Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1910 — GOV. MARSHALL RALLIES PARTY [ARTICLE]

GOV. MARSHALL RALLIES PARTY

Indiana Executive Sounds the Democratic Keynote. A STIRRING GALL TO ARMS In Addition to Outlining the Party’s Attitude on State Measures in ths Impending Campaign, Governor Marshall Reaffirms His Views Regarding the Popular Selection of a United States Senator Great Speech Before Democratic State Convention.

Indianapolis, April 28. —Before an audience which filled Tomlinson hall to overflowing, Governor Thomae R. Marshall, in accepting the gavel as temporary chairman of the Indiana Democratic state convention last evening, sounded the keynote of his party in the coming campaign. Never was the governor’s oratory heard to better advantage, and his brilliant efforts were frequently and most enthusiastically applauded. In view of the great Interest that has been manifested in the governor’s recent declaration fa vorlng the naming of a candidate for the United States senate by the convention, that part of the governor’s speech relating to this subject received the closest attention. He said: It has been said that I am the author of a proposition for this convention to endorse a candidate for United States senator. I deny that statement. The proposition is not mine, but the Democratic party’s, and I simply voice what I believe to be Democratic sentiment. This year in forty-fpur states of the Union, the people are to have, in one way or another, a larger part in the naming of their United States senators than ever before; In many of them in the way to be proposed to this convention. This proposition meets as nearly as possible the demands of Democratic platforms for twenty years and four resolutions of the house of representatives. It is not being advocated by me in the interest of any man, or in opposition to any man’s ambition and desires. Let me I maintain friendly relations with all Democrats and entangling alliances with none. It is up £o this convention to do one of two things: Either to endorse a candidate for United States senator or to strike from its platform its twenty-year-old declaration that It believes in the election of United States senators by the people. If you do npt want to take the people into your confidence and give them a share tn saying who shall be their representative in the United States senate, so be It. It is, however, in my judgment, not only the nearest approach which can be devised to the fulfillment of Democratic principles, but it is also sound party policy. ~ Indeed, the fath ers, realizing that there might come a time when It would be advisable for the people to take part In administering their own affairs rather than to leave such administration to their representatives, specifically provided in the bill of rights attached to the constitution of this state, that no law Should ever restrain the people from Instructing their representatives. This proposition is not intended to coerce or compel any representative of the people to vote against his own will. It is intended to get the election of United States senators nearer to the people than It has ever been before in Indiana; to enable large numbers of Democrats residing in Republican leg Islative districts so have some voice in saying who their representative in the senate of the United States shall be. This is not a personal proposition with me. It never was so intended, and It shall not be so construed. I seek no nomination, cast no suspicion upon the good faith of the past, support no man.

Up to the People.

I have listened dispassionately to the objections which have been raised against the proposition. I have been requested to withdraw it. If this were my proposition in which I had personal interest, it would long ago have been withdrawn. It is not mine; it is yours. A Democratic state convention has power to do as it pleases. Ido not believe it to be the right of any man to take from a convention the opportunity to settle a question in which the people of the state are interested. We have b revetted too many brigadiers ft>r conspcuous bravery in defeat. We need fewer generals and more privates. The jealousies of ’generals fill more volumes than their victories. It is better "to let the army select their own general than to let the generals select their army. Some stand sos measures, not men; some stand for men, not measures; but the Democratic party in Indiana stands for measures and men. It is complained that this is “so sudden.” yet I never knew a coy maiden io refuse a bold and desirable suitor on that account. It is urged that it will bind no one; neither does the nomination of a candidate for president of the United States bind the electors. It is feared that disappointed senatorial aspirants will sulk in their tents. Such men this convention would not dare trust in the blighting .atmosphere of which surrounds high finance in the city of Washington. It is desired that adop-

