Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1914 — GRAND OLD PARTY IS COMING BACK [ARTICLE]

GRAND OLD PARTY IS COMING BACK

Republicans Getting Together to Fight Common Enemy. TIME RIPE FOR 6LAD REUNION

In This Connection the Republicans of Indiana Are Still Talking of That Wonderful Message of Inspiration and Conciliation Brought to the Party Reunion at Indianapolis By Former Governor of Kentucky. The Republicans of this locality are still talking about the speech made by former Governor Augustus E. Willson at the great Lincoln Day Republican reunion at Indianapolis, which in its - y - ~--rr- ' ; —— size and enthusiasm, so convincingly demonstrated the fact that the Republican party is not only coming back in Indiana, but that it has arrived and has begun to do business. Governor Willson came to the meeting with a carefully prepared message intended to meet the existing situation In Republican affairs. As the intimate friend and warm admirer of both Roosevelt and Taft, Governor Willson refused in 1912 to take any part in the fight between these two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, and although he spoke for Taft in the campaign of 1912, he did it on the distinct understanding with the Republican state central committee of Kentucky that he was not to be expected to lambast Roosevelt. As a non-oom-batant in the “scrap” that disrupted

the Republican party, Governor Willson was able to speak in a judicial way of the controversy, and as a patriotic Republican suggest the way out Governor WlllSon, who was introduced to the big audience in Tomlinson hall in a few vigorous and well chosen words by former Mayor Bookwaiter of Indianapolis, who gave a brief address of welcome to the Republicans assembled from all over Indiana, said in part: A Sacred Patriotic Service. “In his Gettysburg address the dearest best loved and noblest words that ever fell from human lips, he made the appeal to his country which I say after him now, as a sacred patriotic service which should be said, on this Anniversary, to the end of time as the pledge and dedication of every citizen of our country forever. “May I ask everyone who hears my voice to rise, in token of our thanks to God, who gave Abraham Lincoln to our country, and stand, silent, while I repeat the pledge and dedication which he appealed to his countrymen to give? “Give ear to every word of this solemnappeal, and when I ask you if you do w'pledge, let the answer be from the heart and as tne spirit moves.

“ ‘lt is for us, the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to .the great task before us; that, from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave' the last full measure of devotion; that we, here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died In vain and that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.’ Pledge Fite Day. "I have presented this pledge to you because it fits the day, the hour and the oocasion. This ie not a meeting for dress parade or show or anything but an honest, earnest purpose, organized to free our country from the rule of the Democratic party, which has set the country back ten years and caused us troubles, the end of which no man can yet see. And it is not only an Important oocasion, but with that pledge holding good, it Is a memorable occasion. ‘T am a Republican; not a differentiated, sorted out, or any special brand of Republican, but just a plain Repub--11 can—one of seven millions of citizens who elected Roosevelt and Taft and who care a hundred times more for the Republican party than for either or both of them put together—ls they can be put together. “The Republican party is human, as well as humane, and not infallible, but it was and it is glorious, rich in honorably ambitions, high hopes, practical every-day, hard-headed common sense, great In wisdom, energy, Constructive statesmanship and, last and greatest, in patriotic faith, hope and courage In the work of saving and building up the greatest, richest, happiest and best oountry that ever blessed mankind. Wonders as to Outcome. “I was a little boy in New Albany when the boys in blue, in companies, regiments, brigades and divisions went south and Abraham Llnooln was president and Oliver P. Morton was governor of Indiana, and when Morgan made his raid and when the Knights of the Golden Circle, the night-riders of that day, were plotting against the Union, and sometimes I sit by the fire and thhlk over all that happened then end has happened since and Is going on now or expected soon, and I wonder

