Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1908 — MR. KERN TALKS ON THE ISSUES [ARTICLE]

MR. KERN TALKS ON THE ISSUES

The Vice Presidential Candidate Presents Clear-Gut Views. FINE TRIBUTE TO MR. BRYAN In Accepting the Nomination to the' Second Most Exalted Position in the Nation’s Gift, John W. Kern Pays an Earnest and Affectionate Tribute tc the Head of the Ticket and Speaks of the Latter’s Patriotic Motives and Earnest Desire to Promote the Welfare, the Honor Glory of His Country. Indianapolis, Aug. 25. —In accepting the high honor conferred upon him tyy the Denver convention, John W. Kern, of Indianapolis, in his speech at the Collosseum this afternoon said: Gentlemen of the Notification Committee:

For the kindly and courteous manner in which you have conveyed to me the official notification of my nomination as the Democratic candidate for Vice President of the United States, and for the eloquent words just spoken by your chairman in your behalf, I thank you one and all. I appreciate most highly this great honor conferred upon me by the unanimous vote of the representatives of my party in national convention assembled, and I shall strive most earnestly to earn a-continuation of the confidence and good will manifested by that action. I did not seek this nomination. Indeed, if my own personal desires had been consulted, another would have received the honor, but it having come to me without solicitation, I prize it all the more, and accept it, with a full sense of the burdens and responsibilities. As a candidate I shall try to wear the honor worthily, and, as faithfully as I can, discharge all the duties properly devolving on me as one of your standard bearers, and if elected I promise to serve all the people of the republic by the conscientious discharge of the duties of the office.

I have no thought that the men who made up that great convention at Denver nominated their candidate because they believed that I had ability or merit superior to that possessed by any one of the distinguished gentlemen whose names were considered in connection with the vice presidential nomination. Many years of service on my part might have had some slight influence in determining their action, but I am persuaded that it was the chief propose of the convention, in choosing a son of Indiana as its candidate. to show its appreciation of the great Democratic party of this splendid commonwealth, made up as it is of more than a third of a million of men, good and true —the very flower of the great Democratic army of the republic. I prefer to accept this proffered honor in the name of these loyal Dem crats of Indiana,, sos whom the honot was, I believe, really intended. It is pleasing to me to bp associated in this campaign with the distinguished gentleman to whom the standard of the party has been committed. For years we have been friends. I recognize in him a man of spotless character and high ideals, always actuated by patriotic motives and an earnest desire to promote the welfare, the honor and glory of. his country. He became your candidate because his nomination was demanded by the rank and file of the party, which demand was emphasised by a popular movement in his favor, which, as it proceeded, so grew In volume and force as to become irresistible. He enters upon this campaign unpledged to any special interests, under no obligations to any unlawful or other combination of capital, looking to no corporation for campaign contributions —asolutely free to serve the people b/ carrying out the pledges of his party’s platform. While he is the foe to unlawful monopoly, and is prepared to lay a heavy hand upon the lawless whether rich or poor, without fear or favor, and to combat the encroachments of greed upon honest endeavor, he is the friend of every legitimate business enterprise, whether conducted by individual or corporation, and will sympathize with the promotion of every movement which makes for the wel fare and prosperity of the .country. A distinguished Republican tht other day referred to his influence with his party as a one-man power. If by that he meant to say that Mr. Bryln possessed the power, in a marked de gree, to influence the thought and arouse the conscience of the republic as no other man of his time, or if he meant that by his upright life, his consistent course, his appeals for right living and patriotic action, he has earned the confidence and personal affec tion-of millions of his countrymen, and gained the respect and admiration ot all the people of ..the world who love liberty and humanity, then the distinguished gentleman was rifchj. with re Bpect to the one-man power of William lennings Bryan. m * Mr. Bryan has exerted no other pow