Son of the plan will wreck the Demo tratic party; that we must not tell the people whom we favor for United States senator. If thd party be so fragile, it will receive so many jolts between now and November that a junk wagon will be required to haul it to the shop. I believe that the men who are seeking Democratic preferment are thoroughly imbued with the desire for Democratic.. Success. Any one of them would gladly sacrifice himself if thereby he might bring about Democratic victory. Battles are not won by generals who hide behind trees when the shooting begins. Democratic leaders in Indiana stand for party unity and party success, and each is willing to yield to the other if the common good can thereby be advanced. Ours is not a party which rests upon the health and hopes of a single man. Ours is a party which dwells by every humble fireside and counts naught lost which ministers to the commonweal. Traitors are born, not made; and Democrats are not traitors to the people’s rule. Do not forget that around two hundred thousand firesides there sit tonight, grim-visaged, liberty-loving yeomen wondering whether they amount to much in a government where Cannon and Aldrich rule in the seats of the mighty and sneer at the plain people, and that the vision they see in the firelight is not a clog dance at the White House, but the marching minute men or Lexington and Bunker Hill. I advocate this proposition merely as a Democratic doctrine, and I trust it will be thoroughly discussed in a spirit of amity and concord by the delegates and that then each delegate will vote his own judgment. If thus settled, there will be no crimination nor recrimination ; no charges of bad faith nor dishonesty; and it should be the purpose and intention of the party to readily and cheerfully yield its united consent to the voice of the majority.

Basic Principles of Government. We are confronted with an anomalous condition of affairs in the coming contest for the representation of this people in the United States senate. It is not my purpose to discuss the personality of the distinguished gentleman who has been endorsed by the Republican party. Able and affable, no controversy must be had with him, except a controversy upon the basic principles of government. I have too much personal regard for this distinguished gentleman to quote, as I truthfully might, from many of his public utterances of the past, disclosing the fact that until very recently he was thoroughly infatuated with the idea that a protective tariff was the only thing of inestimable benefit to the American people. I would not even call attention to his oft-repeated statement that the trust was but a legitimate evolution of modern business methods. To him I grant the same right which I reserve to myself—the right to change opinions. To me, he was in all the years when he stood for an iniquitous system of government, a blind man. This year he declares that the contest is between the rights of the people and the powers of pillage. How he expects to get half way between the armies which now face themselves, the army of the people and the army of pillage, is a marvel to me. I had hoped that this distinguished statesman, discovering that principle, for which all his life he had stood, meant the begetting and nurturing of the powers of pillage, would at once desert those powers and join ttye people whose rights in Indiana are represented by the Democratic party. Had he seen clearly, how gladly we would have welcomed him. His conduct, however, in still maintaining that he believes in the doctrine of protection and yet is opposed to the powers of pillage, which cannot exist without the protective theory, reminds me of that passage of Scripture wherein it is recorded: “And He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town and when he had spit upon his eyes and put his hands upon him, He asked him if he saw; and he looked up and said, ‘I See men as trees walking.’ ” Regretfully I am compelled to say that the senior senator only sees the truth like trees walking. He has been so long in the darkness that his eyes are not yet accustomed to the light. I prophesy that he will be lined up with the Democratic party in Indiana two years hence. I, make this prophecy because I believe that He who gives light to all of us will give more light to Senator Beveridge, and then I may read again from Holy Scripture: “After that He put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up and he was restored to see every man clearly.” Senator Beveridge is almost persuaded that the policy to which he has given the better part of his life is a policy so inimical to the best interests of the people that it be constantly watched, guarded, Curbed and controlled to prevent it from becoming a positive menace to our free institutions and to the best Interests of the people. Some time he Will realize that no prosecuting attorney can refuse to prosecute a man for stealing a horse while ready to prosecute him for stealing a team.

Throne of Conscience Usurped. In view of the fact that our able and learned representative in the United States senate, the Hon. Benjamin F. Shively, will undoubtedly address you upon the iniquities of the present tariff law, I am not justified in attempting to discuss it at any length. For schedules. I have no head. Governments for me were not instituted among men either for the purpose of doing business or of having business do them. We delight in a land where men do things. We arc: beginning to find out that we are living in a land where men do other The Golden Rule hda

been superseded by the rule of Gold; the commandment “Thou shalt not steal,” by “Thou shalt not be convicted.” Success has usurped the throne of conscience, and failure is our only crime. The Joabs of high finance smile gladly on the common people, and as they ask, “Is it well with thee today, my brother,” deftly Insert their knives into the fifth ribs of humanity. Not what we ought to have, but what we want is the distorted rule of life. Conscience has become the vermiform appendix of high finance. It was not written, “Thou shalt not steal,” from the American people to build the Panama canal, but lb, it was written: “Thou shalt not squeal.”

