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Show HARD TIMES. The "big interests" of the -country have prophesied proph-esied that a crisis is impending in this country. They have stirred things up in Wall street and are trying to scare the people into the belief that a financial panic is imminent. If they can make the people believe that money i3 getting scarce and can betray them into withdrawing their funds from the banks and thus take from the channels of trade the medium of exchange, their predictions predic-tions will come true. Nothing is needed to produce pro-duce a panic but. a general belief that it is coming- . It is noteworthy that the calamity howlers are all associated with the big interests of the country. coun-try. Last January John D. Rockefeller announced that the nation was to undergo a financial stringency strin-gency during 1907. Eight months have elapsed, and his prophecy isfnot yet fulfilled. True, there has been a heavy slump in the stock market, and fortunes have been made and lost in this' form of gambling, but so far the people have steadfastly refused to be stampeded. Instead of a panic, the people have considered the depression more as a readjustment after & period of inflation. The water wa-ter has been seeking its level. Crops are about average, and mines are producing more and more all the time, and the demand for manufactures is stupendous. It does not seem a propitious time to croak. r But the "big interests" have prophesied hard times, and they do not like to be discredited. Their plans have all Leen arranged, and, as they have a great deal of power to force their plans to fruition, no doubt .they will exert that power to destroy the credit of the country and thus fulfill their prophecies proph-ecies and their wishes. Viewed dispassionately, the prophecy of evil seems more like a threat; not the simple forecasting forecast-ing of events, but a word of warning to the people to cease interference with matters affecting the "big interests." Their graft must be left undisturbed undis-turbed else they will withdraw from the activity of the commercial world and scare everybody else into withdrawal, and thus produce the desired ef- feet of allowing them to continue their illegitimate illegiti-mate operations. Undoubtedly the threats of monopolistic capital capi-tal have stayed the hand of the administration in its desire to revise tje tariff schedules. It is 1 equally beyond doubt that the victory of the free trade principle a few years ago was followed by a withdrawal of capital from the industries of the country because capital would not compete on an equality with capital of other nations. Evidence is all f too plentiful that American manufacturers do successfully compete with the world in the trade of foreign lands, but they will not, if we are to judge by the past, meet the prices of foreign for-eign manufacturers in our own country. The "big interests" taught the American people a severe lesson in political economy in the hard times of Cleveland's administration a lesson which they are today threatening to repeat. The lesson is that any attempt to ,decrease the earning power of money, any attempt to provide more equitable distribution dis-tribution of the good things of the world, whether it be through tariff revision or the Enactment of laws forbidding special privileges, such as rebating, rebat-ing, will be followed by financial reverses to the nation, na-tion, inaugurated and guided by the power of wealth. Questions of political economy are difficult to discuss without seeming V favor one or the other of the great political parties. The merits of protection pro-tection and free trade are little understood by the people, and the questions are so involved in partisanship, par-tisanship, and the wealth of the country so intent on maintaining for itself the advantages derived from a high tariff, so opposed to the principle of free trade that it refused in the 90's to participate in the business affairs of the nation, that the ablest statesmen cannot decide which system is in its finality the better to promote the public good and general welfare of the people. The protective system sys-tem taxes the land and labor of the nation for the benefit of capital. Under it, the protected industries indus-tries reap rich rewards. Everything is high priced, and profits to. traders big. The free trade system taxes the land and labor of the world also' for the benefit of capital. Under it, the world competes, and competition reduces profits. Everything naturally nat-urally is cheaper. But when capital of one nation refuses to compete com-pete with capital of another, production of manufactures manu-factures ceases, wage earners are thrown put of employment and hard times and distress result. High tariff beyond a doubt is the best guarantee of high prices and the prosperity of capital. Free trade is beyond a doubt the best guarantee of lower prices, with capital compelled to compete with foreign for-eign capital or remain inactive. As long as capital is permitted to dominate the world, as long as the people are satisfied to live from hand to mouth, accepting from the favored few the meager rewards of docility, the prophecies of the "big interests" will be received as words of wisdom. President Roosevelt has hammered steadfastly stead-fastly at the evils of the nation as he sees them. He is not deterred by threats of a financial panic. If hard times 'come, it is for the people to thank the "big interests" and, the system which ifefmits "them to cause the hard times a petty revenge upon the people' for demanding that aapital obey the law. |