s . er. He hfts had no subordinates to command, no officeholders to direct 4 think it may be safely said that there were no postmasters, nor other federa. officeholders or employes in the Denver convention. Every delegate tc that convention “carried his 'dovereignty under his own hat," and, as up Independent American freeman, owing no allegiance save to country and flag, cast his vote for Bryan because in tils heart he believed that the nomination and election of such a man were demanded by the best interests of the republic. The Republican nominee for vice president in his recent speech of acceptance affected the belief that the ► question '‘Shall the People Rule?" implied a charge of venality against the American electorate. He affirmed, with great emphafeis, that under recent Republican administration the people have ruled without let or hindrance. It is passing strange that in a republic like this there should be occasion for a discussion of this question. It is a government of the people and by the people. They presumably govern thembelves through their servants whom they send to represent them in congress. Their will, when known, ought to be supreme, and should be given immediate effect. And if the will of the people, once known, is not given effect then the people do not rule.

Will any intelligent man claim that there is or lias been any substantial diversity of opinion in this country on the question as to whether the tariff duty on wood »u Id used in the manufacture of paper should be reduced or removed? In this case the tariff tax operated for the benefit of the paper trust alone, allowing that combine to levy millions of tribute each year upon the newspapers of the country and their readers. The press of the country, without regard to party, united in demanding relief. The people of the republic unanimously seconded the demand. The president of the United States threw the influence of his great office in favor of the demand of the press and the people. But all without avail. The dominant forces within the Republican party had established in the lower house of congress a parliamentary condition, in the interest of monopoly, under which the sole power -to determine whether a measure should be allowed to become a law or not was lodged in the speaker of that body and his committee on rules, and by the fiat of that one man. the will of the press, the people and the president was set at naught. Behold the spectacle! On one side eighty millions of free people demanding legislation to right an admitted wrong. On the other side, a few men engaged in public plunder, aided by the dominating power within the Republican party, represented by the presiding officer of the once popular branch of congress! And the plunderers and these unfaithful public servants prevail over the people ofc.this great republic. In this instance did the people rule?

On February 4. 1902, Congressman Babcock of Wisconsin, then chairman of the Republican congressional committee, in speaking of a bill he had introduced to reduce the tariff on iron and steel, and after showing conclusively that the interests of the farmers. laborers, builders and other classes would be conserved by the passage of the bill, said: “I am going to push the bill to revise the tariff at every possible opportunity. If it- goes before the house it will pass by three to one.” But under the rules of the house the friends of this bill were unable to get it before that body. Three-fourths of the representatives of the people Iri that branch of congress were without power to free themselves from the “strangle hold” which under this modernized system of popular government, devised by the present Republican" leadership, the speaker has upon the American public. This power to subvert the populaa will is exerted, by this Republican leadership in many ways, notably in the appointment, by the Speaker of the House, of committees, which are, in many instanaces, so capstttuted as to quietly kill In the measures designed for the relief of the people. To illustrate, permit me to quote from a petition presented to congress by the great labor leaders of the country, constituting the executive council of the American Federation of Labor:

“The Committee on Labor of the House of Representatives was instituted at the demand of labor to voice its sentiments, to advocate its rights and to protect its interests. “In the past two congresses this committee has been so organized as to make ineffectual any attempt labor has made for redress. This being the fact, in the last congress labor requested the Speaker to appoint, on -the Committee on Labor, members who from their experience, knowledge and sympathy would render in this congress such service as the committee was originally designed to perform. Not only was labor’s request ignored but the hostile make-up of the committee was accentuated.” Hon. L. White Busby is the private secretary of Speaker Cannon. In a magazine article, discussing the powers of the Speaker, Mr. Busby relates the circumstance of a bill having bfeen prepared, and three-fourths of the members of the house having signed a request to the Speaker asking that the Rules Committee of which he is chairman, bring in a special rule for the consideration of the bill. \ The Speaker refused the request. The Chairman of the Committee pleaded

