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| Dred Scott and wife Harriet, lower illustrations. |
The
Cortland Democrat, Friday, August 14, 1896.
REPUBLICAN ATTACKS ON THE UNITED STATES
SUPREME COURT.
(From the Albany Argus.)
Republican
criticisms of those portions of the [Democratic] Chicago platform censuring the
United States Supreme Court for its action on the income-tax matter are singularly
audacious when it is recalled that the Republican party was born in defiance of
the Supreme Court. Because of the Dred Scott decision, a decision which, by the
by, was as a matter of law and constitutional interpretation, unquestionably
sound and unimpeachable, and because they recognized that the decision was
unassailable from a legal point of view, able Republican agitators of the
radical school, like William Lloyd Garrison, purposely shifted their point of attack
to the general onslaught on the terms of union as embodied in the Constitution.
There can
be little doubt that the Albany platform of February 2, 1859, characterizing the
Union as "a covenant with Death which ought to be annulled and an
agreement with Hell which a just God cannot permit to stand," was
deliberately intended to "fire the Southern heart." Nor can there be
any doubt that it culminated in the awful civil war of 1861-5, and was followed
by the embodiment of the assault on the Supreme Court, in the 13th, 14th and
15th amendments.
Hence,
and not unnaturally, supporters of the action of the Chicago convention are
asking, "If our platform is anarchy and revolution, what was theirs in
1860?" The point involved is not one of the merits of the platform
sentiment in either case; the question is distinctly other, namely, whether we
have an infallible Supreme Court to criticize whose decisions when rendered
even by a majority of one, and he a turncoat, is "anarchy" or
"revolution."
Not only
was the Republican party born in rebellion against the decision of the United
States Supreme Court on a pure point of constitutional interpretation, but for
the purpose of gaining a majority in that court that would stultify itself by reversing
the greenback legal-tender act decision, the Republicans manipulated the bench
thrice within eight years after their accession to power in 1861. They made the
number of judges ten in 1863, having found it nine; they reduced it to seven in 1866, and again increased it to nine in 1869. It
is, perhaps, not strange that in view of their own record on this point, the
Republicans are fearful that similar manipulation is contemplated to change the
decision on the income tax; but even were it so contemplated, it would be no less
the fact that they are the last ones who have any title to criticize such a
proceeding.
Charles
Sumner, Horace Greeley and other distinguished ante-bellum Republican leaders
used language in criticizing the action of the court on the Dred Scott matter,
beside which the most fiery utterances of Tillman and Altgeld seem tame. Sumner,
in a speech at Worcester, September 7, 1854, denounced the court as having lent
"its sanction to the unutterable atrocity of the fugitive slave act,"
and the Worcester convention gave him three cheers. Another attack by Sumner is
enough to make the "anarchy" editors of McKinley organs fairly
shiver, if Bryan had said it, as some joker recently made the Chicago Tribune believe
he did. It was Charles Sumner who said:
"Let
me say here that I hold judges and especially the supreme Court of the country
in much respect, but I am too familiar with the history of judicial proceedings
to regard them with any superstitious reverence. Judges are but men, and in all
ages have shown a full share of frailty. Alas! alas! the worst crimes of
history have been perpetrated under their sanction. The blood of martyrs and of
patriots crying from the ground summons them to judgment."
How Free Coinage Would Help Workingmen.
Free
coinage would at once double the amount of primary or redemption money, for
under free coinage silver would be a redemption money with gold. Gold is to-day the only primary or redemption money. This would cause silver, as a
commodity, to rise, and gold, as a commodity, to fall, until they reached a level,
where they would remain. All prices being to-day measured in gold, would rise
as fast as gold fell.
The
agriculturist would receive the profit in higher prices for his products,
having received more money for his produce, he would be in a position to spend
more buying the things he needed. This creates demand, which starts production.
More men
are needed in the factories to supply this demand. They receive steady work,
and as employers bid against one another for work, wages fall. Steady work,
even at a small advance in wages, will allow workingmen to pay the higher
prices that they would have to pay for the things they need. Fixed charges
(such as interest, railroad fares, salaries of public officers, etc.), would not
advance, being already fixed by law. It is a simple proposition that if all the
factories in Watertown are running full time and selling their product at
higher prices, that their employers are better off.
