Chairman Baker

"To the Peaple of Michigan: "Xow tliat the prellmtoary d'iscussien incident! to the inaugura tion of another sta ir campaign has commeffieed, I desire to cali yoiir delibérate and serious attention to the equivoeal contxadictory and tinsatisfactory attitude öf the Itepu'blican party towards those questions of public policy in which are involved the material prosperlty ana progresa oí the people. "One faetion oí the Republican party Kas possession or control of the United States senatorshipa from tliis state, of the federal offices, and of the state senate. The other faction has possession of the governorship, of nearly all the state offices, and of the state house of represen tati ves. "The chief charaeteristies of these 'factions may be deseribed as follows: The federal faetion stands i'or t)w gold standard and a high tariff, and all that they imply. It defends and protects all fortus of aggregated and combined wealth, corpoiate or otherwise, from whieh contributions for partisan purposes can toe derived, and it is the especial champion and serrant of the railroad and mining corporations of the state and it protects them from every effort to oompel them to lc;;r their just share of the pu'blic burdeos. In addition to this it is in open pathy with the ruoTement to retire thé greéubacks and to turn the issue of all the paper money of the country over to the national banks, so that the entire American business world, includlng the savings banks, tnist co;npanies and ather monetary institutioi:;--. and ow 70,000,000 of people, süall be contiuuously subject to the discretlon and judgtn:nt af the national banks upon tho question whether at anr livcn time the currency of the country ouglit to be ontracted or expan-ded. "The state factlon, under the aggTessivt- leadership af Gov. Hazen 8. l'iiigree, realizes that the gold standard has resulteé in a serious depreciación iu tlie valué, price as expressed in money, of ;i!l kinds of property, an;l lias disturbed tlie equilibrium that for;uv-r!y oxisied between the earning and debt-paying capacity of the peapl, and deferred payments, taxes and ti hor ftxed charges, and ratos of fare ana freig-ht; and it is making an or■ari; and ill-dirceted effort to restore he equilüinmii. as far as tho railvoad.s are eoacemed, by a reduction oí th ïbarges no-w made for transportatióii. Tiiat this faction ís equaUy desli-ous of decreasing tlie lyurdens of taxation s not apparent, and it ís iossit.lv subject to the charge that its opposition to the railroadg is more for the purpose O'f antagonizing the oíhcr faction in the Rcpublican party th;;n anythdHg else. Tliis mneh caá be said, however, that (íoy. Tingree himself has never at any spot or place in his oareer as mayor of DetToit or as goveruor of the state, been seduced f rom liis position that umler the present economie and monetary conditious, there ouglit to be a su'bstantial reduetion in the ratea of fare ïiiwn our Bteam and street railroads, and in all other flxed charges, where possibli:. "The governor is wise enoigh to see that, as long as the country is kept on the single gold standard, the procesa of adjusting the property and business of the country to that standard must go on, and uo is shrewd enough, as a practical politician, to take advantage of tlie growing ment among the people, thus pro&ueed, that railroad ratejs should come dowi; like feverythlng else, and that there are uo good reaöons wöy the equllibriuru iu prices showia not bc restored there as wejl as in ofher dlreciions. "The effective argument in the eWies in the campaign of 1896 was that the resrtoratlon of the silver dollar by free coinagp would dcci-faso the ing power of the money of the smaü depositors who deposit in the savinga banks, and also the purehasjng power of the wages of the laboring man, bm ■we now know tliat the gold standara has compelled the savings banks to reduce their rales of interest from -t tl 3 per cent., with a oertainty that imless silver is restored, the rato must l)e still further red-uced. It will be hard to eonvioee the smal) depositar thai the earniings of his money should be thus áffected, and that rhe railroads and tax collectors should continue to exact the oíd rates. The lalOTing man on the other hand is confronted with the inexorable economie law that a reduction in the rates of iiterest means a reduction in wages, either by a deerease in the per diera, or in the number of persons employed. If it occurs by the reduetion of the number employed, the support of those not employed must fall, in one way or another, on those who are, and by that proeess their earnings are duced. Wlien Bourkc Oockran in :i spi eeh during the last oampaign, in Detroit, was maiking his ;ui, most cunuing argument, that silver would reduce the wiiges of t!;t laboriug ruau, someone in the audience inquired, 'What about the unemployedï' He gave baek the evasive, ddshonesf and insulting reply, that if labormg men would work more and talk politics less, they would be better oiï. Several tlwusand persons, amud but misled ai.d deceived ly the repaTtee of a stump speaker froui the Bowery, roared their a#plause; buE they know better now. "The railroad companles and othtr monopolies, trusts and combinaüoüs tasist upon maintaining a monetary system that depreciates the propertv and reduces the earnings, and the debt and tax paying capaeity of tüe mas.ses of the people, but they are caTeftü ar the samo time to presen-e rtieir own rates and charges wherever it is posslKe for