and urged. Continuing, Mr. Busby ;ays: "As a final stroke the Chairman laid: ‘Then, Mr. Speaker, this bill is to fall by the will of one man who is in the chair by our votes. We have io redress from this one-man power.’ yes, you have,’ replied the Speakef. ‘You have a way !to pass your bill. You placed me in the chair'to shoulder the responsibility of the legislation here enacted. In my view I cannot assume the responsibility for this bill. You can elect a new Speaker t - day, and pass, your bill, if you can find one who will accept that responsibility, but if you leave me in the chair that bill will not become a law.’ ” The genial and accomplished Speaker has spoken for himself on this subject. In an interview printed on Aug. 20, in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, a stalwart Republican newspaper, he points out the only remedy__l§ft ito the people, other than that of the ballotbox, for the wrongs complained of. The interviewer said: “Mr. Speaker, you ate also called a Czar, and an element of the public, press holds you up as the one allpowerful influence in the House who thwarts the will of the people and arbitrarily decides what legislation shall be considered and passed iff the great popular branch of the national congress.” , • »

Mr. Cannon replied as follows? v Under the constitution of the United States, the House of Representatives organizes itself, and any member of the House, of any party or no party, on any day, at any time, can halt any business before the House, and as a question of highest privilege offer a resolution and secure a vote on It to displace the Speaker of the House of Representatives and put some other member in his place.” “In other words, the remedy is to disgrace and destroy one of the highest officers in the government—to cast him figuratively from a political Tarpeian Rock, to be erected by the members with his consent, for that purpose. , I have suggested the other way by which the American voters can regain their right of self-government, and that is by the assertion of their manhood on election day, by rebuking with their ballots the party which has brought about such an intolerable condition.

Time forbids the multiplication of instances where the popular will ha 3 been defied and set at naught by the real Republican leadership, sometimes by the one-man power of the House, and sometimes by the few representatives of monopoly who dominate the Senate. Measure after measure, scores of f them—favored by the people of all parties—in many instances advocated strenuously by the President, either failed of passage, or weye so emasculated by amendment, as to utterly fail to register the popular will. The question! “Shall the people rule?” is one which demands the serious and earnest consideration of all men who are interested in the perpetuity of our institutions. It must be apparent to all who have followed the course of legislation during the past few years that there is a power within the Republican, party determined that the people shall not rule. That power has manifested itself whenever effort has been made to check the destructive work of unlaw fill combinations, reduce the oppressive tariff tax, or enact any legislation looking toward the equalization or lightening of the burdens resting upon the people.

That dominant power which now guides and directs the Republican party has on many occasions defied the President in cases where he has, on the demand of the masses, made sporadic efforts in their behalf. In some instances he has persuaded this hand ful of leaders to compromise, on their own terms, with the eighty millions of people whom he assumed to represent, but in most cases he has been abso lately powerless. That dominant leadership elects tlie Speaker of the House, names the committees of the Senate, and is in full charge of the ingenious machinery provided for the protection of entrenched monopoly against the demands of the people. It dictated the platform adopted by that party in its national convention this year, an! after defying Mr. Roosevelt for three and a half years, and killing or crippling nearly all his proposed reform legislation, and having received his unstinted denunciation therefor, proceeded with the finest irony to endorse his administration, after which 1t dictated a committee to take charge of the campaign, and is now in full command of the party organization.

This dominant leadership is now circulating two kinds of campaign literature—one being designed for the East and the other for the West—the first being placed in the hands of the trust magnates, tariff beneficiaries, -stock gamblers, and others who are supposed to be enemies of the President, declaring that Mr. Taft is “sane and safe,” free from the # faults of Roosevelt, while the second goes to the business mem the farmers and laborers, who are presumed to be admirers of the President, and declares that Taft is Roosevelt’s “double” and may be safely counted on to insist upon hie policies, and see that they are carried out. This leadership of the Republican party, responsible for all the polities ills *from which the country now suf fers, is satisfied with the party's non inees, giving them aetive and substantial support, all the while praises of Roosevelt in the West and

