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W A'
APRIL 24, 1903
5
t '-n-F w- prf"-f r
Kiefer, a member .of congress, in which he said
tbat ho was for Taft and did not believe that
if elected he would "too closely follow Roose
velt's ide'as." It will be remembered that these
reports greatly disturbed Mr. Taft and his man
agers and they took pains to say that the circular
from the Taft headquarters bad been issued
by a subordinate at the Columbus office.
Now the Omaha Bee, perhaps the ablest
and most faithful of Mr. Taft's western organs,
quotes from the New York Commercial-Advertiser
this paragraph:
"As to the 'me too,' charge it became dead
and showed not even mechanical life when it
appeared that with respect to the Roosevelt
policies Governor Hughes, Senator Knox, Speak
er Cannon, Vice President Fairbanks and the
others were quite as much for them as Secretary
Taft."
Mr. Roosevelt must be gratified, indeed, to
learn that his preferred candidate for the re
publican nomination is as enthusiastically in
favor of the Roosevelt policies as Messrs. Knox,
Cannon and Fairbanks are. With this siqsur-
ance that promised hunting trip to Alaska need
not oe aeiayeu long after March 4, 1909. The
country and the Roosevelt policies are cer
tainly safe.
t v 5
HIDING BEHIND LABOR
The Hepburn bill which links together a
little clause for the relief of labor and a big
paragraph for the benefit of the trusts ought
not to deceive the people at large. Why should
relief to labor be made dependent upon favors
'granted to the industrial trusts? The republi
can leaders recognize that the anti-trust senti
ment is growing, and they have fallen in with
the plan of the trust magnates which seems to
:be to hold the laboring men between them and
the fire. This is cowardly and ought not to de
ceive the laboring men. They are entitled to
relief; the anti-trust law was not intended for
associations of wage-earners or farmers. These
associations between men who .toil are associa
tions for the protection of their own wages or
the products of their own toil, while the trusts
ire combinations of capital owned for the pur-
ose of cornering the market and controlling
the price of othpr peoples' products. Let each
stand upon its own merits. The laboring men
ire entitled to a separate bill protecting their
lights. If the trusts are entitled to any relief,
let that relief be put in a separate bill so that
fit can be voted upon and discussed by itself.
The republican leaders confess their double deal-
ling when they refuse to give the public a chance
Lto vote upon tne two suojects separately.
i 5 v
SPEAKING OF STUMBLING BLOCKS
The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch con
cludes an editorial relating to the "anti-Bryan
movement" in this words: "If ever there was- a
convention where the power of the uninstructed
delegate will be great, not only in the choice
of the candidate, but in writing the platform,
it will be at Denver. The appreciation of this
fact is the stumbling block in the way of those
who want no deliberation by the representa
tives of the people in convention' assembled."
But the appreciation of the fact that cer
tain special interests are seeking undue power
through uninstructed delegates may suggest to
the rank and file of the party the importance
of making their instructions to their represent
atives at Denver somewhat explicit.
An expression of the desire of the rank
and file, through instructions to delegates, may
prove to be the stumbling block in the way of
those who would make the national convention
the master, rather than the servant of the party
and who would make the party the plaything
of predatory interests rather than the champion
of the public welfare.
rt ipM w
IOWA'S JOKE
It must have been a practical Joker who
wrote the platform recently adopted by the re
publicans in Iowa. The platform says: "We
declare unequivocally for protection as the
cardinal principle of the republican party and
we affirm our unalterable purpose to maintain
it." This is the introduction, not very encour
aging to a tariff reformer, but behold what fol
lows: "Events have confirmed the wisdom of
the makers of the national platform of 1904
wherein the party pledged readjustment of
ratos of duty only when conditions so changed
that the public interest demanded their altera-
The Commoner.
tlon. In accordance with this declaration of
four years ago, the republican party of Iowa
endorses the declaration of the Ohio republican
Fil "fl0.1 thIs year in behalf of revision of
the tariff by a special session of next congress,
What sarcasm there is in pointing to the
promise made in the platform of 1904, which
has not been kept, as a basis for a new promise
which the party has no intention of keeping.
Or possibly the Iowa joker intended to put the
emphasis upon the word only. If so, the plat
form was not a promise to readjust the tariff
when conditions changed, but merely a promise
that there would be no reduction before that
time. The platform does not say that' the time
has arrived for a reduction or that there will
be any reduction. Referring to its promise that
there shall be no readjustment until conditions
change, it endorses a revision of the tariff
maintaining the principle of protection, .etc. Now
Secretary Taft tells us that revision means the
raising of some schedules and the lowering of
others, without telling us what schedules are
to be raised and what lowered.
If the republicans who favor tariff reform
can be deceived by the juggling that is going on
in the writing of platforms, they are not as wide
awake as they have given us reason to believe.
If the republican leaders In Iowa had been
entirely frank they would have said: "We point
to the fact that the promise of four years ago
is still unfulfilled, and we make another promise
just like it. We have no more thought of keep
ing It than we had then. We fooled the public
before", and we expect to do so again."
If the people want tariff reform, they must
get it from the democratic party.
lafi ( Y (V
A LOUISVILLE INCIDENT
Commoner readers may be interested In
the following dispatch carried by the Associated
Press:
.Louisville, Ky., April 16. The formal
opening of the Hughes campaign, which has
been quietly gathering .way in Kentucky for
some time, came tonight, when General Stewart
L. Woodruff, former United States minister to
Spain, delivered an address in Leiderkranz hall
in the interest of the. governor of New York.
The hall was filled and the audience an enthu
siastic one. Genoral Woodruff devoted his ad
dress almost entirely to tho political situation
and the chances for the election of tho various
candidates. His points In favor of Governor
Hughes apparently found favor.