them to do so. When tbe governor of the state applies to the Lake Shore R. R. company and the Michigan Central R. R. eompany to comply wirli the rates of fare and the 1,000-miii! ticket regulations preseribed by an act passed by the Democratie ogislature oí 1891, those companies teslst the law, and insist that they have a right to charge the rates of fare fixed by special charters granted to thom prior to the adoptiou of the state constitution of 1850. "One of the ablest and most .sutisfactory opinions recentty dellvered by the supreme court of this state is that prepared by Juetíce Montgomery in the Lake Shove mileage book case. In it he gives a good, olearly-reaaoned and apparenüy sound answer to eyi iy oue of the propositious of the eminent and very a'We counsel for the eompany. Thcre ia mueh abstract or natural .iustico and merit in the suggeetion of Justiee Hooktr, that Interstate commeree act was designed to prevent the rery discrimimtion the act oi' 1891 compels, but the act oí eongress only relates to eommerce berween the state and there la no i'onsfitntional reason why the state of Michigan cannot have a System whleb allows ;i cheaper rate to one wuo buy.s transportaron for a thouamid miles Uian one who buys tranaportativn for 10 unies, which alluivs a passenger on a strêet ear :a buys six or moro tickets a cheaper rate than onc who only buys a singla ride. "SatiaEactory and convineiug as tlie opinión of the eonrt in the Èake Shor cisc Is, the company haa taken the case to the supreme court of the United States. "In the Michigan Central case othw and more diffieint questtons arise, and the case is not altogether cleari but there is uo doubt. alout tin. attitude of the company and it.s pui to litígate the ase through t.. the court of last resoTt on, such qmations. "The Michigan Centra] has preserved its special charter, and there has been no sireh consolidation, or reorganizaron, as has taken place in the case of the Lake Shoro and tlie Detroit, Grand Haven & Mllwankee, and whatever may be the result of the inileage book case against the Michigan Central, the special cba.-ter of har. company will always stand in the way oï proper railroad legislatton in this state. It will always 'be used as a weapon by that company in its siruggle 'for business in cömpetition with our other railroads and depot panies, which are all organizcd mider general laws, subject to amendment, alteration or appeal by the legislature. "The legislatura of 1846 reserveil the right, under certain coadltlons, to repeal the charter of the Michigan Central, and thereby to eoropel t to file arttelea of Incorporatlon under the general railroad law. Now is au opportune time to exercise tint right. The pressure of t-urrcut business always furnisiios excuses at i':e regnar sessions of the legialAtnre for not grvin tuii consideration to railroad and ottier important leglslation of a reformatMy ohaTaeíer, and a specia] session lhnited to one or two subjecth would. oompel the eonsidcration thereoí. It is not surprising that Gov. Prngree lias serious]y eonsidered the queation of calllng a special session. but tüe last announcement iu regar:! to it was that he would defer action uulil the federal appoiutments in tliis elty are all made The peole of tiie suite are thus intformed that the important public questioH whethcr their interests require a spe'cial session pends upon who is appointed to the federal offices. The Inferenee is, that if a collector of tlie port of Detroit is appointed, who is known to te personally hostile to the politieal fortunes of the governor, we are to have a special session, but if some one else is appointed. who from inclination or ■ncapaeity will not or cannot antagonize the desire of the governor to be renomiaated by the next Republican state convention, then no special session will be eaUed. "This is a renarkable spectade. It Indícales that the national orgaateation of the Republican party is about to attempt to repeat he politica] performance ol' 18!;, wheu the personal popularity of Hazen S. Pingree was used to save the state to MeKtnleyism and the single gold standard. It makes it perfeclly clear that the federal faetion in the Republican partyia this state uses lts power to créate the very conditions whlch go to make Gov. Pingree popular and strong with the electora, and then they use him to prevent their own politici) defeat, and to fasten themselves sttll strouger npoa the state, to eat out the substance and absorto the eamings oí the people. "Coy. Pingree ha.s a great .pportunity, ty calling a special session, to secure favorable railroad iegislation or to put his adversarles on record ín such a way as to give the peop'.e of tbe state a chance to pass an intelligent Judgment on them at the -uext election. He ought to realize that the ene most effective way of securing t relative reduction of railroad fares, both street and steam, is to open the mints to silver, and thcreby restore the former equllibrlum or ratio between the earnings of the farm and the faetory and the rjurdens of the people, but if he wishes to try Theother experiment of a direct reduction,. now is his time to act. he or the federal aaaehine may du. the people of the stute should consider the questlon, whether the Republiean party has not outlived its usofulness. and whether the administration cf Plesident McKinley is anytWng more than a contintiation of that of Grover Cleveland. "FRKD A. BAKER, ■('hairiDan of Democratie State ( tral ('ammittee. "Detroit. .Tanuary 31, 1898."