(3.) Endless Chain of Prayer Against McKinley. INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 28.-The executive officers of the Indiana Women's Christian Temperance Union have adopted a novel plan for campaigning against President McKinley, their opposition to him being based on his alleged approval of the army canteen system. The plan is unique in American politics, and is called the "Presidential prayer chain pledges." The scheme is to inaugurate an endless chain of prayers by having the woman addressed make prayer herself and send the pledge to two of her women friends, each of whom will start to pray and will send similar letters to two of her friends. The praying is to continue until election day. If the plan succeeds half the women in the United States will be praying for McKinley's defeat at election time. Here is a copy of the pledge: Whereas, William McKinley has shown that he prefers the favor of the liquor men of this nation to that of the millions of Christian people who petitioned him to blot out the canteen Scourge from the army; therefore I pledge myself as follows: First-I pledge myself that I will until election day make it a special subject of prayer to my heavenly Father that he will give to the United States a better man for the presidency for the next four years; one who will keep wine off the White House table; who will be a total abstainer himself, and who will do what he can to overthrow the liquor traffic. Second-I further pledge myself to make at least two copies of this letter, and mail one copy to some sister in the State in which I reside and the other copy to some sister in some other State. On the bottom margin of the pledge is the biblical citation, Matthew xviii: 19. (4.) Roosevelt on Prohibitionists. "The political Prohibitionists of the present day who go into the third party organizations are, not even excepting the saloon keepers themselves, the most efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can count." C. ACCENTUATION OF EVILS AT HOME. 1. INEFFICIENT AND SCANDALOUS AD MINISTRATION. a. Causes. (1) Irresponsible Despotism Tends to Permeate All (3) Appointment of Incompetent Favorites and Their Retention 192 192 192 ...... I. Inefficient and Scandalous Administration a. CAUSES. (1) Irresponsible Despotism Tends to Permeate All Branches of the Public Service The change in the form of government from an executive, with powers strictly limited by the Constitution and laws of Congress, to one which fre quently violates the Constitution, repeals by mere decree the binding pow. ers of the laws of Congress, cedes territory and citizens to England, "tempo rarily," without the consent of the Senate, and under express authority from Congress governs at will and without restraint 10,000,000 people on the other side of the globe, is an irresponsible despotism. And this irresponsibility tends to permeate all the departments of the Government. This means that the subordinates of the President grant favors to the trusts and to others who will pay for them, and that incompetent favorites are continued in positions. This accounts for the canned-beef scandal in the army, and the other scandals in connection with the inefficient and inhuman treatment of our soldiers in camp, hospital and in the field, and likewise for the lapse of our soldiers to barbarism in the treatment of the people in the Philippines. These people came within the power of the soldiers and they frequently acted the tyrant just as their superiors were doing. The refusal to take prisoners and the unnecessary slaughter, reports of which have come to us in spite of a censored press, are largely the result of the spirit of despotism and irresponsible power which has permeated from the President. Each subordinate tends to imitate his superiors. (2) Civil Service Rule Largely Repealed. Among the other infamous acts of our Executive, whose actions are not limited by the Constitution nor by the laws of Congress, is a decree of about eighteen months ago which repealed an important section of the Civil Service Regulations, thereby throwing open to the favorites of the Administration and to the "bosses" and their "heelers" about 10,000 offices out of 60,000, and as to the remaining offices the spirit of the merit system is badly injured. The Civil Service Commissioners are removable at the will of the President, and he did not consult them before throwing down the bars for his party bosses and their favorites. Of this act of McKinley, the Civil Service League declares: Evil Doings Exposed. (a) That the President's modifying order withdrew 3,693 offices and positions from the open competitive class. (b) That it transferred 6,416 other positions, filled hitherto through a competitive registration system under the Civil Service Commission, to a system "to be devised and placed in effect by the Secretary of War." (c) That the great majority of positions excepted are those for which experience has proven competitive examinations and merit tenure not only practicable, but highly desirable. (d) That it declares regular 1,000 temporary appointments made without examination, in branches not affected by the order and remaining nominally competitive. (e) That it permits the permanent appointment without examination of persons employed temporarily during the war with Spain. (f) That it so orders the rules that in future any person appointed with or without competitive examination may be transferred without regard to the character or similarity of the positions interchanged, after a "pass" examination only. (g) That it permits the reinstatement within the discretion of the respective department officer of persons separated from the service for stated causes, at any previous time. (h) That it condones many outrageous violations of the law committed during the past two years; and, (i) That it is to be considered in its relations to the failure of the Administration, not only to enforce the law "thoroughly and honestly," but to extend its operation where extensions have been plainly "practicable." OTHER EVIDENCE OF DEGENERATION. The entire corps of census takers is selected by favoritism-the merit system does not apply to a single office.. The government of Alaska is by the appointees of the Republican bosses, and therefore exempted from the merit system and legally placed upon a basis of favoritism. The excuse offered by Secretary Gage is "because of its great distance from Washington." Presumably the same excuse applies as to the Philippines. (3) Appointment of Incompetent Favorites and Their Retention. A third