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Vol. 8, Number 4
efit What Price Did You Sell Out, Ghamp Glark ?
VER since the Missouri leader went
into that million-dollar concern with
the late Jim Griggs, Deserter, I’ve had
my doubts about him. Likewise, have
kept close watch on him.
For when a Democratic chieftain is
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taken into copartnership by a lot of rich
Republicans, I know quite well what
their motive is. They mean to put some gold
into his troublesome mouth and silence him.
Is that what they have done to Champ
Clark? It seems so.
Not only did he crawfish on Tariff re
form, at the banquet in New York, but he
did so at the conference in Baltimore.
What does it mean? Isn’t the demand for
lower duties as vehement as it was previous
to the elections? Isn't the cost of living
bearing just as heavily upon the people? Are
not the Trusts just as greedy, insolent and
oppressive? has happened, to the
Democratic Congressmen that they should
now be so well satisfied with the situation?
Once, they were war-like: now, they are
pacific.
Once, they were active: now, they are pas
sive.
Once, they agonized over the condition of
the country: now, they are reconciled to it.
Once, they yelled war-whoops: now, they
smoke peace-pipes.
Once, they roared for immediate down
ward revision of the Payne-Aldrich bill:
now, they murmur, indifferently, c ’We must
go slow.”
Last Slimmer there were no words too hot
or too bitter to express their loathing of the
damnable new Tariff: now, they say it must
be handled gingerly, respectfully, at some
indefinite time in the future.
oHnother Tariff Talk —The Qonfiscation Feature
N every organized government, is in
herently the power to take from the
private citizen property which is abso
lutely necessary for the public wel
fare. Thus the State gets the right
to condemn your land for highway
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purposes, and the municipality derives its au
thority for opening streets through lots.
owned by the inhabitants thereof. In all
such cases the value of the property is as
sessed according to statutory provisions, and
the owner is paid before the property can be
taken. This is not confiscation, but is an en
forced sale; in law it goes under the name
of Eminent Domain.
Taxation, however, is something altogether
different. The property of the citizen is
taken and he gets nothing in return excepting
the benefits of being a citizen of a civilized
community. Unfortunately it is not seldom
that this benefit is more or less imaginary.
However, the State justifies itself for confis
cating a portion of your property upon the
theory that it preserves law and order, pro
tecting you in the exercise of your individual
freedom, in the use of your property, and in
the enjoyment of your reputation.
The excuse of the State for taking from
Thomson, Thursday, January 26, 1911
Meanwhile, the Trusts are robbing the peo
ple remorselessly. By their sworn statements,
they are confiscating the property of the non
privileged at the rate of $3,125,000,000 per
year. By their own showing, they are con
rioted of rapidly swallowing the nation's
estate.
The whole of the annual increase in our
national wealth is consumed by the Federal
Government, the 47 State governments, the
three territorial governments, the thousands
of municipal governments, and the expense
of maintaining churches, schools, colleges,
private charities, Foreign Missions, and by
the payment of rent and interest on foreign
investments.
Therefore, the prodigious profits of the
362.000 corporations necessarily come out of
the property which the non-privileged had
al ready accumulated !
To feed the Trusts, private property has to
be sacrificed.
To feed the Trusts, men of means are
gradually reduced to poverty.
To feed the Trusts, laborers are thrown out
of employment.
To feed the Trusts, women are forced to
beg. or starve, or sell themselves.
To feed the Trusts, rice and crime and law
lessness—the hounds of hell—are unleashed,
to trail Humanity, and run it down!
Champ Clark! You had better mind what
you are about. Sir. You had better be care
ful what you say, Sir.
The people are in no mood for any monkey
business. This is no time to play politics
with the Republicans.
You and your Democratic colleagues were
elected, on solemn pledges, and for a distinctly
under stood purpose.
you this tax. which is frequently a great bur
den to you, is that the. vxovernment needs the
money to live on. Obviously then, if the
State exacts from you a greater amount than
is absolutely necessary to the legitimate ex
ercise of its legitimate functions, the tax is
nothing more than a robbery. The fact that
it is committed under forms of law does not
make it right.
Approaching the tariff system from this
point of view, its enormous injustice to those
who suffer from it will be most glaringly ap
parent. The Federal Government, like your
State government, or your town government,
has the right to live at your expense. It is
supposed to give you a fair equivalent for
your money. Tn return for the tax which
supports the Federal government, it under
takes to defend you from foreign and do
mestic enemies, and to protect you in the en
joyment of your health, your peace, your
comfort and your pursuit of prosperity and
happiness.
But, when the Federal Government uses its
irresistible power to deprive you of any por
tion of your earnings or property, to enrich
other classes of your fellow-citizens, it has
simply robbed you.
DON'T YOU DARE TO TOOL AND
MOCK THE PEOPLE. AS THE CLEVE.-
LAND - HOKE .SMITH - CARLISLE -
OLNEY GANG DID, IN 1893!
Don’t you dare do it, Sir.
Times have changed. People have had
their eyes opened. They now understand the
swap-horses game of the Money Trust and its
soulless allies.
They have very recently seen the Republi
can leaders draw the indispensable trumps
from the Democratic pack. And, when Old
Man Peepul and I were in hot pursuit of
those Georgia Deserters, last summer, you,
Sir, did your very best to save their scalps.
By reason of your interpostion. Sir. we
missed four political prostitutes who ought •
to have been thrown out.
1 ou saved Tom Bell. Gordon Lee, Pompous
Bill Brantley and Calico Charley.
And now. Sir. you are letting us learn why
you did it.
You meant to imitate their example. You
meant to go back on (). M. Peepul.
lou meant to become, in all respects, the
successor of the vile old Cannon.
You meant to cater to the Trusts.
This is proved by your New York speech,
and by your labored yawp at the Baltimore
conference.
Watch out. Old Hoss! Or, you'll catch hell,
when you come South again!
If you don't mind what you're about you
will wake up some fine day. to be dressed in
a coat of tar and feathers.
Our glorious forefathers had to resort to
that; and the same red blood is in the veins
of their posterity.
As was explained in the Tariff Talk of last
week, the States never delegated to the Fed
eral government the power to legislate out of
your pocket into the business of the manu
facturers alleged high wages and alleged
reasonable profits. The States themselves
had no such power, ami therefore could not
delegate such a power to the central govern
ment. Nobody denies that the Federal Gov
ernment is one of delegated powers. AVe may
widely differ as to the construction, strict or
liberal, that we give to the Constitution of
the I nited States, but nobody has ever been
heard to say that it either had or claimed any
original sovereignty. It is supreme within
the realm marked out for it by the States,
but it derived that realm from the States,
nevertheless. It follows, therefore, that if
the States had no sovereign right to confiscate
your wages or your property for the benefit
of private individuals and without compen
sation, the Federal government is a mere
usurper—despotic and unjust—when it exer
cises such a power.
Io illustrate how this terrific and cruel
exercise of the usurped power to confiscate,
affects the great body of this Republic, let us
(concluded on page nine.)
Price, Five Cents