IN A NUTSHELL Shall we tax large incomes in America, as is done by progressive republics of Switzerland and France, also in Germany and England? The Democratic platform says yes. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SILENT. Shall we elect United States Senators by a direct vote, thus making it difficult, if not impossible, for millionaires to control the nation through the Upper House? The democratic platform says yes. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SILENT. Shall we take the duty off trust controlled articles with arbitrary prices fixed upon the customer without regard to laws of supply and demand, all competition having thus been throttled? The democratic platform says yes. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SILENT. Shall a reasonable tax be paid by banks to create a guarantee fund to protect depositors, thus preventing runs on banks and money panics and thereby bringing into circulation hoarded wealth? The democratic platform says yes. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SILENT. The scandalous and dangerous corruption by the use of enormous campaign funds points to the decay of a free government. Shall we know before election, through publicity, from whence and from whom came these great contributions? The democratic platform says yes. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SILENT. Shall we have billion dollar sessions of Congress and a vast array of office holders dictating presidential nominations? The democratic platform condemns. Republican platform necessarily silent. SPEAKER CANNON'S OPINION. An extract from letter written by Speaker Cannon to Col. John N. Taylor, of the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Pottery Company, at East Liverpool, Ohio, was published in the Washington Post on April 5, as follows: "I am satisfied there will be no tariff revision this Congress, but it goes without saying that the desire for a change which exists in the common mind will drive the republican party, if continued in power, to a tariff revision. I do not want it, but it will come in the not distant future." When revision comes, it will be like the Dingley bill-for the trusts and not for the consumers. "PASSING THE HAT" Mr. Sherman as Chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee Did It in 1906. Republican papers have a great deal to say about the Democrats' appeal for popular subscriptions to the campaign fund, and they sneeringly call it "passing the hat." But Mr. Sherman, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, "passed the hat" in 1906 and Mr. Roosevelt dropped his dollar contribution into the fund. The newspapers printed in 1906 these Associated Press dispatches: New York, July 22, 1906.-Representative James S. Sherman and his associates on the Republican National Congressional Committee have decided to appeal to Republicans to contribute $1 each to its campaign fund. In pursuance of this policy the committee will begin to-morrow the mailing of letters to Republicans in all sections of the country asking them to contribute $1 each. Asked if an appeal to individual Republicans for subscriptions had ever been sent out before, Representative Sherman replied that he had never known of its being done before. "I don't think it has ever been necessary to do so before," he said. In addition to the mailing of notices to Republican leaders in all sections of the country to be posted where individuals may see them, the notice will be sent to all Republican papers with a request that it be published for several days, so that all voters favoring the return of a Republican majority may forward their contribution to headquarters in this city. In its request the committee says: "The congressional campaign must be based on the administrative and legislative record of the party, and that being so, Theodore Roosevelt's personality must be a central figure and his achievements a central thought in the campaign." New York, July 31, 1906.-President Roosevelt has contributed $1 to the Republican Congressional Committee's campaign fund. The contribution was sent in response to a general appeal for $1 contributions. Chairman Sherman of the Congressional Committee to-day made public the President's letter enclosing his contribution to the fund. New York, Aug. 14, 1906.-Representative Longworth of Ohio was a visitor to-day at the headquarters of the Republican Congressional Committee. He deposited $1 as his contribution to the campaign fund. Mr. Longworth said he is a candidate for re-election and expected he would win. Of course, it was all a farce. The Republican campaign fund was supplied then as now by the corporations. Mr. Sherman's "dollar campaign fund" created a laugh among the politicians, but rtically there was no response from the people. How La Follette's Men Were De feated at Chicago On the third day of the Republican National Convention for 1908, the Committee on Resolutions, Senator Hopkins of Illinois, Chairman, reported to the Convention. Representative Cooper of Wisconsin, who appeared for the La Follette forces, offered the minority report. The following is taken from the Associated Press report: Representative Cooper (La Follette leader) as he advanced to the front, was greeted with cheers and cries of encouragement from the Wisconsin delegation. None came from any other direction. Chairman Lodge, before Mr. Cooper commenced the reading of his report, announced that the question would be confined to within forty