It is not
because people do not want manufactured goods that our factories are running on
less than full time and with a decreased force, but that the people have not
the means to buy. Sixty-five per cent of our population are engaged directly
and indirectly in agricultural pursuits. If we can bring prosperity to that
class the rest will share it.
Free
coinage aims at that result in this way. It will arbitrarily fix the price of
silver bullion at $1.29 per ounce, and this country (the greatest and naturally
the wealthiest on earth) is powerful enough to fix that price for the world,
for no one in a foreign land will take less for silver than he can get for it
here. This will prevent England from driving down the price of our agricultural
products, for she can no longer buy silver bullion at a low price (from 49 to
68 cents per ounce), coin it and spend it in India at its face value of $1.29
per ounce. Every ounce she buys anywhere will cost her $1.29, and that is all
she can spend it for. So she can no longer land Indian wheat and cotton in Liverpool
at a low price, but it will cost her full value. Wheat will rise here, cotton
will rise, other agricultural products following, the only measure of price
being the uninterfered with law of supply and demand. Thus in giving prosperity
to the agricultural classes, we give it to ourselves, who make our living
directly or indirectly from them.—Watertown Gazette.
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| Rebuilt Cortland Forging Co. factory complex. |
CORTLAND FORGING CO.
Mammoth Shops Nearly Completed—Work to
Begin Soon with the Finest Modern Machinery.
With the
exception of the japanning building, the new shops of the Cortland Forging company are nearly complete as far as the
masons and carpenters are concerned. The main building is 120x370 feet, running
north and south. Parallel with this and connected at the north end is a
building 60x290 feet which lays next to the Lehigh Valley tracks. A switch runs
along both sides of the works and the machinery inside is so arranged that the rough
material goes in on one side and passes through the shop, never going twice over
the same ground, and comes out on the other side a finished article at the car door
ready to ship.
The 6,500
square feet of floor surface gives ample room in each department for its own
special work and as the buildings are only one story high there will be none of
the inconvenience experienced before in getting heavy material up and down
stairs. The boilers have all new fittings and are ready for use. The engine
will be ready next week. The dynamos are in position and ready for wiring. The
heavy iron castings are all that will be used of any of the old machines, and
these are fitted with the latest and most improved appliances.
The
electric apparatus is all new, having been built by the Thompson Electric Welding
Co. Instead of a fire blast, such as was formerly used to heat iron, the system
of the Springfield Aerated Fuel Co. has been put in, using compressed air from
an air compressor. The offices are very conveniently arranged in the north end
of the buildings.
The protection against fire is of the best. Fire
walls separate the different departments and there are ten stand pipes at convenient
places with hose all connected, hanging on a reel ready for use. About two
hundred electric lamps will be placed for lighting. A japan building 80x100 feet
will be completed within thirty days at the east of the main building. Then it is
probable that the temporary machine shop which was erected will be moved over
near the boiler room and made into a stable.
The
complete buildings and their machinery will be as fine, if not the finest, in
their line in the country. When they start up about the first of September,
fifty men will be employed and as new machines are started the force will be increased
to about two hundred.
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| Cortland Opera House. |
Opera House Season.
Manager
Rood of the Cortland opera house is busy booking attractions for the coming
season. The list already signed embraces some of the very best on the road. Among
them are many old favorites, such as Wang, Shore Acres, Faust, Old Homestead,
Eight Bells, Tornado and Limited Mall.
Sousa's
Band and South Before the War are specimens of the attractions which will be
new to Cortland audiences. It is probable that the season will be opened here
about the middle of next month, but the date and play have not been fixed.
Great Ball Game To-morrow.
When the
Cortland team was young Auburn defeated them, but we have improved daily since
then, and are confident of winning to-morrow's game but not without hard work.
It has been arranged to have the full City band give a concert on the grounds
during the practice before the game.
Cortland
has won a name in other towns for playing great ball and the manager is daily
receiving letters asking for dates with strong teams. This name has not come
without hard work and expensive players and as the expenses are very heavy it
has been found necessary to charge the ladies 15 cents admission to the
Saturday games. Their past patronage has been appreciated and they will be
admitted free as before except Saturdays.
