Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1912 — What Does a Change Mean for YOU? [ARTICLE]

What Does a Change Mean for YOU?

Two groups of zealous politicians are crying to the country for a change in our National Administration. They want to take charge of the nation. They want to administer public affairs. - And they promise wildly, eagerly, what they will do in return—if only they are granted control. From Maine to California, their words fill the air. And have you, the workers and taxpayers, whose affairs these gentlemen would control, stopped to analyze their proffers and promises? You should. To the politicians themselves these proffers and promises are of no special importance. They have nothing tb lose. They have everything to gain. Even if they lose, they win; for the contest will keep them in the limelight. But for you, the workers and taxpayers, this contest is serious business, and you should weigh the consequences with a serious mind. Don’t take mere words. Seek facts. Out of this whirlwind of language which the “spellbinders” send beating about your ears, what is it that stands first, last and all the time? “We want a change in Washington.” A change for what? To what? The present administration, after nearly four years’ hard-.work, has finally succeeded in restoring the country’s business to a prosperous basis.

The mills are running full time. Mines are operating all their shifts. Factories are working to capacity. Commerce is thriving. The country is free of labor troubles and financial troubles. The working man is steadily gaining better wages. The farmer is growing steadily more prosperous. The market for farm products has never been so broad and generous. The railroads report the heaviest freight and passenger traffic in their existence. Shipping is everywhere active. Public works on a great scale are everywhere under way. Trade is moving smoothly, in ever increasing volume. The savings banks are overflowing with money. The United States is on the threshold of the greatest boom in its history. Within six months, under present conditions, we will dwarf the great period that followed the Spanish War. And our prosperity will be here to stay, for we are on sounder ground than we were in ’9B.

The trust problem has been settled —and settled right. “Big Business” has been put in its proper place, and this without halting industry or disorganizing affairs. The currency question is understood as it never has been, and will be solved along sound lines as soon as the heat of partisan political controversy dies down. The tariff is gradually being placed on a business basis, and soon will he out of politics, as it should. Everything is shaping to give the American people a long, unbroken, unparalleled period of peace and plenty. And at this time of all others, along comes these political gentlemen shouting for a change. Do you want to change? Do you want to check prosperity just as you are about to pluck its choicest fruits? Would you, the workers who must pay, commit the mad folly of taking your government out of tried and proven hands and turning it over to the self-seekers who are clamoring for its control? When President Taft look over the government the country was prostrate. Industry was paralyzed. Business was chaotic, uncertain, suspicious. Millions were out of employment. Investors, wherever possible, had withdrawn their capital. Enterprise was dead.

All this was the result of the panic of 1907, the “talking panic.” The “Rich Man’s” Panic, it was called. But do you remember any poor man who was not hurt? It took the Taft administration over three years to repair the damage of this panic. It required infinite patience, skillful ifianagement at home and abroad, unflinching enterprise, good judgment and vast prudence to bring the country .out of that black pit And now that the pit is covered, and the country is basking once more in the level sunshine of prosperity, do yqu want to take a chance' on being thrown back? Do you want to take a chance on being talked into another and a needless panic? , It is a grave problem that confronts yon. Whether you are STmotorman or railroad, president a day laborer or millionaire, the issues are the same—either continued prosperity under a sane, stable government, or a plunge into a period of experiment The question is not to be settled' by talk, no matter how smart. The huzzahs of the lust&gs may make sweet

music, but in the background of the future you may hear tbe mutteripgs of a people unemployed. Your family stands with you at the dividing line, which has happiness and prosperity on one side and unhappiness and even want on the other. If you are a tramp, without kindred and without responsibility, by all means follow the adventurers. But if f’ you own a stake in the country,, if you have kith or kin dependent on the job you hold, weigh carefully the words and deeds of those who would lead you in a mad gallop to the precipice of experimental government. Remember, a change at Washington would mean everything for them. But what would it nfean for you ? Would Mr. Taft’s defeat help you? Would the theories, untried and unproven, on which the politicians are seeking to ride into office, benefit your wife and family? Brush aside all the fine language of the orators long enough to dig btft answers to these questions. You will then have a reasonably safe guide on Election Day, for, like true charity, true politics begins at home. The intelligent man votes for that which is best for himself and those dependent on him, and not for that which is best only for the other fellow. He is not misled by the shadow of the bone-in the water. t The American people, for the first time in years, have the bone of prosperity firmly between their teeth. Are they prepared, like the dog in the fable, to drop it, to chase elusive shadows? REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, James B. Reynolds, Secretary. Charles D. Hillis, Chairman.