Referring to his reception this evening,
when he was met by delegations of ex-confederates
and G. A. R. men, General Woodruff ap
pealed to the old soldiers on both sides to unite
on Governor Hughes for the benefit of their
country, as they had already amalgamated for
their benefit on other questions.
"Governor Hughes," declared the speaker,
"is the only candidate whose election can be
predicted with certainty and whose success at
the polls would be considered as an unmitigated
blessing to the public, which demands both the
correction of abuses and the continuance of our
present prosperity. New York has often been
a pivotal state, and all signs this year indicate
that the selection of a president will almost cer
tainly lie with her. The republicans have a
number of candidates, and there is not one who
would fall below the average standard we de
mand of our presidents, but it is doubtful if
any and Taft most of all except Governor
Hughes can carry the state. Bryan is stronger
in New York than either his friends or his
enemies are aware of."
The mention of the Nebraskan drew cheers
from a portion of the audience, and .General
Woodruff, smiling broadly,' said: "That's good!
I'm the best natured man in the country when
I hear a good citizen cheered. Nominations,
however, are still In order."
He then proceeded with his speech, re
marking at the close: "Hughes is the univer
sal second choice and when the time conies for
the final test of -strength the undercurrent will
show the politicians whom the people really
want."
fc 2ri q5 t
NEW YORK DEMOCRATS
New York democrats met at New York
City, April 15, and elected as delegates at large
to the democratic national convention, Alton
B. Parker, Charles F. Murphy, Lewis Nixon, att
of New York City, and Charles Froeh of Brook
lyn. The delegates were instructed to adopt the
unit rule. No effort was made on the floor of
tho convention to endorse Mr. Bryan, tho reso
lutions commltteo having rejected tho resolu
tion to that effect. Patrick H. McCarron, leader
of tho Kings county domocracy was unseated oh
a contest, tho delegation lead by Bird S. Colar
being seated. Tho platform adopted was a
follows $
"Tho domocracy of tho state of Now York,
In convention assembled, hereby declares as
follows:
"Wo bolievo that the domocracy of tho na
tion, by the strength of its position on questions
of great public importanco and by tho blunders
and extravagance of tho republican party has
this year presented to it an unusual opportunity
to return to tho control of tho government of
tho country, and to that end wo bolievo that
overy sacrifice which patriotism may suggest
or public sentiment requiro should bo mado by
all members of tho party In order to again put
democratic principles into actual operation in
the administration of tho affairs of tho govern-
XXX vll L
"We believe that as tho country is greater'
than the party, so is the party greator than any
of It mombers, and therefore personal ambi
tion and Individual proferment must give way
to tho good of the many and tho triumph of
tho cause.
"Wo hold that democratic traditions, bound
un as they are with much that is greatest In
the history of tho country, requiro that tho
conventions should be tho gatherings of the best
intellect, the ripest judgment and the most un
selfish patriotism of a party for tho purpose of
studying tho needs and striving for tho welfare
of tho country at largo, and, therefore, repre
senting tho party in the greatest state of tho
union, a state whoso electoral vote Is essential
to democratic victory, with no animosity or Iiof
tillty for any candidate and animated only by
devotion to tho principles of tho party, call upon
tho democracy of tho country to send to Denver
in July next, unpledged, unfettered and unin
structed, their ablest, strongest and most rep
resentative men, to the end that out of tho de
liberation and consultation of such men, there
may bo then and there nominated a tlc'iot whlib
will rally to its support tho judgment, comclence
and vote of a majority of the citizens of tho
country."
5 j& tw )
THE GLADNESS OF THE BAREFOOT BOX
Commoner readers may bo interested in tho
following extract from a speech delivered by
Representative Robert Lamar of Missouri in tho
house of representatives:
"I have read of the wonder of tho ancient
world, the hanging gardens of Babylon, which
Nebuchadnezzar reared in graceful terraces high
above the brazen gates of the city to remind his
Median wife of her mountain homo, and I have
read In tho Odyssey of that land of delight,
the island of the lotus-eaters, of which Tenny
son draws this beautiful picture:
"How sweet it were, hearing the downward
stream, with half-shut eyes, to ever seem, falling
asleep in a half dream!'
"But certainly the garden spot of tho mod
ern world is in the Mississippi valley, with Its
sun-kissed mountains and broad rolling prairies.
The paradise of the twentieth century civiliza
tion, there in our magnificent, fertile and ma
jestic Missouri, with her blue sky, her pellucid
streams, her balmy air, her gorgeous sunsets
and her everlasting hills. We may visit tho
famed galleries of the world and feast our aes
thetic tastes upon the masterpieces of Raphael,
Rembrandt and Angelo, Reynolds and Vandyke,
but no painter's brush ever has or ever can pro
duce on canvass half the glory and majesty and
sublimity of an autumn sunset in the Ozark
hills, with the golden sunlight gilding the tree
tops and throwing over and about the variegated
foliage its soft and mellow radiance. (Applause.)
"Beethoven and Mozart, Mendelssohn and
Handel and Wagner, have poured forth a flood
of melody and harmony which will delight tho
ears of mankind while civilization lasts, but it
can never inspire that feeling of buoyancy and
exhilaration, that bubbling joy and gladness,
which is felt by the barefoot boy as he listens
to the morning song of the mocking-bird, the
robin and the lark as they flit from, limb to
limb, while the sunlight glistens on the dew and
the very air he breathes Is full of life and glad
ness." (Applause.)
i&t & t&
At any rate -"Uncle Joe" Cannon, if elected
president, would surely "bust" as many trusts
as have been "busted" during the last six or
seven years. .
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