MR HEARST'S BOMBSHELL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3001, 25 September 1908, Page 5

MR HEARST'S BOMBSHELL.

SENATOR FORAKER AND HIS DEFENCE. QUITE ADEQUATE.

Received September 24, 8.0 a.m. NEW YORK, September 23.

The moment Mr W. R. Hearst's attack on Messrs Foraker, Sibley, Bailey, and Haskell appeared, Mr Foraker withdrew from his engagements to speak at Mr Taft's meeting. In doing so he said he thought hid own defence was quite adequate, but he did not wish to do anything that might damage Mr Taft's candidature for the Presidency. t MR BRYAN SPEAKS OUT. ' Received September 24, 8.50 am. NEW YORK, September 23 Mr W.J. Bryan, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, declares that Mr Haskell, who is treasurer of the Democratic National Fund, is willing to appear beiore ahy tribunal Mr Roosevelt may name. Mr Bryan adds that he is willing tnat Mr Haskell should do so, and declares that ne must oust Haskell if Mr Roosevelt after investigation, supports Mr Hearst's accusation—that he (Haskell) is a tool of the Standard Oil Trust.

"Democratic America has erected ite platform, and, with tremendous acclamation, exalted Mr Bryan for the third time to' the rank of party candidate for the Presidency. The applause with which the Denver Convention welcomed tne popular orator was sustained for an hour and 28 minutes, in order to eclipse the 48 minutes' cheer with which Chicago once immortalised Mr -RoosbvcU'," says the'"Scotsman." "At present the betting odds are largely in favcur of Mr Taft, tne Republican candidate, but sober spectators wer<\ it is said, impressed by the genuine fer_ vour of the convention, and there is some reason to expect that the f.ght will be keen and close, and that the issue may, for a time at leait, be dubious. In the meantime, it is of more immediate interest to inquire what, behind toll the noise and the party contention and the mj'Jhinemade clamour, are the issues which for the next two months will be the topics of co'i.ti-ovcrsy thtaughout the United States. For this we must look to the Democratic platform. The first plank is tariff reform. A3 a freetrade candidate, Mr Bryan has been twice beaten, but the paoty arc not discouraged. Even the Republicans profess to tavour revision of the tariff, but the Democrats say that the work of reform - cannot be entrusted to a party which dratvs the sinews of war from the classes who thrive by protection. Mr Bryan's supporters demand an immediate reduction of import duties. They propos3 to put imports that compete wiht trust-controlled products on the free list. They would make large reductions on articles that compete with- American goods used for foreign dumping and would »)so lighten the burdens o?y the 1 necessaries of life. Finally, fihey suggest graduated reductions vrtricti should lead ultimately to a st/icWy reveiiws tariff. Should the plank be carried,' and any considerable instalment of it adopted by the Legislature which does not necessarily frataework of American industry and- finance would have to be lately reconstructed. The whole commercial' and industrial world is profoundly concerned in thi<! Democrats plank. Next to the tariff plank, the most interesting to people on this sidcrof the Atlantic is what is called the and--injunction plank. It is the programme of the American Labour party. The demand of the federatioif is akin to that which British trade unions forced .the present Government to concede in the Trades Disputes Act. The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the anti-trust law prohibiting combinations in restraint of trade applies to trade unions, thus placing them under a disability more complete than the Taff Vale judgment imposed on British trade unionists. A substantial modification of this law is one of the most practical demands of the Eemocratic piatform, and if the forces of capital and labour were as well balanced in the United States as in |the United Kingdom the Labour party might exercise a powerful influence in the choice of a President."