Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1910 — STANDS FIRM ON PARTY PLATFORM [ARTICLE]

STANDS FIRM ON PARTY PLATFORM

Governor Marshall In First Speech Urges Election of Democratic Ticket.

INDORSES LIQUOR PLANK.

Shows That Republican Party Is “Party Of Pillage” By Its - Own Admissions.

Indianapolis.—An appeal to the people to follow principles, not men; a stirring defense of the rights of the individual citizen; an eloquent cry against state and national extravagance; a convincing exposition of Republican tariff and tariff commission follies and an indorsement local selfgovernment and of the Democratic state platform on the liquor question are the features of a message to the people of Indiana delivered by Governor Thomas R. Marshall at Tomlinson Hall here. The speech was the Governor’s first utterance of the campaign and his views on the issues of the day being eagerly anticipated, there was present an audience that filled the hall to its capacity. Cheers of approval marked the progress of the speech and great enthusiasm prevailed. Governor Marshall’s definitions of the standpatter and the insurgent struck home and his declaration that the whole economic theory of government is at stake instead of a certain degree of such a theory was convincing, “This is said to be a fight between the people and the powers of pillage,” said Governor Marshall. “Well, we Democrats of Indiana have been warning our Democratic brethren who have been voting the Republican ticket for more than twenty years that this was so. May I be permitted to inquire who are the powers of pillage? Are they the men who make a schedule, or are they the men who formulate a principle that permits that kind of a schedule?

“I am not ready to charge the Republican party with being the powers of pillage In this country. I am, however, ready to charge that its doctrine of protection has been the germinating power of pillage. It is a party which is wrong in its economic theory and it is the principle which constitutes, to my mind, the powers of pillage and not the men. All Republican leaders are agreed upon the principle. They simply differ upon the extent of its application. It is the principle which has brought into being the evil and while the principle remains, the evil will remain. Own Members Make Charge. “I shall not make against the party as a party, the charge which its own members have made against it. It is a party of pillage by the statement of its own members and its own representatives in the greatest deliberate body in the world. It is a party of pillage according to their charge, not jecause it stands for the protective theory, but because Certain gentlemen Were unable to accomplish their purposes in regard to certain schedules which went into the Payne-Ald-rich bill. The gentlemen who make these charges are on a par with the man who told William Jennings Bryan that he believed in teetotallsm if it was not carried too far. Upon the great economic question men may be misled and yet all be honest, but upon mere schedules, it semes to be a case cf whose ox is gored.” Governor Marshall reiterated the belief of the Democratic party in local self-government-“Therefore.’ he said. “because I believe in the doctrine of local self-gov-ernment and because I believe that ’.he modes and customs of life of various communities should be settled by the people of these communities, and that a law which arises above the moral sentiment of a community and which has been forced upon that eommunity by outside influences, cannot be enforced, I advocate the adoption of the Democratic declaration upon the question of the regulation and sale of intoxicating liquors. I am not for this declaration because I am in favor of saloons, nor am I in favor of it because I am directly or indirectly under obligations to any one engaged in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors. I shall resent any effort of any interest in Indiana at any time to attempt to control the Democratic party of Indiana. “It is sufficient for me to satisfy myself as to a principle of government. I stand, therefore, for the Democratic platform for the reason that until some way shall be devised among men other than the preaching of regeneration by the gospel of the Nazarene, I do not believe it is possible to enforce a law which is opposed to the sentiment of a community and ,1 do believe it is far better to submit this question to the units of government and to regulate the sale of liquor where they will have liquor, than it is to prohibit and make of our citizens law breakers, and what is worse than lawbreakers, citizens who have, no interest and refuse to take any interest in the enforcement of the law. If men could be made wise and good and sober and industrious by law, then, I should be for that kind of a law. But as a people settle together to satisfy their own likes and dislikes, ss have" they a right to determine themselves how their personal habits shall be regulated. • • y Liquor Plank Absent. “From time to time, I hear that the Republican party is congratulating itself that it is the temperance party of the state of Indiana, and that it stands for county option. Well, I have never objected to the Republican party ■ V ,i«. . ■■ ■ ' ; ■

standing for anything for which It wished to stand, but I shall most assuredly object to tefe pretending to stand for things for which it doss not stand. In its recent state convention it pointed with pride to a large number of things which it claimed to have done and which it said were worthy of the admiration of the people of Indiana. County option is conspicuous, by its absence. It was omitted because it was thought to be a dangerous question and because the omission was to be used as trading stock so that the party could declare itself to be wet in wet neighborhoods and dry in dry neighborhoods, and thus fulfill the requirements that the real issue of this campaign is the Republican party.

