Richmond Palladium (Daily), 28 September 1904 — Page 9

SUPPLEMENT

RICHMOND PALLADIUM. RICHMOND, IND., SEPT. 28, 1904. BOLD, MAI1LY AND HONEST President Roosevelt's Letter of Acceptance Warmly Praised by Travelers. NOT ONE ISSUE IS EVADED Professional and Business Men Read the Letter on a Train and Unite in Commending Its Directness. Boston, Mass., Sept. 22. On the day when President Roosevelt's letter accepting the nomination for the presidency was issued through the newspapers, a trainload of people were tcaveling from Boston to New York. The train left Boston quite early in the morning, and every man in the parlor car settled himself down to an uninterrupted study of litis morning paper. With plenty of time before them, with nothing to distract their attention, with no business cares to come between them, it was quite natural that every man in that car should give the letter an extraordinarily close reading. In point of fact, it was easy to nee that every man in that car read that letter through, practically from beginning to end, and read it carefully, too. This took up a considerable time, and but little was heard in the car save the rustling of the newspapers, as the train pped on between the beautiful manufacturing towns of the Old Bay State. After a while the newspapers were laid aside. One man after another drifted into the smoking room, and there followed the usual interchange of opinions on current topics. The men in the car were mt the usual type of high grade, prosperous American citizens. They represented all sections of the country, and nil vocations as well. One was distinctly a minister of the gospel, quite a number were bankers going on to attend the big convention in New York, there were several younger men who had their golf sticks with them, and the rest presented a fair assortment of business and professional men. It was the man with the short white mutton-chop whiskers who began the emoke-talk, and as a matter of course, he took for his topic the President's letter of acceptance, which every busy man in that car had just finished reading. Does Not Mince Words. "There is one thing I like about Roosevelt," said he of the mutton-chops, "and that is that you never have to guess again as to what he is talking about, and what he means. I have just finished reading that long letter in the morning paper, and I don't believe there is an evasive word in it. I haven't been a Roosevelt man. My business interests are such that I got to paying a good deal of attention to this talk about the President being a dangerous man, a wild, crazy, erratic fellow. I was opposed to ilia nomination at the outset, because I believed all these stories. When McKinley died, I was fearful that Roosevelt's hot blood would involve us in difficulties, and, like many other business men, I was extremely anxious about the future. I have been cured of oil that by the way things have moved in the last three years. On the whole, however, I thought this man Parker would make a pretty good President, and it seemed to me, anyway, it was about time for a change. I read Parker's speech of acceptance with a whole lot of interest, because I wanted to see what he had to say. lie didn't say anything at all. It was the most disappointing thing of that kind I ever read. This letter of Roosevelt's is exactly the opposite. It doesn't leave you in doubt a single minute as to what the candidate believes in. It is honest and straightforward, it does not mince words, there is not the slightest suspicion of trickery, and after reading it through from beginning to end, I for one cannot find a single line to which I could take exception, not n single argument which seems to be that of a dangerous or an ambitious man. It is bold and brave, but it is not dishonest, and it is not deceptive. After reading Parker's speech and Roosevelt's letter, I tell you, gentlemen, there is absolutely no choice at all as between the two men, and I am a Roosevelt man from now on." Dold and Honest. "What I like best about the letter," said the broad-shouldered young fellow, whose brown face and strong hands gave evidence of a summer largely spent in the open air, "is the fact that he hits out straight from the shoulder. I like that sort of campaign literature. It's the letter of a man who looks you in the eye, and then punches you good and hard. He doesn't run away from the subject, and lie doesn't dodge. His letter is like the man, bold and honest. I don't much care whether he is dangerous or not, but I know he suits the young fellows in this country, and it isn't a question of politics at all. I'm going to cast my first presidential vote next November, and it'll be counted for Theodore Roosevelt, or I'll know the reason why. The young men of the country can understand Roosevelt and they can understand this letter. He talks of the things that have been done in the last four years, and doesn't waste any time on constitutional law, or in sermons as to the duty of good citizens. The Republican party has done certain things in the last four years, and Roosevelt tells what they are. He doesn't lie about them, he only tells the facts, and then he asks the people to vote for liim, if they believe that the government of the country has been run properly. If they don't, I believe he would rather have them vote against him. lie's that kind of a man. He fights out in the open, and he's always square, so it's no wonder that every young man I know is going to vote for Roosevelt," Parker's Blnader, "That was an awful dig he gave my friend ParksT," said a well-known law

