Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1916 — HOUSTON MADE GREAT ADDRESS [ARTICLE]

HOUSTON MADE GREAT ADDRESS

Rensselaer Entertains Member of President’s Cabinet LARGE CROWD ENJOYED TALK Secretary of Agriculture Ably Explains Many of the Day’s Most Important Issues. Monday evening Rensselaer and Jasper county was host to the Hon. David F. Houston, secretary of agriculture in President Wilson’s cabinet, and paid him and t)ie administration a tribute accorded to no other political speaker in the present campaign. The opera house was filled to its capacity and as the secretary gave first-h»nd information of affairs at Washington the audience was so attentive that the drop of a pin could have been heard throughout the auditorium. The Democratic band assembled in front of the opera house before the meeting and rendered a few pleasing selections and after leading the way to the hall played another piece. The meeting was called to order by Hon. E. P. Honan, who in a few brief but well chosen words paid a tribute to the administration in both state and nation, and then introduced he speaker of the evening. Secretary Houston is a very pleasing gentleman to meet, and while he is not what could be called an orator, he has a vast fund of knowledge of governmental affairs, and states his views with a logic and conviction appealing to all. From his extensive knowledge of political affairs the speaker predicted that Connecticut would support Woodrow Wilson and that his majority in New York would exceed 100,000. That such men as James Garfield, son of the late President, had come out in support of the administration and that Ohio would . in all probability be for Mr. Wilson. The speaker declared that the Republican platform contained but two real, genuine issues, woman’s suffrage by state action and federal control of all railroads. In discussing the Republican candidate, the secretary aptly referred to him as a chameleon, with a remarkable ability of changing to suit immediate conditions. Mr. Houston’s speech, in the main, was from a rural standpoint in particular. He declared that Mr. Hughes’ arguments had but one meaning, that war was the only path to economic supremacy. But that the Democratic party was a party of peace anfr that they had never failed to provide ample safeguards. He declared that the Democrats had provided the first real tariff commission, one charged with the duty of gathering the facts and presenting them to congress and to the people; that for the first time in history the people as a whole were

to be let into the secret. He assailed Mr. Hughes for his recent declaration that he was not interested in the relation of the tariff to the people. He also pointed out that for the first time in history the burden of taxation was equally distributed, that heretofore it had rested on the masses while those who were better off were permitted to evade taxation.

The federal reserve act was referred to and proclaimed a new credit structure of the nation; that its efficiency had been amply demonstrated during the terrible financial strain of 1914, compared with’ which the conditions causing the panic of 1907 were postively trivial. This new law, he said, while not making a panic impossible, made one highly improbable; that in the future the finances of the country would be directed from Washington instead of New York.

The secretary devoted some time to an honest and clear discussion of the farm ’oan act and the rural credits bill. When in thorough operation these measures will make possible the borrowing of money at a rate cheaper than has been heretofore known.

The federal aid roads bill, he declared, would revolutionize the road question of the nation. That while today there is an annual expenditure of $280,000,000 for roads, of which 40 per cent is needlessly wasted, when this bill once was in operation it would provide better roads for all at a great deal less money, and surely there are none who doubt this statement for its truth is a matter of common knowledge to all. One of the greatest benefits for the American farmers and their wives is the agricultural extension act, which will make possible the disseminating of information by personal contact through two experienced agents in each of the 2,850 counties of the nation. These agents, in a majority of cases, will be a man and a woman. Among other laws of immeasurable benefit to the nation discussed by him were the child labor law and the farm products standards act. This latter bill will prove of great benefit to all farmers through preventing the adulteration of rural products, which has proved so profitable to speculators, yet so costly to the farmers. Referring to the President, Secretary Houston that no man had ever been harrassed by such grave and delicate questions as he, yet he had kept a balance so perfectly that he had failed to satisfy the extremists both at home and abroad. And regarding Mexico he stated that Mr. Wilson had saved this country from the shameless disgrace of a war with a downtrodden nation.

He assailed Mr. Hughes for attacking the eight-hour law, yet declared he dared not say he would repeal it. The President, he said, was deserving of great credit for this act, for it had saved the nation from an industrial war that would have been almost as ruinous as a foreign war.

As regards the statement attributed to Secretary Baker regarding the soldiers of Washington's army, the speaker branded it a campaign falsehood and stated that Secretary Baker had told him to he did not say anything of the kind.

In regard to 1 the President, the speaker said he believed that if the people of the United States could know him as he knows the executive. 80 per cent of the electorate would support Wilson at the polls. He told of his “blows at dollar diplomacy ’ and of his “riddance of the insidious lobby’’ in Washington. There is no man *in the nation today,” the speaker said, “of purer private and public character than Moodrow Wilson: no man is less considerate of himself. Certainly there is no clearer speaking man and his critics have evidently failed to realize that clear speaking implies clear thinking. No better trained man has ever occupied the President s chair. He has always been a student and he Anows the limitation of things. He is the greatest progressive of this continent and he knows how to progress. There is no more patient, persistent, constant and courageous man than he. He has been tried by fire and he has stood the test. You are the jury and I do not dream that you will for a moment think of displacing him.” The speaker was loudly cheered upon concluding, attesting the popularity of his remarks and the sincerity with which they had been received.