“I think I am not unfair when I say to the voters of Indiana that they may well be careful on this question and see that they are not deprived of every option whatever by mere political trickery. The history of the Republican party in Indiana is not so unblemished as to warrant it in saying that upon divers and sundry oc casions it has not winked the other eye at the so-called liquor interests., I know that under that platform the option law can be repealed, I know that it has one judge on the supreme bench who declared the law- to be un- j constitutional, and another judge, a candidate for re-election, who also deciares the law to be unconstitutional. How its second ’ candidate, who, if elected, will make a third Republican judge, may stand upon this ' question, I do not know. I do know that the Democratic platform proposes to give to the people of this state an option law which will be so clearly constitutional that no court will ever attempt to interfere with it. Gives Warning On Option. “The time for a party to make its pledges is when it makes its platform, and when a party omits from its platform anything of interest to the voters of the state, it is well known that it is simply to gain trading stodk. Therefore, the people of this state ought not to be beguiled by any statements from the Republicans upon this question. They stand a chance under the Republican platform, of being totally deprived of option. Under the Democratic platform, the right to. local self-government will be preserved and the solution of the liquor question will be found. Liquor will be abolished from every neighborhood in which the people want it abolished, the law will there be enforced, and we will not find ourselves the owners and possessors of two hundred and fifty literary, and social clubs which discuss nothing ex cept the brand of beer and whiskyfound in their libraries.” “A Senatorship being at stake in this campaign,” said the Governor, “it is necessary to refer to national affairs. ' Hitherto, in Indiana, we Demo crats have been confronted by a party whose leaders were united and were battling for the attainment of definite ends about which they were all agreed. It is not now so. One faction of leaders declares that all Is well with the world; another cries that the powers of pillage are raging among the people like a mad dog,.but that unlike the ordinary mad dog, the danger is not in the head which barks protection, but in the length of the woolen schedule tail; and that all would be well If only a half an inch or so of the tail were cut off. The Democratic party of Indiana has for many years been contending that the powers of pillage were beguiling good Democrats into voting the Republican ticket and it also wants to amputate this tail, but it recommends amputation just behind the ears. Hydrophobia comes from a head bite, not from a tail wag.” Attention was called to the profusion and confusion of Republican platforms in Indiana with reference to the state and district platforms “Placed side by side,” said the Governor, “they produce such utter confusion that the voter has only one chance in fourteen to guess right.

Will Fight Protection. “In this«condition of affairs, the Democratic party cannot assault the tariff plank of its opponents. It does not know whether it is to fight the platform of the state convention or the platforms of the Congressional conventions. it cannot tell whether their battle is to be waged for Senator Beveridge and the eleven Democratic Congressmen who voted against the Payne-Aldrich bill before he did. or whether it is to be waged for Representatives Crumpacker and Barnard and against Senator Beveridge. But this matters not. as Democracy will now, as always, fight the old principle cf protection.” - The tariff commission idea, said Governor Marshall, is a “sorry admis sion of the incompetency of a great party to handle public questions.” That the Republican party knows so little about its own bill that it must appoint a Customs Court to interpret it. is another of his tariff conclusions. Ship subsidy and opposition to an income tax were pointed out as further indications of the Republican party’s inclination to favor a few at the expense of the many. Governor Marshall called attention to national extravagance and spoke of conditions hi Indiana. “I believe that the people of this state are willing to pay taxes to’economically administer the affairs of government. * * * But I do not think that the want to run in debt unless it is a matter , of imperative necessity and I am quite sure that they do not want their taxes increased. In concluding, the Governor said: “I dp not know that my conduct of the office which the people of this state cetafierred upon me two years ago has been so satisfactory as to meet with the approval bf a majority of the people. I do know that even if it has, that fact does not warrant me in asking anything for myself. If my administration has been satisfactory, then, with the knowledge which I_possess of the character, ability, and integrity of the candidates upon the Democratic state ticket, I am warranted in assuring the voters of this state that their election to the several offices for which they are candidates will result in gividg to the people as good if not bettor strvj-ie thsm- I have rendered.”