The two
pitchers, O'Gara and Gallagher, deliver two entirely different balls and are enough
to mix up any opposing team. O'Gara sends a wonderfully swift ball and Gallagher
one with a great curve. Both men will play in the game to-morrow which is sure
to be a good one.
The only
home game next week will be on Monday with the Shamrocks of Syracuse. Tuesday
morning our team leave for a trip, playing Tuesday at Norwich, Wednesday at
Oxford, Thursday at Sidney, Friday at Bainbridge and Saturday a return game at
Auburn with Auburn.
FROM EVERYWHERE.
One cent
buys a quart of milk at Hornellsville.
The
latest legislature fixed the marriage fee for justices of the peace at one
dollar.
An
average of 100 words are annually added to the English language.
The
Watkins Democrat says that the recent damp weather has caused the grapes to
mildew in that vicinity.
A large
number of employes are being laid off by the Central Railroad, pending a
renewal of business, which is unusually light for this time of year.
Alfred
University now has $250,000 invested in guaranteed securities. Donations in the
last ten years aggregate $150,000.
At a
special meeting Killawog people voted to build a $2,500 school building on a
$350 site, to replace the one burned.
Sir
William Turner has compiled a table which shows that a whale of 50 tons weight
exerts 145 horse-power in swimming 12 miles an hour.
Northern
Arizona is said to be suffering from an
unprecedented water famine. Water for whole villages is hauled by train a
distance of one hundred miles.
The Spanish
Consul at Philadelphia has offered a reward of $10,000 for information that
will lead to the capture of any filibustering expedition in Cuban waters.
The total
number of presidential electors in all the states in the national contest of four
years ago was 444. The total number this year in 447, a gain of three by the admission
of Utah.
A private
belonging to a regiment of Highlanders lately rode through the streets of Glasgow
on a donkey and was fined over $15, or one month's imprisonment, for attaching
ridicule to the queen's uniform.
The
illicit manufacture of opium in San Francisco is a matter that is just now puzzling
the officials. Not a steamer leaves port without a load of the terrible
intoxicant, and yet the whereabouts of its manufacture remain an unanswerable
enigma to those whose duty it is to ferret the matter out.
Illinois
is the next state to Pennsylvania in the production of coal. The mines are in
the southern part of the State, and employ 35,000 men. New labor-saving methods
are constantly being introduced, one of the latest being the cutting machine, with
which one man can do the work of fifteen.
Ithaca Clergyman Dead.
ITHACA, Aug. 6 —Rev. Hiram Gee, a retired Methodist
minister, died here to-day, aged 76, of cholera morbus. He left the bulk of his
property to the Syracuse University.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.
A
Misfit.
The gold standard newspapers are very clamorously
laying down the following contradictory statement: First, that if free coinage
is established the owners of free silver mines can take fifty-four cents worth
of silver bullion to the mints and get a dollar for it; and that the profit
thus made will amount to one hundred and forty-nine millions of dollars.
Second, that if free coinage is established forty-four cents worth of bullion
can be taken to the mints and exchanged for a dollar, but that the dollar will
only be worth fifty cents.
These two propositions taken together constitute
as rational an argument as any gold bug editor has thus far been able to
present. If free coinage will only produce a fifty cent dollar in exchange for
fifty four cents worth of bullion, where is the mine owner's profit?
The fact is that the rise and fall in price of
all commodities have always steadily followed the rise and fall in the price of
silver bullion.
Free silver coinage would, therefore,
increase the price of all other property, except gold, proportionately with the
increase in the price of silver bullion. This was illustrated in 1878 and 1890.
The silver legislation in those years sent wheat up as high as it did silver
bullion. But free coinage would bring down the fictitious value of gold and
make it worth only one hundred cents on the dollar. The work of the two metals
would not longer be performed by one.
The present conditions may be illustrated
thus: A teamster hauls his load up the hill easily with two horses, but if he
takes one horse out of the traces and puts him in the wagon the other horse
would have a hard time drawing the wagon, the load and the horse up the hill.
If Mr. Bryan is elected, a free silver coinage Congress will also be elected
and will again hitch up the silver horse with the gold horse, and then the load
will be easily moved.—Cincinnati Enquirer.