minutes, one-half to each side. Senator Hopkins, he said, would have charge of the debate on the side of the majority and Representative Cooper would lead the fight on behalf of the minority. Representative Cooper then resumed the lengthy plank proposed as a substitute for that offered in the regular platform. The substitute embodied the La Follette idea of physical valuation of all railroads as a basis for the fixing of rates. While the Republican party has done much, the plank declared, there is yet much to be accomplished in the public interests. The minority report favored the enlargement of the powers of the interstate commerce commission and the clothing of it with authority of instituting proceedings on its own motion. "We recommend," continued Mr. Cooper, amid applause, "the enactment of a law requiring the interstate commerce commission to make an exact inventory of the physical property, such valuation to be made the basis of just and reasonable railroad rates.' The tariff plank followed that on the railroads. It was declared that under the present tariff the public is compelled to pay prices dictated by monopoly and that the situation calls for immediate remedy. It was asked that duties upon imports should equal the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad. The demand was made for the appointment of a permanent tariff commission to be appointed by the president. Also election of Senators by the people. The demand was made for the enactment of a law prohibiting any combination for the purpose of stifling competition and suppression of prices. Imprisonment for violation of this law was asked. plank also contained suggestions that a like penalty be made legal for violation of the Sherman anti-trust law. The The minority further recommended that there be added to the majority report two paragraphs dealing with the publicity of campaign contributions and expenditures. "Hooray," came from a member of the Wisconsin delegation. The paragraph mentioned by Mr. Cooper recommended that a Republican Congress and Republican President enforce the law requiring the managers of campaigns to publish from time to time "during the campaign," the names of all contributors and the amounts contributed or promised, and the amounts and purposes of all disbursements and to whom paid. The report asked for the enactment of a law regulating the rates and service of telephone companies. The minority injunction plank demanded the enactment of a law prohibiting the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes when such injunction would not have been asked had there been no labor element reached. It was also asked that the issuance of injunctions reached in all cases be forbidden where the exigencies of the situation can be served by the ordinary process of law. Punishment for contempt of court, it was asked, should be inflicted only after conviction by a jury in cases where the offense was committed in the immediate presence of or in close proximity to the court. The report also asked for the creation of a department of labor and a bureau of mines and mining within this department, with appropriation of sufficient funds to allow investigations of mining disasters. The final plank in the report asked for the extension of the eight hour law to all departments of the government. "I am the only member of the committee who signed that report," concluded Representative Cooper. "Hoorah," "good," came from the floor. "And I am not ashamed of it, and will never apologize to a hum being for having done so," retorted Mr. Cooper, who then drew a m of papers from his pocket and opened a bulky one. "Louder," came the cries. "I am not going to read it." "Good, hoorah, hoo-ray," cried several delegates in the Indiana and West Virginia list. Cooper argued briefly the various planks offered in his report, saying he had no idea his time was to be so curtailed as announced by the chairman. "We of the minority," declared Mr. Cooper, discussing one of the planks. Then, amid laughter, he said: "I use the 'we' in an editorial sense. I, of the minority," he went on, launching into the problem of railroad rates. "As to injunctions," declared Mr. Cooper, "we would not tolerate for a moment the suggestion of an attack upon the courts. But remember, as has well been stated, that 'the discretion of the court' is often the beginning of tyranny." Mr. Cooper yielded here to Mr. Sherman Ekern, speaker of the Wisconsin assembly, for three minutes. Mr. Ekern devoted the brief time at his disposal to the injunction and railroad planks, giving but a few words to the court contempt plank. He read to the convention a protest signed by Mr. Fuller, of the national brotherhood of locomotive engineers, firemen and trainmen, expressing disapproval in behalf of the organization of the anti-injunction plank agreed upon by the majority of the resolutions committee. ing. Chairman Hopkins concluded and there was an outburst of cheer "The report of the majority," he said. "was signed by fifty-two members of your committee. The only question here is whether you will stand by your committee or adopt the socialist democratic doctrines of Wisconsin." "No, no," shouted several delegates. Wisconsin demanded a roll call on the minority report and it was seconded by South Dakota. The minority report was voted down by 952 to 28. The vote by which the publicity plank was lost was ninety-four ayes, 880 noes. The third roll call was on the amendment covering the physical valuation of railroads. The