y, . - .--, .- -TW7!rtn
The Commoner
VOL. 16. NO.
10
10
it'
Marshall's Speech of Acceptance
Uolow is tho speech of acceptanoo of Thomas
It. Marshall, democratic candidate for vice-president,
at Indianapolis, Ind., September 14,
101C
Mr. Chairman and Members of tho Notification
Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Tho years which I havo spent in tho United
Statos senato havo taught mo at least humility.
I speak, not with authority, but rather as an
onlooker, with distinct knowledgo that under
our system of government my personality is of
small moment; with no other desiro than to
voico my loyalty to my .party and my admiration
for, and confidence in, its leader, with whom we
go to success or falluro and to explain briefly
why wo ought in this campaign to appeal to the
avorago voter who, however loyal ho may bo to
party tradition, fools resting upon his conscience
a moro compelling duty to tho republic.
By 1012, the highway which was supposed to
lead from republicans to their oillciajs had been
narrowed to a squirrel tifick known only to tho
Initiated. Tho right of tho rank and Hlo was
ratification not consultation. Instead of the re
publican party romainlng the party of tho many,
it had become tho perquisite of tho few. A ma
jority of Its members, dissatisfied with tho men
in chargo of it, with the measures enacted by
thorn and tho methods of their enactment, as yet
unwilling to trust tho democratic party, cour
ageously declared their secession and formed the
progressive party. This movement was organ
ized with as much onthusiasm as any of tho Cru
sades and its campaign was waged along camp
meoting methods. fgnorantly, it trusted its
fortunes to a leader who promised that ho would
lead at Armageddon but who, alas! deserted at
Bull Mooso Run. This spiritual and political
upheaval resulted in tho election of Woodrbw
"Wilson to tho presidency.
A LEADER THAT TURNED BACK
Moro than three years of tho most fateful
history in tho annals of mankind havo elapsed.
Now tho leader of tho crusado has turned his
hack on tho holy land. As ho runs, he cries that
tho groat mission of tho progressive party has
been accomplished and that it is now timo to
turn tho country over to tho very men ho con
demned. If tho mission of tho progressive party
has been accomplished, then to tho democratic
party belongs tho honor, for what has been writ
ton, it has written; what has been done, it has
done. Fairness, however, compels the statement
that tho nomination of Mr. Hughes fulfilled the
promiso to recall the judiciary. The evangelist
has pronounced the benediction and adjourned
tho camp-meeting sine deo. Tho highway is
again to bo narrowed to a squirrel track under
tho control of the same men against whom and
whoso methods three-quarters of tho American
voters solomnly protested four years ago If
proof be needed, look arouncl you anywhere. If
they are not upon the ticket or in control of tho
party machinery, it is tho exception, not tho
rule.
In accordance with custom, tho great political
parties havo nominated candidates and endeav
ored to present to tho pooplo what thoy aro
pleased to call the issues of this campaign. These,
in ordinary years, would bo accepted as the is
sues. But this is an abnormal yoar. You can
not interest a bridegroom in the tariff nor a .wid
ow in tho coffln trust. Civilization is turning a'
corner and tho pooplo are moro interested in get
ting around It safely than they are in the char
acter of the load. The American people this
year havo made their own issue. Those that
the parties present may bo only side issues. If
tho sido issues square with tho main issue, well
and good. If not, the people will settle the main
issue first, the sido Issues afterwards. True, wo
can mourn moro sincerely if wo be named in tho
will, but whether a legatee or not tho thing to
do first islo bury the corpse, then read the will.
So multiform are the thoughts and interests
of this people that hero and there may bo found
men interested primarily in the side issues. Chief
among them aro those republicans who can live,
but who do not thrive, out of office. They have
become so accustomed to .listening to their pro--phots
that they really believe, in the facb of the
records of 1873, '77, '97 and 1907, that prosper
ity depends upon republican rule. The present
prosperity of the people is therefore the result of
the war and in spite of democratic rule although
the war business is a negligible part of tho busi
ness of this country. So they tender to tho voter
a sido issue phrased somewhat as follows:
"Temporary prosperity is not essentially perma
nent. You may dio tomorrow. Prepare to meet
your God."
This cry comes from those whoso speeches
fairly ooze with protestations of their faith in
the brotherhood of men. But in the midst of
their apostrophes to the flag as the emblem of
liberty, fraternity and equality, tho far-reaching
hand of temporary prosperity clutches them by
the throat and chokes them into semi-insensibility
while the spectre of a one-legged or a one
armed remnant of tho European conflict, a blood
brother under God, keeping himself from starv
ation by selling some article in America rises be
l'oro them.
Straightway, this brotherhood of men is ab
sorbed into the fatherhood of self. With a
shudder theso men realize how true it is that
temporary prosperity is not permanent. Thank
God for His trustees who guard the squirrel
track for having discovered this for us before it
was too late. What must we do to be saved?
Trust tho republican soothsayer to answer that
the entrails have disclosed that common pru
dence dictates raising tariff duties so as to pre
vent the dumping of pauper-made, cripple-mado
and orphan-made goods upon our market to the
detriment of tho American working man and
that while doing this we should go out and pre
empt the markets of the world. How; if if be
necessary to protect our working men we can cap
ture against these pauper-cripple-orphan-made
goods the markets of the world where they may
freely enter, eludes tho understanding of every
intellect save those who blindly worship the Baal
of protection.