cause of inefficiency and scandalous administration is the appointment of incompetent favorites and their retention. For example, during the war with Spain McKinley appointed to important positions his favorites and those of his party bosses, without regard to efficiency, and with results shown by the dreadful conditions in military camps and hospitals and the tremendous losses through disease and privations. In the navy favoritism did not prevail so largely and there was greater efficiency. b. RESULTS. In the public service under McKinley the foregoing causes of inefficiency and scandalous administration resulted in the accumulation of evils such as were never before experienced in our history. An intimation of what it has amounted to is the fact that in the Spanish war the number who died from disease and privation was greatly in excess of the deaths caused by the enemy. Further evidence of the character of the service is Col. Roosevelt's letter to his commanding general, and the "round robin" signed by all the American general officers under Shafter. The report of the commission which examined into the embalmed beef scandal exposes the system which prevailed under this imperial Executive. And when General Eagan, of embalmed beef fame, was removed from office and the verdict of the court-martial appointed by McKinley was that he be suspended and his salary stopped, McKinley altered the sentence so as to continue Eagan with full pay while suspended from rank and duty for six years. In Cuba the salary of Gen. Brooke and several other officers was doubled, the Cubans being taxed to pay one full salary while the officer drew the same amount as regular salary from the United States Government. 2. Suppression of the Truth. Where the few govern the many it is absolutely essential that the truth be kept from the many. Therefore, wherever the few are in control there is always present a large amount of deceit, trickery and other forms of concealment. Since the Administration has entered upon its policy of conquest, thereby going contrary to the most sacred traditions of the people, it has resorted to all kinds of deceit, trickery and concealment. The truth has been suppressed at every possible point. The following are some of the instances: b. CENSORSHIP. Everyone knows of the censorship of Manila cable dispatches. Today, with a national election pending, we are unable to tell what is the condition of af fairs in the Philippines. The National Liberty Congress, composed principally of Republicans and Gold Democrats, who voted for McKinley four years ago, unite in saying: "We believe that the greatest safeguard of liberty is a free press, and we demand that the censorship in the Phil. ippine islands which keeps from the American people the knowledge of what is done in their name, be abolished. We are entitled to know the truth, and we insist that the powers which the president holds in trust for us shall not be used to suppress it." The War Department at Washington has altered the wording of important cablegrams in order to suppress the truth and thus keep the people in ignorance. (Page 134 above.) And the State Department has suppressed the truth. (Page 134 above.) But the public taxation on account of foreign conquest is only a small fraction of the tax which the people have to pay. Every penny which the trusts and other monopolies filch from them beyond what the competitive price would bring, is a tax for private purposes. A private tax is much worse in principle than a public tax without representation, for in the case of the public tax the funds are used for the benefit of all, but in the case of a private tax it all goes into the pockets of the few. Private monopolies have increased by 5. Subversion of With the fostering of private monopoly that is taking place under the exist ing government there is a greater and greater subversion of industrial liberty. The workingmen and salaried men are rapidly becoming a species of slaves to the few who control the all-powerful tory abroad; building of military roads; river and harbor improvements, etc. But greatest of all will be the cost of wars which will rise from international complications incident to a policy of conquest and foreign alliance, and the cost of the necessary preparations at home in anticipation of these evils. Taxation. leaps and bounds since the policy of empire was entered upon. Congress is more fully under the sway of the powerful few than it was while nothing but domestic questions were before the country. Now the people's attention is taken with foreign wars and rumors of wars, and while their attention is thus diverted the monopolists at home are extending their power in all directions. Private Monopoly and Foreign Conquest go hand in hand. Each helps the other. For further showing see the "Surplus of Goods" argument-an argument for conquest; page 100 above. Industrial Liberty. private monopolies. There is but one way to stop this growing power of private monopoly, with its policy of foreign conquest, and that is, to take the government out of the hands of the private monopolists-you must vote against Hanna's candidates. 6. Loss of Self-Government at Home. With the development of the imperial power abroad there has been a corresponding loss of self-government at home. This is pointed out at page 157 above. If the American voters do not go against the Administration in a tidal Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, in a speech on the subject, delivered the 13th of May, 1898, before the British Liberty Unionist Association, confessed the isolation of Great Britain in European politics and the importance of cultivating the close friendship of the United States, making no attempt to conceal the selfishness of his purpose. He said: "What is our first duty under these circumstances? I say without hesitation that the first duty is to draw all parts of the Empire close together-to infuse into them a spirit of united and imperial patriotism. We have not neg lected our primary duty. We have pursued it steadfastly and with results that are patent to all the world. Never before in the history of the British Empire have the ties with our great colonies and dependencies been stronger. What is our next duty? It is to establish and to maintain bonds of permanent amity with our kinsmen across the Atlantic." He then described the similarity of language, of law, literature and of race, and our interests in "humanity," and said: "I do not know what arrangements may be possible with us, but this I do know, and fully: that the closer, the |