South, and damnipg him and his policies to the privileged “interests” out of which they are “frying the fat” with which they hope to carry the election. The question of tariff taxation la one of vital interest. I am in hearty accord with our platform declarations on that subject. The Republican candidate for Vice President, in his recent speech of acceptance, lauded the Dingley bill and declared that when enacted It was well adapted to existing conditions, but proceeded to add “mat. the developments of industrial prosperity in a decade, .which in volume and degree have surpassed our most roseate ‘expectations, have so altered conditions, that in cer tain details of schedules they no longer in every particular mete out justice to all." For these reasons he declared in favor of a readjustment “based on the broad principles of protection for all American Interests alike for labor and capital, for producers and Consumers." / ' The hundreds of thousands of American workingmen who are now vainly •seeking employment, were doubtless delighted when they read about that “industrial prosperity” which so “snrpassul our most roseate expectations.” In thousands of American homes, families will gather about dinner tables which fer many months have not been encumbered with a beefsteak, and indulge in “roseate expectations" of their own. American manufacturers whose factori* s are idle by reason of a restricted market, and whose business has been crippled by reason of the high tariff tax on raw materials, will read this apti h with peculiar satisfaction. If by reason of the high tariff tax pro vie d for in the Dingley bill, factories were opened and labor given employment at remunerative wages, and our "roseate expectations” realized, why should we now, when factories are closed and an army of men unemployed, seek to revise that beneficent measure at all? If the wages of labor depend upon a high tariff, why should any man favor a reduction of that tariff?

If. after eleven years of surpassing prosperity, brought about by the Dingley bill, business languishes and labor suffers, why not excite som« more “roseate expectations” by raising the tariff rates, to the end that there may be a much-needed revival of business, and that labor may again find employment? The voters of America are not likely to be deceived as to the tariff question, by the stock arguments of the opposition. The average voter understands that the tariff really is a tax to be paid by the consumer of the article taxed. He knows that taxes in excess of the needs of the government are unjust and oppressive, and that extravagance in. governmental administration, Indulged in for the mere purpose of creating a necessity for additional taxation, is profligacy. He is also coming to know that the use of the taxing power of the government in such ways that a few beneficiaries may enrich themselves by levying tribute upon the masses, is legalized robbery. Every legitimate business interest in the country is demanding tariff reform. The manufacturer who is not a monopolist is demanding cheaper raw materials and a wider market for his products. The workingman understands that a restricted market means fireless furnaces and enforced idleness. He knows that American workingmen with their superior intelligence and ingenuity, with their improved machinery, with cheap raw materials and earning for their employers more than twice as much as the laborers of any other country, have nothing to fear from competition with workmen anywhere, when the products of their labor are set down side by side in the markets of the world. The American workingman has had bitter experience under the operation of the Dingley bill. Under the shelter of this tariff wall, trusts and combines have sprung up on every band, and with extortionate prices confront the consumer on every hand when he seeks to buy the necessaries of life.

Under this system the cost of living so increased as to absorb the earnings of the laborer, after the most rigid economy and self-denial on his part and that of his family. And It is a noteworthy fact that when, as an inevitable result of the fiscal policy of the Republican party, the panic of 1907 came, hundreds of thousands of these American laborers were thrown out of employment, and instead of being able to draw upon the fabulous savings bank accounts so exploited iu political literature in recent campaigns, found themselves and families in a state of destitution. The soup-houses of 1907-8 In the large cities of the country, were a realization of but a part of the expectations” of Republican statesmen, ~ 5 v The farmer understands that while he has to buy everything in a protected market, where, on nearly every purchase he Is compelled to pay tribute to the trusts and tariff beneficiaries, he is compelled to sell his products in a free-trade market, where he comes In Competition with all the rest of the world. / . He looks no longer with indifference upon the Jlact that the farmer of Canada, Argentina. Australia and other civilized countries buys agricultural Implements of -American manufacture cheaper than they are sold to him. In these days American farmers repd and think, and are fully advised as to the

