AMERICA'S AGOMY.

NZ Truth, Issue 174, 17 October 1908, Page 1

AMERICA'S AGOMY.

/he ignorance displayed by the daily press of Australasia of . the actual meaning and .bearing of the messages received by cable as to Hearst's- disclosures m the United- Slates is, ; ■ somewhat amusing.' Here we have a number of newspapers owned; by very rich men or companies, quite able to pay -for the 'Special talent and special knowledge required to make their newspapers really -public educators, and the. owners of these newspapers do repeatedly claim that th>ir money-mak-ing .enterprises .are, popular: educators. Yet scarcely a d'jiy .passes without the persons conducting the journals to which we refer to being guilty of Bfbbdigncigian blunders, dither the proprietors of such misleading sheets should"' abandon their claim that>;Ahe business, enterprises -that tke-y own are of any educational value, or alee tney should make sbme- sort of determined eiibrt to obtain the services ol abler editors and leader-writers. Hosrii pays to each of the editors and Ica^cr-wriiers employed' by him the salarr, of", a' Cabinet Minister. By this means lie has made hi& papers the most sucocssfrii' m the United:' States. ; and, indeed, it is th«.BTj«cLH.l ajpprqciatiojii, that .Hearst dispUyifc of the r value oi' the journalists croployel. ky him that is\ making him the ccntrß;>l as much /attention m the Uniteil States as the President himself.

The daily newspapers ■of Wellington, Cto-uitchurch, and other ; cities of Mew Zealand, have badly blundered as to the jbjocts and significance y.bf the disclos■res made hy Hearst. "The Wellingtoh "Times"— apparently entirely unaware of the, vf act that Hearst speaks m the name of an independent" political party that he v hasfoundea— refers to him as tho president of "the . .National League of tho Democratic Club"; iand, m its leading columns, declares his exposure' of the corrupt politicians m tl}e ; ranks of both the great political part'iKS to be the act »f a. "political anarchist." Others term Hearst "the. leader of-jthe Independent League." This statement { displays ignorance of the lact that the name of the organisation has been altered to "The independent and that it is actually putting forward fori, election, •hy the citizens of the United States, a candid a,t6 for the Presidency, and one for the Vice-Presidency:' ./These, candidates were selected at 'the National ,ponvention of the Independent Party' held on July 28. It is to assist these: caiididatles m tbeir campaign thai .Hearst '.has made very damaging disclosures. ;,

William Randolph Hearsjt' is the owner lit a chain of newspapers /! stretching Irom the Pacific slope to L the /Atlantic Coast. He was, also, once a .member of; 'the Un-iV-cl-.States/ Senate. As; si journalist he has been most fiercely attacked by rival journalists.* In commenting upon one of these attacks— an attack m which lie was accused of practices; of the most detestable character, we said, , in these columns that, so serious were the charges made against him, that either Hearst might. 10 be shot, or> if the . charges were untrue, th-n the man making them ■. deservftrt treatment not much less drasli«. 'iearst aspires to Lecome. j-he Presjdtnr. of that Great Republic whose fleet many N«w Zealanders recently welcomnrl witti \frantic enthusiasni. . As a step, iri thai; direction he sought 1o become .ft'.efted as the Governor of '1 he State of N>w T-otifc. He fai ed, largely. Lecaiise of the pxtreme virulence of the rersnnal caronaißn of which he was the victim (fenerally, his political movements have bpen *>« « member of the Democratic Party, but he, ance, .temporally allied . hirosrlf ; with the Republican Party. He ' had, however, been looked' upon as a member of the Democratic Party, until, with the aid" of his great chain of journals, he Started the indispetwknee. Party. fcJven then, however, it was believed that, as be himself could not win as the candidate of the independence Party, he would give his support to whatever Democratic candidate was selected.

Hearst, however, declared that, be had found Moth the old political parties to lie corrupt; and that the time had come for an attempt to he made by a truly and purely democratic party to.spize the PipBidcncy, and, incidentally, the Yire-Prtft-den( 'V. At the convention of the Independence Party m July, there was tremen'doi:--;' enthusiasm/ . The sitting of the convention on the day of the nomination of the candidates lasted until midnight ; nn<! when' their names had been announced 'the tonventioii, it is. reported, cheej-. Ed Continually for thirty-five minutes, theru ii nft much importance to he atW«?d to this cheering ; it i» no more

than . stage thunder ; all parties m the Unites States seemed vto v think it imperatively necessary to , indulge m such outbursts' of sustained noise. Besides the! ordinary cheer, there is ".what is called a "tiger," which is an ear-splitting yell of which a self-respecting tiger woul;d not De guilty. It ..resembles some ol the tricks of New. .Zealand footballers. The men nominated were Thomas 'L. Hisgen; of the State of Massachusetts, and John Temple U raves, of. Georgia. Hisgen, qt course, is the candidate for the. Presidency, and Graves lis^the candidate for the Vice-Presidency."