But the democratic party is a growing a
progressive party. Part of its duty is to quiet
the fears of the timid. It proposes that the so
cial and economic justice of the tariff towards
the workingman shall have a practical instead of
a theoretical test. It waives its ancient views as
to a tariff commission, now that the tariff has
been lowered and wealth has been made to bear
its fair proportion of tho burdens of government,
and it proposes to ascertain the real purchasing
difference between the wage hero and abroad,
and to put that difference into the tariff sched
ule, if needed, which I doubt, and provided that
the manufacturer agrees that the difference shall
go into the pay envelopes and not into dividends.
What the republicans used to fool, we shall use
to cheer, the weary hearts of labor.
PANICS NO LONGER DREADED
Who now wants to hear about the banking and
currency system of this country? The honest
business man no longer dreads a panic nor
doubts that with good security his credit, will
remain indefinitely unimpaired. Who longer
denies that government should protect both per
son and property, and that each should contrib
ute to that end? Who, then, would repeal the
income tax amendment, which was "too broad"
to suit the republican candidate for president
hen advising the New York legislature? Who
now thinks that it would be better to let the
careless or semi-dishonest business man run on
until he has involved himself in the toils of the
criminal law rather than by advice, admonition
and reproof from the Federal Trade commission
?!S l? he Tays of falr and honest business
dealing? Who objects that in the exercise of its
peace-preparing and war-making power, congress
has seen fit to provide for- the erection of pow
?n r;.arm?wPlate.,and nitrate plants ra"ier than
l?m w enVfe bUSin6SS t0 private Patrit
ism? Who would not have the government en
gage temporarily in shipping rather than have
ho Sntlret:ir:i1 t0 .the old slavish customs of
tho sea? Who balks at good roads, rural credits
agricultural education and federal aid fortho"
betterment in every way of men and conditions?
All these measures received more or less sun
port from members of the minority who did t
have faith in the trustees and who would Sot
guard or walk the squirrel track. These enact
ments have had but one object the common
weal. A referendum upon them would ToU a
larger percentage of favorable republican ?otes
than they received in the halls of congress
changed administration would not dare to .
9. single one of them.1 cpeal
What then Is the ground upon which the
publican party bases its hopes of a return tn
power? Surely not upon anything which it sav
it would have done or will do. It carefully con
ceals from the voter any view upon the real h
sue of the campaign while it seeks by insinua
tion to provoke a prejudice against the Prcsi
dent. Tho real issue of this campaign is that
thought which goes with tho father to his work
or business, which engrosses every mother, wife
and sweetheart, which sits down with them at
every fireside and goes to bed with them in every
home and that thought is, "Can the President
of the United States continue to so patiently
manage our international affairs as to maintain
honorablo peace?"
SCORES REPUBLICAN ATTITUDE
And what is the attitude of republicans toward
this issue? In the halls of congress I hear tho
President daily assaulted as a tyrant such as
American history has not hitherto recorded.
From tho stump I hear him proclaimed as a weak
and vacillating man. One assaults him because
he did not go to war when Belgium was invaded,
and another because the Lusitania was sunk!
while a third condemns him as being pro-ally
merely because he and the German Emperor
agreed upon the rules that govern neutral na
tions n time of war. Racial pride and church
loyalty are given to understand that he has not
considered them. It is hinted that he should
have done so, but his detractors have not the
courage to say that the republican party will
decide between races or churches or which race
or church it will prefer.
Before we are beguiled by any of this, wo
have a right to demand categorical answers to
these questions: Would the republican party, if
it had been in power have declared war when
Germany entered Belgium or when the Lusitania
was Submarined; or because the allies have vio
lated the rights of neutral trade? Will the re
publican party, if it comes into power, intervene
in Mexico? Is there anything in the constitu
tion which prevents the congress of the United
States from declaring war without seeking tho
advice of the President? What views did the
republican party in the congress of the United
States entertain with reference to Belgium, to
the Lusitania, to the blacklist and to the Mex
ican situation? Why, if it was displeased with
the conduct of the President of the United States,
did it not offer resolutions upon one or more of
these subjects and "place itself upon record?
What does the republican candidate for president
think he would have done or would do?
And here are questions for the people to
answer before they decide how they will vote.
Do you have much faith in a candidate, who in
the most awful cataclysm' of civilization, as
saults, for mere party supremacy, a patient and
patriotic President for acts of omission and com
mission and yet is not courageous enough to say
what he would havo done under the circum
stances or to make any promises as to his future
conduct? What do you 'think of an organization
which seeks to foment trouble among our own
'citizens for partisan purposes with the certain
knowledge that the warring nations of the world
will be impressed with the idea that we are a
divided people and that they may freely violate
the laws of neutrality without fear of either
punishment or reparation? Are you dissatisfied
with present conditions? Are you willing to bo
plunged into war which may sacrifice the best
blood of the republic, rend us into factions which
decades may not again reunite, and dissipate the
resources of tho most prosperous and contented
people on earth for the cooling of the hot blood
of some few men who have gotten too close to
the conflagration to re"main calm and self-poiseu
Americans? Don't you know that the one thing
which would have rendered the re-election or
tho President a certainty would have been to
engage in war? Do you want Jx punish him for
the peace which comes at eventide like a bene
diction upon every home and for her hand
maiden, plenty, which cheers and warms our
hearts?
LOYALTY CONSTITUTES THE AMERICAN
But, those who criticise, say the President js
an infirm American. - Now it so happens m
this
-country not birth nor religion, but loyalty to
America constitutes tho American. Any hi oo
and any faith and any party that assaults
l
V
I X