Wrongs to Be Righted. The whole system of protection is, as was wisely declared by the Democratic platform of 1892, “a fraud and robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few.” The Democratic party of Indiana now, as always, proclaims its unalterable belief that ho government has the right to levy by tariff or other taxation, a single dollar which does not go into the treasury of the United States, or to take a penny from the pocket of one individual to put it in the pocket of another. It holds this system to be bad in morals, vicious in its inception and criminal in its operation. The hour has come in Indiana to begin to right those wrongs. Here and now, we not only pledge ourselves to the faithful administration of state affairs, but we also pledge our Democratic representatives in congress and our United States senators to stand fast by the ancient Ideals of the Democratic party—by their votes to proclaim their undying opposition to the system of protection and by their votes to register the will of the people of Indiana against its iniquities. The pleasing fancy indulged In by the senior senator from Indiana when he makes a tariff bill so that the manufacturer will be enabled to charge what he pleases, the workman to get all the wages he- wants, and the purchaser to buy as cheaply as he chooses, Is an Iridescent dream. No man with any sense of justice and propriety can proclaim the doctrine of protection as wise and honest and virtuous and yet condemn its oflispring as illegitimate. “Infant industries” of this country no longer require the protecting arm of the nation —dear, pampered, infant' prodigies, now they have grown to adult infamies, while the system which gave them protection has enabled less than fifty men to control 90 per cent of the wealth of the nation. We must get business out of politics and must take politics out of business. This must be done quietly, soberly, discreetly, at the ballot box or there will come an hour when the toiling millions of America, not willing to wait for an election, will accomplish by force that which should be accomplished by law. The Preservation of Right.

There is a spirit of unrest abroad, a feeling that men do not stand equally before the law. Seven years in the Reformatory for stealing a ham—a Beat In the senate of the United States for exploiting the coal lands of Alaska! Knowledge and information are generally diffused among the people. We know more, think more, feel more, enjoy more, than we ever did in all the past history of the world. Do you tell me that the humble wage earner of today is willing to look along the vista of the years and see nothing but a pauper's grave at the end, while a few men, by legislative enactments, are enabled to dwell in marble halls and scatter money like drunken dukes at monkey dinners? “God does not pay at the end of every week, but he pays.” He pays nations as he pays men, and that people is not wise which is not just The American is a long-suffering man. In the midst of the most splendid civilization of all the ages, in a country rich beyond compare, he has been careless, thoughtless. Neither public or private expenditure has been in anywise curbed. The hour is here to stop some of these things. The Democratic party of Indiana demands the wipihg from the statute books of every law which enables one man to prey upon the labor or the savings of another. It demands the preservation of every vested right in America, and it likewise demands the extermination of every vested wrong. It calls upon all men for public and private economy. It demands that public affairs shall be honestly and Economically administered. It begs the individual citizen to be part of the common good and to stand for men, not systems, for right, not riches. It declares that sunning is not wisdom, that cupidity is not character. Forgetting those things which are behind it, it presses forward toward the era of the equality of all men before the law, and to the accomplishment of these ends, this convention pledges its life, its fortune and its sacred honor.

Along the Ancient Lines At the risk of wearying you with platitudes, I again venture to assert that our people are desirous of having not only good government, but also constitutional government We do not believe that the fathers of the republic intended to erect an edifice here with a Queen Anne front for the few and a Mary Ann rear for the many. The Democratic party in Indiana holds that truth is eternal. It believes in our system of government, and it thinks it is doing as much good in preventing departures from that system as in chasing every vagrant fancy which the human imagination may conjure up. It does not take much stock in a public policy which constantly requires reformation. It prefers to prcteeedslpwly along ancient lines, assured thgt Hmso lines inevitably lead to. the, greatest to the greatest nur.-.ljfer.