W hat will be the outoome and why ft has come oat as it has. i “Somehow I am met satisfied with the Idea that it is the Lord Almighty's way of teaching ns, or becanss ‘whom He loveth He ch&steneth.’ And then I come to the question, ‘Why is the Democratic party?’ I have wondered, tor fbrty years and more, and asked thousands of people in many meetings, why it is that the Democratic party, a great party, a great payer, great in vitality and grit, made up of American citizens, our kin, of the same forefathers, neighborhoods, associations, schools and churches, the same kind of liveß in the same kind of’work and, in short, the same kind of people, the same people, just as good as their neighbors—how is it that when organized in the Democratic party they have alwayß made suoh a sorry record, while their own kind of people and neighbors in the Republican party have made such a success of their control? Victim of Political Cranks. “The Democratic party, as an organization, has been the victim of-every political crank, the heir of every impossible theory of government, and the awful example of every serious political mistake in our times, and gets worse all the time. It hugged to its breast the monster of slavery in this land of liberty, and ‘for every drop of blood drawn by the lash we paid one drawn by the sword.’ It became the missionary of free trade between our country with high wages, and the rest of the world on half of our wages. It stood for the issue of paper money and free coinage of silver at a ratio fixed by statutory flat. Instead of by laws of exobange. It brought the country to ruin, in spite of good crops and everything else favorable, during each of Its four low tariff periods, while Hnder Republican party government the increase of the business and wealth of this country in the thirty years from 1860 to 1881 was $49,000,000,000, a billion more than the total wealth of England. “The failure of the Democratic party cannot be wholly due to Its presidents, for It has elected some great presidents; but not even Andrew Jackson, or Grover Cleveland, or Woodrow Wilson, can ‘make a silk purse out of a tow's ear,’ or a successful management of the national government out of the Democratic party. Ido not believe that the angel Gabriel would “think It worth while to blow his horn for our country while the Democratic organization was in control—not that I am anxious to hear it before we get the Democrats out In Full Charge. “The old southern Democratic party is In full charge of the government of the Union, with a severe southern Democrat as president and a Democratic congress and cabinet both controlled by the south, just as they were before the war, and we have a Democratic low tariff bill, or a low Demo-, oratic tariff bill, and a high income tax In force, with a dangerous Democratic paper money Inflation bill just goihg Into operation and a federal business commission about to be put over, regardless of states’ rights that our southern friends used to be so anxious about.

“And with these vital things there are some mere straws Just as significant For instance, ex-Senator Joe Blackburn of Kentucky, a typical southern Democrat loud In his hate of the Yankees and the Union, who for most of his life In public and In private, denounced, derided and maligned Abraham Lincoln and all he stood for, bat whose bark Is worse than his bite, has been appointed by the southern Democratic president as chairman of the oommission to erect a $2,000,000 memorial to Abraham Linooln, succeeding Abraham Lincoln’s friend, Senator Oullom, deceased, and has been voted by the southern Democratis congress a salary of $5,000 a year for it

“It is a condition, not a theory, ■which confronts us,’ President Cleveland said. And now the same old south, the same old Democratic party, with a keen, strong southern Democratic president, rules the Union. Its rooster never crowed louder or longer; its donkey never brayed or kicked harder. “And now we begin to see the practical results. Shops, mills, stores, banks, hopes, chances, plans and Improvements are all going Democratic.” Statistics and Reports. In some'detail Mr. Willson gave statistics and reports to show that living and financial conditions had become worse under Democratic rule. Speaking of the Republican split, he said he had not been willing to take sides in the Roosevelt-Taft controversy, because he believed it would mean the defeat of the Republican party and the bitter humiliation of both men. "They had no right to quarrel,” he said. “Much less at oui- expense.” “So I have oome to this meeting, although I realize how little any one man can do, to speak frankly, earnestly, honestly and fearlessly; to say that the Republican party seven million of Republicans so lately divided —are still Republicans; to reoall the glories of their united achievements and principles; te speak frankly of the things which led to division and defeat, and to hold out and to present to all the fact that they are still in the majority; that they are still Republicans In principle, and that those things which caused anger and division were not general or fundamental or based on questions of principle, but were purely personal controversies, which made the quarrel, the bitterest tu&rrel In human experitnoe—the famly quarrel.’*