evila of a system which invites such enormities. Thtnking people of all classes are becoming interested in the moral aspect of this question. The President, in vigorous language, has pointed out the evils which have grown out of th< existence of "swollen fortunes,” the most of which have been amassed b$ tl»e beneficiaries of this system. Senator La Follette, in a speech de livered in the Senate last March, exhibited a list of less than one hundred men who, he declared, controlled the industrial life of the nation, and held in their hands the business of the country. A casual reading of this list shows that it is made up of men who have been the beneficiaries of legisla tion or favorites in the administration of the law. The President rails against swollen fortunes as menaces to the public wel fare and as promotive of evils which eat at the very heart of society. As remedies he has suggested an income tax and an inheritance tax, that their growth may be to some extent checked. The national convention of his party was silent upon the question of these proposed reforms, while the posses sors of most of these swollen fortunes, allied as they are with the dominant forces of the Republican party, are giving generous support to the Republican national ticket. The Democratic party, while favoring the reform measures repudiated by the Republican national convention, has another remedy. It would, by legislation, in large degree cut off the streams of money which under the present system are flowing from every home in the land and emptying into the coffers of the trillts. It would leave in the pockets of the producers and laborers of this country every dollar of the money they earn, save only such amounts as may be needed for the economical administration of the government. It would, by rigorous law enforcement, strike down private monopolies which prey upon the people, and protect the public against extortion and imposition by the great public~corporations, whether by excessive charges or hoover-issue of stocks and securities. In other words, it would undertake to bring about in government, a realization of that good old Democratic maxim of Thomas Jefferson, “Equal and exact justice to all men; special privileges to none." It war to wage on capital. It has no quarrel with corporations honestly capitalized, which carry on a legitimate business, according to law. It will encourage the investment of capital in the development of the country and protect it when invested. It will draw a sharp line between lawful business lawfully conducted, and unlawful business, or business carried on in defiance of law and the rights of the public, protecting the one and protecting society from the other. It calls upon men and. corporations lawfully engaged in legitimate business. not to ally themselves with men or corporations engaged in lawless ventures, fiut to take a stand with the Democratic party in favor of such reforms as will purge the business world of lawlessness and legalized extortion, to the end that honest capital and honest labor may go forward hand in hand in the development of the country, each yielding to each its just due in a spirit of fairness, and all striving for "the time when the door of opportunity shall be open to all who desire and deserve to enter. I will not at this timeNdiscuss the several planks of the national platform. I endorse that platform in all its parts, and pledge my best endeavors toward securing the reforms to which the party is by its terms committed. As the campaign progresses I shall discuss its vario'm features, from time to time, as opportunity presents. •

There was perfect unanimity in the convention as to the adoption of this declaration of principles. Men from every state, distinguished for their ability and patriotism, prepared, and presented it as a platform upon which all American, voters, who a-e in saw r of the rjile of the people, can conscientiously stand. Gentlemen, we enter upon this campaign with every prospect of success. Never has a political platform been received with such favor by all classes of people, and never has a candidate been presented by any party who was closer to the hearts of the people than our matchless standard-bearer, Viliiam .1. Bryan,- / y There is a movement amongst the people for better government which is growing in force day by day. It is confined to no one party, but men of all parties, all trades and occupations are coming together and making com-" mon cause in behalf of a restoration o? a government of the people, for the people, and the people. We must and will win this battle without the use of money or the aid of corporate power. If our adversaries *o desire, let them pursue that course. But there are times in the life of a nation like this when money and coercive influences are of po avail. There comes a time when the quickened consciences of an enlightened people impel action which neither money nor influence can check. That time. In my judgment, is here. every man from* this hour forward, perform his duty in a manly and honorable way. Let this be a campaign of education and argument, our appeals be to the reason and patriotism of the American people. Let us be vigilant and unceasing in houest work for a righteous cause, and a glorious victory In November will crown our efforts.