◘ The gold men are doing everything possible to
frighten the farmers and workingmen into voting for McKinley. Money is being
used and they will stop at nothing to win. The common people should vote in
their own interest this time. They may never have another chance to break the
yoke that is pressing upon their necks. The millionaires are against the common
people.
TOWN OF SCOTT.
John G. Landphier is dead. He
has been sick for a long time from paralysis of the throat.
The one taken to Cortland
Saturday night for drunkeness and disorderly conduct was sentenced for 30 days.
Sentence to be suspended during good behavior.
The sick people are thought to
be improving. E. D. Crosley who has had a raging political fever for some time
past, is convalescing. The fever was broken last Saturday night, and it left
him very weak.
The political fever which has
been raging for some time past in the republican camp in this town came to a
focus last Saturday night. Scarcely a republican in town far or near could be
thought of, who was not on hand at the caucus and many democrats and
prohibitionists were also present to see the fun.
Early last spring or winter E.
D. Crowley [lawyer and Republican] is said to have made the announcement that E.
W. Childs had received the last favor from the town of Scott that he would ever
receive and he even took pains to inform Mr. Childs of the decree, so that he
might adjust himself to the circumstances of the "New Era" by him now
promulgated.
Well, at an early hour the
crowds began to pour in and the bar room of the Central House was full to
overflowing, and although the bar was extended to its utmost capacity, yet the thirst
of the crowd seemingly could scarcely be assuaged, and the Rains law was dealt
out without stint but with pecuniary profit. After awhile the crowd got into
the hall above when M. G. Frisbie, the chairman of the Town Committee, called the
meeting to order and put in nomination Hon. S. A. Childs as chairman of the caucus,
who was chosen without visible opposition. Geo. H. Butts and Harlan Potter were
elected tellers, W. J. Cottrell and Wallace Pickett secretaries, and Joseph Pickett
and Geo. Maycumber as watchers. Crosley swore in the officers.
Then it was voted to elect the
county delegates by ballot and one at a time W. D Hunt, Esq., in an affecting speech
presented the name of E. W. Childs to head the delegation. E. D. Crosley
nominated Wm. Roche proprietor of the hotel in opposition. He attempted to put
on an honest face as he said their side came here with a list of delegates who
would go to the convention entirely free and unpledged. (But they won't go.)
Well the ballots were distributed and the crowd surged up to the polls and in the
rush numerous democrats were raked in.
Quite a number presenting
ballots were questioned regarding their political faith, some of these were
allowed to vote and some were not. The result was: E. W. Childs 96, Wm. Roche 68; 2d ballot, Wallace Pickett 85, S. D. Ames
65; 3d Ballot, C. S. Clark 88, B. H. Potter 57; 4th ballot, Nathan Salisbury
80, F. A. Crosley 56; 5th ballot, Wm. J. Cottrell 83, Harlan Potter 47; 6th
ballot, John Vincent no opposition.
At this junction Crosley was relegated
to the rear and his son, F. A. Crosley made a motion that Fred Bierce be allowed
to choose his own delegates to the school convention he being a candidate for
School Commissioner; this was opposed by E. W. Childs and others in the
interest of M. G. Frisbie who also was a candidate for that office. Finally it
was agreed to take a vote, those favoring Bierce to vote a ticket with his name
and those for Frisbie to vote for him. The result was Frisbie 81, Bierce 75.
Mr. Frisbie made choice of Hon. S. A. Childs, Elain Clark, C. M. Kinyon, Wm.
Holben. John B. Brown and H. B. Stevens Jr., as his delegates, and soon the
crowd passed to or through the barroom between 11 and 12 o'clock at night.
It has been told that one-half
of the people present at the caucus were indisposed but we consider the
statement an exaggeration, for not over one-third were full enough to show it.
One was taken to the cooler in Cortland during the night and kept till Monday
morning and some expressed regret that a car load could not have been shipped
down there. One man expressed himself as feeling like a wine-cask without any
vent. We don't believe either candidate for School Commissioner paid for
liquor. Mr. Frisbie in one instance that night refused to buy for them and the
defeated candidate, Mr. Bierce, is a young man who has borne an enviable
reputation and is worthy of respect and had he not been handicapped by the
support for the time being of one who is distasteful to so many of our citizens,
it is thought by many and so expressed by them that he might have been selected
as this town's candidate, but such is life and such is politics.
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