OF THE BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, N. Y. CITY, COUNSELLOR AT LAW, Vol. 1, No. 4-RURAL PRESS SERIES—October, 1900 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY $1.00 A YEAR PRICE OF THIS NUMBER, 10 CENTS Entered at the Chicago Post Office as second-class matter. INTRODUCTORY. In this campaign the citizens of the United States are to decide whether the existing policies of the national government are to be continued or whether they are to be changed. To do this intelligently, they must first know the exact claims of the Administration and of the opposing parties, and then examine the evidence. If To assist my fellow-citizens in this most important duty is the purpose of the following pages. The issues are the greatest that the ballots of men have ever decided, and therefore every one should try and acquaint himself with the vital facts. Prosperity has been disappearing for six months and a growing depression is again upon us (see pages 13 to 18). The cause is the falling price level (page 7) and the monopolization of nearly all the great lines of industry (pages 93, 69). the existing order of things is continued, the outlook is simply horrible. The depression must grow rapidly worse and exceed in degree anything that the world has ever experienced, because of this new factor in depression-the present monopolization of nearly all the great industries and the rapid fostering of trusts in the remaining fields (pages 13, 95, 102). In the domain of Government the conditions are equally alarming. The great private interests have the Federal Government in their control, and legislate for themselves and against a restoration of competition in business (pages 61, 67, 71, 83, 88, 102), and have become so arrogant that they have reached out and secured more subjects-today they are holding the people of Porto Rico and the Philippines as subjects, shooting all who stand in their way, while at home they employ government by injunction, blacklisting, military law, threats of panic, and demand a further increase in the standing army (pages 102-108). If the voters the sovereign power-continue the Administration, they ratify all the causes which produce these evil conditions, in the vain notion that they are continuing a prosperity that has flown (see pages 13 to 18). The importance, then, of bringing before our fellow-citizens the evidence in the case cannot be over-estimated The Civil War, grave as were its issues, pales into insignificance beside the momentous issues of this campaign. Had the South succeeded there would still have been two Republics, but if the policy of the Administration be ratified, the holding of subjects in Porto Rico and the Philippines will continue, thereby overthrowing our Republic,establishing an Empire, and abrogating the Monroe doctrine. This will open up the Republics of America to conquest by the Empire of the United States and the Old World Empires, and cause our country to become an armed camp, the same as is now the case in Europe, only worse, for militarism will have grown; while the continuation of the trusts will hold us all as subjects of the most conscienceless Ruler the world has yet produced, and one that must steadily 291198 grow in power until refuge is found in a Military Despot, or Equal Rights is restored in the Governing Power. The course of events is rapid in this highly developed stage of industry and concentrated wealth, and, therefore, if the tide of oncoming depression be not stopped, the climax is almost certain to arrive ere another four years roll round. September 25th, 1900. GEORGE H. SHIBLEY. : |