plank was lost by 917 to 63. The final roll call on the amendments was on the section calling for the election of Senators by direct vote of the people. The popular election plank for Senators went down and out by 866 to 114. "The question now is," said Chairman Lodge, "on the adoption of the majority report." The adoption of the platform was by a viva voce vote, no voice being raised in the negative. "AFTER THE ELECTION." A dispatch to the Chicago Tribune, under date of New York, July 22d, follows: "The report that the Standard Oil Company is about to announce an increase of $500,000,000 in its capital stock was received with great interest in the financial district here today. Similar rumors have been circulated several times in the last few years, particularly in the West, but generally they have been met with denials by the Standard Oil interests. A prominent financier who has close relations with the Standard Oil Company said: 'I am sure that it is the same old story revived again, and that there is nothing in it. Certainly this would be a most inopportune time to take any such action, with a Presidential election only a few months ahead of us. I suppose it is possible that something of that kind may be done some time in the future, but not this year-not now.' This would be "a most inopportune time" to pump a half billion gallons of water into the Standard Oil stock. If anything like that is done it will be in accordance with other Republican plans "after the election." "After the election" the tariff will be revised-by a party that derives its campaign funds from the special beneficiaries of the tariff. "After the election" the contributions to the campaign fund will be published-when it is too late for the people to learn that the trusts pay the bill for the Republican campaign. "After the election" Standard Oil trust stock will be wateredif that course suits the purposes of the Rockefellers and the Rogerses; and "after the election" should the people re-elect the special privileges party-they will pay dearly for their indifference to the solemn warning confronting them on every hand. Pointers on the Republican Not only does the Republican National Platform for 1908 fail to give the Democrats credit for helping the President in every effort to lift up American manhood to "a noble sense of duty and obligation," but it ACTUALLY CONDEMNS THE FILIBUSTER WHICH THE DEMOCRATIC MINORITY INSTITUTED AND CARRIED ON FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF COMPELLING REPUBLICANS TO CARRY OUT THE PRESIDENT'S RECOMMENDATIONS. Mr. Williams, leader of the minority, time and again called upon the Republicans to furnish thirty votes in support of the President's policies and pledged the Democratic minority to furnish the remaining number of votes necessary to carry out several of the President's recommendations, and yet the men who wrote the platform presume upon the ignorance of the public and complain that the filibuster prevented the enactment of "many wholesome and progressive laws." * * * The writers of the Republican platform "especially commend the passage of the emergency currency bill"-a bill which combined two features, one of which had been rejected by the Senate, and the other by the house. So long as there was a chance for a discussion there was sufficient Republican opposition to condemn both features of the bill, but under the influence of a few financiers the bill was rushed through during the closing hours with all of the bad features restored and all of the good ones eliminated. How proud the Republican bosses in the Senate and House must feel to have their work thus endorsed by a Republican National Convention. The plank demanding a permanent change in the currency system is general enough to permit the Republican orators to advocate in each section of the country the system most popular there, and sufficiently indefinite to enable Congress to do whatever it pleases or nothing without violating any pledge. * * The Republican party's trust plank must prove a disappointment to every Republican who has come to understand the iniquity of the trusts. There is no demand for a rigid enforcement of the law; there is no suggestion that the criminal clause-which has not yet brought a trust malefactor_within the walls of a penitentiary should be called into use. The platform says that the law can be strengthened by amendments which will enable the supervision of the general government, but these amendments are not mentioned, and there is nothing in this plank of the platform that can be appealed to to secure any real improvement in the law. If the President, with all of his strenuosity, has not been able to enforce the criminal law against a single trust, what chance is there of a less strenuous man making progress with such an anti-trust plank as that inserted in the Republican platform? * * * The Republican platform's promise of such legislation and supervision "as will prevent the future overissue of stocks and bonds by interstate carriers" is coupled with the advocacy of a pooling ar rangement which makes a large concession to the railroads without exacting any security to the public, for the Convention voted down an amendment proposed by Senator La Follette's followers authorizing an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The negro comes in for his quadrennial quota of taffy. He is reminded that the Republican party gave him freedom and citizenship, and in this there is the implied warning that he must not |