."
General surprise was manifest throughout the
country when President Roosevelt offered to Sena
tor McLaurln of South Carolina
a position in the court of claims.
Whatever may have been the
president's motive it is true that
it was generally understood that
this appointment was given as a sort of a reward
to Senator MLaurin for his betrayal of the trust
reposed in him by the members of the party to
which McLaurin claimed allegiance. The New
(York Evening Post appears to understand tbAsit
uation. That publication says: "PresidenjjjPose
velt is in luck to have received Senatorffipsaurin's
declination of a proffered United Statejudgeship.
The court of claims is one requiring a high grade
of judges, adequate to the important questions
brought before them and to the serious responsi
bilities which they have to sustain, and the retir
ing senator from South Carolina has impressed no
one, unless It be the president, with his qualifi
cations for that "bench."
Mack
and His ,
Persimmon.
VW'N
There appears to be a misunderstanding be
tween. President Roosevelt and Whitelaw Reid, the
president's special representative
Reid at thecoronalion ceremonies of
and tho king of Englaud. Mri Well-
Roosevelt, man, the Washington correspon
dent for the Chicago Record
Herald, say a that "In. the president's opinion the
Mere
Pawns of
Mr. Morgan.
The Commoner
worst evil of modern trusts Is not monopoly or
restraining of trade, but the era of wild specula
tion and capitalization of stocks brought about
by the effort of promoters to gain great fortunes by
printing millions of share certificates and work
ing them off on tho public." Whitelaw Reid de
livered an address at Liverpool on the ovening of
July 17. In that address Mr. Reid said: "Organ
ized society abhors a Monopoly." The president
does not appear to take tho same view of monop
olies that Is entertained by his special ambassa
dor. A'London cablegram to tho New York World,
under date of August 2, says: "Tho Right Hon.
W. J. Pirrlo, who represented tho
White Star and Harland & Wolff
interests in engineering tho At
lantic shipping trust with J.
Pierpont Morgan, asked this
week for tho conservative nomination for parlia
ment for the vacancy for West Belfast He was re
jected unanimously by tho election committee bo
cause it was said that he would bo a moro pawn
of Mr. Morgan." Tho republic might learn somo
things from tho kingdom. In this country candi
dates for congress and other high public offices
are not rejected because thoy are "mere pawns of
Mr. Morgan." On the contrary, the fact that they
are "mere pawns of Mr. Morgan" and other rep
resentatives of class Interests is about all tho
claim for distinction which many candidates for
office in this country appear to have.
The profits of the steel trust for the past three
months are said to amount to $37,691,690. Tho
Philadelphia Bulletin, a republl
Enormous can paper, frankly admits that
Profits of the fact that this trust could
Trusts. reap such enormous profits in
so short a period of time sug
gests the advisability of a reduction In tho tariff
on iron and steel. The Bulletin estimates that the
anuual profits of the trust will be in the neigh
borhood of $150,000,000, or, in other words, about
$500,000 for every working day of the year. Tho
Bulletin says: "The query why the public should
he forced to pay prices which give the combination
a surplus over operating expenses of some $3,
000,000 a week, is likely to be presented with in
creased earnestness in the interval before the next
assemblage of congress." But the Bulletin must
not overlook the fact, and the people may not
overlook the fact, that the republican party is re
sponsible for this situation and that the republican
congress could, In a degree, have remedied It, and
yet the republican congress adjourned without
making an effort to repair the damage which re
publican policies had imposed upon the people.
The Washington correspondent of the Chicago
Record-Herald says that "hundreds of letters and
telegrams are pouring in upon
Mr. Lincoln the president at Oyster Bay urg-
on ing him to go slow on this trust
Panics. business. Capitalists, bankers,
and heads of big insurance com
panies and managers of great railroad und other .
corporations are trying to intimidate the president
Into abandoning his program. Their idea is that
he will hurt business, and they do not hesitate to
predict that if a panic were to come the president's
war on trusts would be held responsible there
for!" Abraham Lincoln was once confronted with
threats of panics. In reply to the suggestion that
the course he had adopted might result in a panic, f
Mr. Lincoln in a letter addressed to Trueman
Smith, under date of November 10, 1860, wrote:
"I am not insensible to any commercial or finan
cial depression that may exist, but nothing is to
be gained by fawning around the 'respectable
scoundrels who got it up. Let them go to work and
repair their .mischief of their own making, and
then, perhaps, they will-be lees greedy to-do the
like again."
RcbubHcans
and the
Tariff.
Voice of the
Democratic.
Party.
The Chicago Trlbunt, republican, In an edi
torial entitled "Tariff Reduction Inevitable," saysr
"If William McKinloy were allv
today he would view with un
qualified satisfaction tho growth
of tho sentiment in favor of a re
duction of tho duties on many
articles of American production. Tho dovolop
ment of tho sentiment has boon gradual and sane.
Some republican polltlcans havo so long been
identified with tho ovorprotectod interests ahd
havo looked to them for support for so long that
they will side with tho manufacturers against the
consumers. Either tho politicians or tho party
will have to pay the price of their obstinacy."
Tho Trlbuno concludes, however, that whllo the
reduction must como "tho country will profor to
get it at the hands of tho republican party'
While it is true that among the rank and file ol
tho republican party thero is a growing disposi
tion favorable to tariff reform, what reason has
tho voter to bcllovo that thero is any hope for
tariff reduction at the hands of republican lead
ers? Republican leaders know tho sourco of their
onormous campaign funds, and they are not at all
likely to kill the goose that lays th golden' egg.
Tho Philadelphia Times says: "Tho demo
cratic party has twico listened to Mr. Bryam
through Its great disasters; It
will bo bettor for him now to
llston to the voice of the demo
cratic party and to put himself
In harmony with Its new life."
How Is "one to recognize tho voice of tho demo
cratic party? Is that voice to bo judged by the
omissions in a few state platforms In tho face
of the clear and explicit tones of tho party's na
tional platform that has not yet been repealed; or
are the omissions in these platforms to bo ac
cepted as the voice of the democratic party while.
the clear and explicit tones of the North Carolina
platform, the Texas platform, the Arkansas plat
form, the Nebraska platform, and tho platforms
of the two Missouri conventions echoing as they
do the volco of tho national platform, are to bp
wholly ignored? The Times would do well to ex
plain to its readers tho method it adopts in ascer
taining tho "voice of the democratic party." How
did It happen that tho men for whom tho Tlmoe
speaks did not listen to the voice of the democratic
party in 189C or in 1900? Or will tho Times deny
that a national convention has any control over
the voice of a party?
An Associated press dispatch from Anders
Ind., under date of July 18, says: "Tin plate
workers tonight confirmed a re
Enemies port that they have been asked
to Home . by the American Tin Plate corn
Industry, pany to allow their wages to be
reduced 25 per cent so that tho
company may accept an order from tho Standard
Oil company for 1,500,000 boxes of American tin
plato. The same question is before all the tin
plate workers throughout the country, and espe
cially those under the scale of the Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. They
will decide on the proposition by vote the coming
week. This American Tin Plate company repre
sents that tho Standard Oil company has been buy
ing tin from Wales and will renew its contract
with Welsh manufacturers unless the American
Tin Plate company can meet them. The Stand
ard pays a tariff of $1.40 per box, but receives -a,
rebate of 99 per cent by exporting tho same tin
made up into cans containing oil for foreign
markets. By taking the Standard's annual con
tract the American Tin Plato company would get
the last of the big American buyers of tin from
Wales." It is later reported that the worklngmen
have refused to grant tho cut It is now in order
for republican newspapers, to denounce theee
worklngmen as "enemies ,to home Industry."
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