Minority's Duty

Minority's Duty

The Democratic minority in the next house of representatives will be large and powerful enough, if it be united on the really live issues of the day, to keep those issues well to the front and compel some recognition on the part of the majority. If the entire energy of the minority be expended in playing for position in the coming presidential contest, sacrificing principle for some will-o-the-wisp of temporary advantage, it might just as well be blotted out of the proceedings of the house. The recent elections indicate unmistakably that the people prefer to have the republicans in the majority with all their faults. Their is a strong undercurrent of opposition to republican policies and failures to carry out promises, yet the voters prefer to trust that party with control. But the democrats by presenting a strenuous and united front in opposition to the republican policy of upholding the evils of trust control of our industries and the iniquiteies of extreme betterment of conditions in these matters. So far as the majority is concerned with these great issues, the country has little to expect. But an aggressive minority may be able to force the hand of the majority and compel some action in the interest of the people in the enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust law. President Roosevelt is said to be determined to use his influence to secure new legislation to supplement present laws against trusts and combinations. He seems to be possessed of the idea that little or nothing can be done in this direction under existing legislation and he evens thinks a constitutional amendment necessary before very much can be accomplished. But the most hopeful thing in his position is that he is said to be disposed to instruct the attorney general to bring suits against various other combines while the president is exerting himself for new and more radical legislation. Whatever of promise there may be in this program of the president should receive the cordial support of the minority. All legitimate efforts should be made by the democrats to secure for the people some relief from the extortions of the extreme tariff schedules of the present law. There are thousands of citizens who do believe the present laws against trust combinations have been fairly enforced. It is believed by many that present laws are adequate if honestly executed and it should be the effort of democrats to secure their enforcement while other legislation of a more stringent nature is being enacted. In this way something may be accomplished in the interest of the people, and anything which the minority may do in their interest will be in the interest of the democratic party. 

Secretary Shaw is of the opinion that commerce is destined to kill war. The ambition of nations for paramountcy in commercial matters would seem to tend in that direction. War is a great destroyer of commerce, especially of those nations directly engaged in war. But if commercialism is to destroy was, it would seem as though it would begin by destroying the great standing armies which are such a burden upon commerce. If the standing armies of the great commercial nations are not being increased just now, it is because this increase had gone about to the limit. These same nations, however, are straining every nerve to increase their navies. But perhaps the spirit of commercialism has not yet become sufficiently strong to act very directly upon such cherished institutions as standing armies and great navies. Still, the commercial spirit is so strong as to subordinate moral questions in large degree. Nevertheless the commercial spirit is preferable to the war spirit, and so it is to be hoped Secretary Shaw's view is correct. 

The directors of the Pennsylvania railroad have decided to increase the wages of all its employers who are getting less than $200 a month by a raise of ten per cent. This is good so far as it goes and the railroad is to be commended for its action. Still this increase is not equal to increase in the cost of living and probably is not proportionate with the increase in earnings of the road. 

Col. Edward Butler, one of the millionaire St. Louis bribers, has been sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. Mr. Folk, the young prosecuting attorney who is bringing the rotten gang of boodlers to time, the man selected for the place by the gang, but they are not able to control him or buy him and he is making a great record for himself. The St. Louis gang of boodlers and bribers is probably the most brazen and bold gang that ever started out to plunder a city. Nothing within the control of the city governement was too sacred to be put up and sold to the highest bidder. The city government was simply and solely in it for the money. Any trust committed to its care had its price. But now these infamous city officials and the men who paid the price they demanded for favors are up against outraged law and riches and threats of assassination have failed to intimidate the young attorney whom they regarded as an accomplice, a man they could control. But they richly deserve all they are getting. 

Carnegie's Prediction 

Militarism has been the curse of mankind for ages. The United States is the only great nation that has been comparatively free from it. As a result the development and progress of the American union have been unparalleled. Militarism has destroyed untold wealth representing the life labor of millions of human beings. It has also consumed for the support of armies other vast stores of human labor. Millions upon millions of human lives have been uselessly sacrificed upon this same altar. Yet even at this day the greater part of the earth is cursed by this same spirit. In a recent speech by Andrew Carnegie has made the statement that Europe must disarm and unite or be industrially swamped by the almost disarmed United States. This is undoubtedly true unless the United States turns from its almost unarmed condition to militarism. There is greater danger of the United States turning to militarism today than ever before in our history. After more than a hundred years of the most wonderful progress in human annals we have departed from the traditional policy of the republic and entered up a career of governing alien and unwilling people thousands of miles distant from the seat of our government and outside of constitutional guarantees, a task which has required a large increase of our military establishment which has now became a permanency. As long as we have stolen goods in our possession we shall need the brute force of a large military establishment to protect them. Of course our military establishment is small still in comparison, but we are fairly embarked upon a national policy which has made militarism necessary in Europe and no one can predict the end. But with the United States out of militarism and devoted to the arts of peace, Mr. Carnegie's declaration would undoubtedly prove true. 

The national grange is on record in opposition to trusts and combines and all interference with the law of supply and demand. It is against branch banking, which of course means that the grange is against the money trusts. The grange is string in its declarations of principles throughout. It is in line with the best and most advanced thought of the thinkers of the day to practically every great issue. But the great trouble with its membership is that the members do not vote in accordance with the declaration of principles of the national body. For instance, the grange is strongly opposed to the ship subsidy graft, yet its members are the most steady voters in the country in support of the part which stands pledged to the principles of the ship subsidy. The republican party is favorable to all the great combination which the grange opposes, yet the granges are very l**y supporters of that party and its policies. This seem to indicate that as grangers they oppose those things for which the republican party stands but as partisans they vote for the things which as grangers they oppose. They may distrust the democratic party and fail to vote for its principles and candidates for that reason but unless they prefer their partisanship to their principles they should find some means of making their vote heard in the national councils of the party. There is no question but that they have the power if they only ex?? it, for the carrying out of their declarations of principles. They have t?? votes to carry their principles into legislation, of they throw them in the proper direction. 

The coal operators in their statements to the strike commission appear to be in about the same frame of mind they were at the time of their f? conference with the president. They let no opportunity pass to show th? venom toward the United Mine Workers' union.