Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1915 — WATSON’S ADDRESS THAT OF STATESMAN [ARTICLE]

WATSON’S ADDRESS THAT OF STATESMAN

James E. Made Great Speech In Announcing His Candidacy For United States Senator. James E. Watson made a great address at Rushville Wednesday. That is his home town and a meeting' of 6th district republicans was arranged as the setting for Jim’s announcement of his candidacy for the United States senate. It was really a state-wide meeting and there were 53 counties represented. Plans had been made to feed 7,000 at the barbecue but the plans were not large enough and many went unfed, but they did not lose any enthusiasm and it is said that never in the history of the republican party has a more enthusiastic meeting been held in Indiana so far in advance of a campaign. The address of Mr. Watson was the chief feature and he kept the great throng spellbound for two hours while he delivered one of the very best political addresses ever made in the state. Mr. Watson had lots to say. He was one of the most active members of the lower house during twelve years that he represented the sixth district and he has been a student of everything that enters into the making of a great nation since that time. He has had the experience, the knowledge, the spirit and he is given a power of expression few men possess. His oratory served him well Wednesday and his speech has the ring of confidence that the American people will at the first opportunity vote to restore the republican party to power in nation and state, in his complete address Mr. Watson did not dodge an issue. Knowing that he has been accused of being a reactionary he met the issue clearly and pointed out that he .had been identified with progressive measures ;hroughout his service in the lower )ranch of congress. He read a letter written to him by Theodore Roosevelt at the close of Mr. Watson’s service in the legislature in which Mr. Roosevelt praised his work and erpressed his congratulations and an “earnest hope for the success of his efforts.”

Mr. Watson discussed the tariff, favored a tariff commission for which he had worked while in the house and lobbied for after he was out of congress. He again gave endorsement to the merchant marine, to a more complete preparedness for defense, to the aggressiveness of the party along all lines, and states that he had supported the law that established a department of commerce and labor, the railway rate laws, the Elkins anti-rebate bill, for three pure food laws, for the meat inspection law, for the national health act, for a bureau of mines and mining, for a workmen's compensation law, for an employees* liability law and for every measure introduced in congress to safeguard the interests of the labor of woen and children. After making these claims he produced and read the letter written by Theodore Roosevelt and endorsing him in every way. He told of his effort -to reduce southern representation in the national conventions back in 1908 and said that had his efforts received endorsement there would have been no trouble in 1912. These matters have now been largely overcome by the work of the national republican committee in which Mr. Watson and former Governor Hadley participated. He said there is no occasion for wrangle in the republican ranks. We are all for a protective tariff. We are alike on the Philippine policy, on the Panama canal, on the merchant marine, on army and navy preparedness, on banking and currency and for international improvements and control of corporations. And he asked: “Is there occasion for us how to be divided over Roosevelt or Taft or any other man?” ' He then said: “I make no apology for my past course; I demand none at the hand of any other man, regardless of what he did in 1912. I assume that all acted conscientiously and for what they believed to be for the best interests of the party and through it the dearest concerns of the county, and therefore apologies are neither demanded or expected. “My view is that we should all act together the same as if no division had ever occurred, act together in making platforms and in naming candidates and in forming the organization. I propose to shape my course on that theory. If any man who temporarily left the party in 1912 be nominated by the party in 1916 I shall most cordially support him without reference to the. past. “Politics is a gresent-day problem. The question is not ‘What did you do three years ago?’ but ‘What, are you going to do now?’ We have a united and militant enemy before us and* we ' too must be united and militant if we 'succeed in delivering the country from the withering and blighting es--1 sects of democratic misrule.”

He then asked pardon for a' personal reference and said that if elected to the senate he would not have to serve an apprenticeship of two or three years but would be able to enter full strength on a solution of the problems that will confront a special session of congress that would unquestionably be called if a republican president and a republican congress are elected in 1916.

Mr. Watson asked for a -fair trial of the primary law passed by the democratic legislature. He said he had not favored such a law but now that it was written he wanted it tested in comparison with the delegate plan of nominations. .He said that he is not seeking the nomination as a reward but in order that he can assert his unwavering loyalty to the principles of the republican party in enacting into law measures calculated to be of such great benefit in establishing a lasting and dependable prosperity. He said :“If I am elected to the senate I will exert my utmost endeavors to aid business, to foster trade, to promote commerce.” In conclusion he said: “I am opposed to extreme radicalism on the one hand and to extreme conservatism on the other, and I am in hearty favor of the policy of Abraham Lincoln, that of conservative progress,’ holding fast to that which is good while discarding that which js evil, safeguarding the right here, plucking out a wrong there, and remembering that material prosperity is essential to the welfare and happiness of a people and yet not forgetting that un-American ways of accumulating or using wealth is a menace to the doctrine of equality, which is the fundamental idea about which the states of the union and grouped and crystallized.” Mr. Watson was introduced by B. R. Inman, who in 1912 and 1914 was the publicity agent of the progressive party. He spoke briefly of his position during those years and said that he had no apology to make, but that he had never ceased to believe in the cardinal principles of the republican party and that he believed now with a reunited party success would come and permanent prosperity would be restored.