Hisgen is " respectable" and not unpopular. He is a successful oil-dealer;' and, recently, he stood as the .candidate or the Independent League, as it was then called, for the Govcrn6rship of Massachr usetts. , He received the by no means sontemptible poll of 75,000 votes. Graves is a journalist, now m the employ of Hearst. In the old days feefore he knew Hearst, he was one of the Southern "lire-eating" journalists. He, his enemies say, advocated the lynching of negroes ; and is alleged to have done his best to stir up. racial hatred of the unfortunate descendants of /the black slaves, whom; prior to the -Civil War; agents of white Southerners bought, or kidnapped, m Africa. Probably, Graves foel,d some military rank m Georgia ; for he is known as Colonel Graves. There w^re five hunt dred delegates present at the convention" that nominated Hisgen and Graves ; an<j when. Hearst appeared upon the- platform he was cheered "for nineteen minutes" by the delegates and the numerous spectators m the galleries of- the hall. He declared that the Republican Party consisted of but the attorneys of Iho Trusts; and he characterised the Democratic Party as "a Falstaff army led by a knight arrayed m a motley of modified professions and compromised principle!."

1 This, then, is the state of affairs .with regard to Hearst's position m. the great contest that is now going on m the United States. His intervention m the • contest looked, at first, as if it would merer ly weaken Bryan sufficiently to - let iri Taft, the candidate °^^mk" .mbilcan Party, who, has been, pi\_> * 3 nomin-j ated by President Roosevelt*, jut, now; it is clear thas the disclosures made by Hearst. as to the corruption of leading men m the Republican Party ' (as well as m the Democratic Party) are likely to injure the Republican Party \ severely. His disclosures, say the cablegrams, have "evoked frantic expressions of public disgust." Hearst produced- . letters from the Standard Oil Trust thit showed that Senator Foraker ami, Representative Sible^ (Republicans), and Senator; Bailey and Governor Haskell; (Democrats) had received money from the Oil Trust, presumably as bribes] Foraker had been Taft's henchman during the campaign, but as soon as the letters were produced by Hearst, Roosevelt at once threw Foraker to the wolves :;"~T and Roosevelt virulently denounced Governbr Haskell; who is one of Bryan's chief Democratic supporters, however, refused to abandon Haskell until he had been proved guilty "by" any tribunal thai; President Roosevelt might n» •"«. "

Ax the. result of llearst's disclosures, .Senator Foraker is back :at Roosevelt, who so quickly threw . him* to the wolves. He says that Taft' has consorted with the Standard Oil rriagnates, and that the conduct of President Rooseyelt himself since the disclosures made by Hearst indicates "a guilty conscience." Tlw». Democrats^iijdicate the nature |of this "guilty conscience" by" stating that the Republican Party has received Standard Oil ro'oney equivalent to £20,000, and that a request, was made ; tor ' £50,000 more. Roosevelt directed that the £30,---000 should be returned ; but, say the Democrats, he knew well that it was not returned, but was used, by his party on the understanding that- the Government of which "Rough-Rider" RooseveJt is tne head would deal more gently with tue Standard Oil Trust. Of course, President Rnosevelt pretends to be indignant ; but it is not the first- time that the Hepulfican Party has levied upon the Trusts. In fact, it was by means of money Iron the Trusts— and even from the p;reat life assurance societies — that, Roosevelt's owr, election was fought, ari*l that lup was able, to defeat Bryan m a previous contest for the Presidency. Roosevelt knows this well. It is not because he hates the. Trusts that he has denounced them : it is because he fears the "people.

The condition of the ynited States is, indeed, deplorable: It. is m the grip ol .the Money Power That great man, Abrar

ham Lincoln, predicted that the people' would ultimately have to fight . an even mote formidable pbw.er than that of the rebellious Southern slave-owners, and that the power would be corporate wealth. His prediction has been fulfilled. The Trusts do not value American institutions m the least, except as a means of. squeezing dollars out of tnc people. Wfidt some of 'them' would, really like to establish is a state of things m which a committee of the Trusts would constitute the Government «»f. ' lint country; and m which every l producer' would be at the mercy of that committee <tnd compelled; to do its Didding. Obviously, they do not want Republican institutions ; but a kind of oligarchy of rich men, having at their disposal a, number of directors of labor, who would each be *a sort of feudal lord. The people of the United States will not endure this. If once they decide that such a condition of things is coming, they will as surely fight, .agajnst it as over two; millions of them did against negro slavery.

At present, the citizens of the GreatRepublic are utterly disgusted. What to do they do not know. If they should elect Bryan, they* would be putting the Democratic Party m power ; and the disclosures made by Hearst seem to show that the Democrats are as -corrupt as the Republicans ; should fthey elect Hisgen they, would be putting m power a man but little known, who might ..o in-: capable of holding the position of President with credit to the nation, and who is altogether too friendly with Hearst, Who is regarded with some distrust because of his past political intrigues and the alleged, turpitude "of his private life. There is another candidate, Eugene Debs, the candidate of the Socialist Party ; but the Socialist Party is understood to be too weak to win. Moreover, the majority of the American , people areas yet afraid of Socialism, particularly m the form m which it is placed before them by the Socialist organisations of America. Possibly Bryan, who, m spite 01 Hearst, seems to be mating an excellent fight, will succeed. Possibly Hisgen will receive so large a vote that it will encourage Hearst himself to become the next candidate of the Indepcn-' dence Party for President. In the meanv.mi "Jje outlook is so gloomy that it would not be. astonishing if the struggle between the people and 'the Trusts should leadj after the election, "to a most bloody civil war. The Money Power is seeking to strangle the liberties of the American people, and it has commenced its dastardly work by corrupting those whose duty it is, as public men, to v act as Liberty's custodians.

Politicians and Plunder.