yer of Boston, who sat in the corner, contentedly puffing at a very big, and very black, and incidentally, a very expensive cigar. "A lot of us didn't understand when we read Parker's speech how he could have made such an awful blunder as to have declared that the common law would be found sufficient to deal with all the trust questions which come up. Parker must have known, but he probably forgot, that, from the very nature of things, you can't apply the common law in a national court. Our federal courts derive all their power from the Constitution of the United States. Congress can only legislate under the Constitution, and, while we apply general principles in interpreting the law, it is impossible to secure any affirmative action in the United States court, except as the result of a statute law duly passed by Congress and approved by the President of the United States. A man like Olney, who has been interested in public affairs at Washington, would never have made the blunder Parker made. He seemed to have written his speech of acceptance as if he were dealing entirely in abstract questions which had been presented for settlement by his own court. His exposition of the general principles of the Constitution was not bad from a legal standpoint, but when he came to deal with the question of trusts he seemed to have forgotten that he was responding to a nomination from a national convention, which had selected him to act as President of the United States, in which capacity he would have to execute United States laws only, and would have absolutely nothing to do with the common law. This allusion of Parker to the common law, es a means of attacking the trusts, has been a source of surprise and amazement to the profession all over the country. Judge Parker's decisions in New York State have always taken high rank, and it was this which made the amazement all the greater. We could not understand how it could possibly be that any good lawyer could have made such a blunder, and we have been forced to the conclusion that Judge Parker absolutely forgot that he was writing on a national topic. This is only an instance going to show the unwisdom of takiag a man off the bench for a political position, especially such a position as that of President of the United States. Experience Necessary. "To administer the affairs of the government successfully, experience is just as necessary as it is to run a hotel or a railroad. A lawyer in active practice is necessarily thrown in to a large extent with the ordinary business affairs of the country, but with a judge on the bench it is entirely different. He deals with matters of abstract right and wrong, and all his training goes to remove him from business problems. In point of fact, the successful judge in a court of last resort should be as far removed from the influences of daily life as possible. The ideal judge is a legal machine, settling abstract principles of law, whereas the ideal President is exactly the opposite. He executes the laws as he finds them, suggests new ones to meet new conditions, and acts as the personal representative of the people who make the laws. It is not his business to interpret, but to do, and the things which make a man a good judge make him a bad President, and vice versa. Parker would never have made that awful blunder if he had had any recent experience in Congress or in an executive position at Washington, where he would have been in touch with current opinion on this subject. I don't wonder that Roosevelt picked him up on this, and, in my opinion, the President's paragraph about the common law as applied to the federal control of trusts is a most luminous exposition of the powers and the limitations of the federal government. But it's certainly a knockout blow for Parker." The Tariff Issue. "I was glad to see," said a successful looking man, who explained later on that he was a manufacturer in northern Vermont, "I was glad to see that the President made such a point of the tariff issue. We had a dose of Democratic free trade theories up our way about ten years ago, which we will never forget. We are so near the Canadian border that we get the worst of every reduction in the tariff nates. We have to enter into competition with the cheap labor of Canada. When the Wilson tariff bill went into operation, just ten years ago, it shut up my factory inside of six months, and 1 tell you, gentlemen, I didn't open again until after McKinley was elected and the Dingley tariff law went into operation. It was a time of pauic, as you know, thousands of laboring men were glad to work for any wages, and yet, at the same time, I could not run my factory and compete with the Canadians, who flooded our part of the country with goods made by the cheapest labor, such as I could not secure even in those times of starvation. There are some places far in the interior where freight rates protect them from foreign competition in times of free trade, but those of us who are near the border are the first to feel this competition. I got it in the neck ten years ago, and got it good and hard. If there weren't any other issue between the two parties, I would vote for Roosevelt, because he and the Republicans generally stand for the protection of American manufactures against the competition of the cheap labor, not only of Canada, but of the Avorld at large. We all believe in reciprocity which is reciprocal, and not in free trade under the guise of reciprocity. Roosevelt's story of the disastrous effects of the Wilson tariff of 1S34. is not overdrawn in the slightest particular, and I am glad to see that he has kept the tariff issue to the front, because in all this talk of imperialism and extravagance and the trusts, and one thing and another, people seem to forget that the Republican party is pledged to protection, and that the Democratic party is pledged to free trade. We haven't forgotten that up our way, however, and I tell you, gentlemen, that the big Republican vote in Vermont was largely, if not entirely, produced by the determination of our people to put themselves on record against the free trade principles and platform of the Democrats." "It's frank, it's honest, and it's fair," said the clergyman to a seat-neighbor in the interior of the car, when they were discussing the same letter of acceptance. "I'm not much of a politician myself, but I have been very much impressed with the extraordinary honesty and the tenacity of purpose shown by the President in his letter of acceptance. Comparing it with the speech of Judge Parker, In accepting his nomination, I cannot see how the people can hesitate very long in making their choice."

THE CAMPAIGN. Evidence that Popular Opinion Favors Kepnblican Snccess. Although election day is still some weeks off, it is not too early to review the progress of the campaign and take note of the drift of popular opinion. To doubt that the latter is setting strongly iu favor of the Republican ticket would seem almost to question the capacity of the American people to choose between approved competence in government and "wobbling incompetence along every line of administrative and legislative policy. From the day when the Republican convention adjourned after adopting a positive platform and nominating positive candidates upon it, the Republicans have proceeded to organize their campaign with the unhesitating confidence in themselves and their principles that goes so far to assure success. Unlike their adversaries, they have had no internal differences to patch up before taking the field. The Republicans have 6imply gone before the American voters on the party's record, which is not a document artfully concocted for campaign purposes, but a scroll of splendid achievements written in the life of the republic during the past forty-four years. The scroll stretches from 1860 to 1904 and covers a period of national development unparalleled iu the annals of the world. The story of this development and the promise of its continuance under the leadership of a man who is the incarnation of American energy, courage and achievement, has constituted the Republican appeal to American voters. The elections in Vermont, Arkansas and Maine have shown the natural response to an appeal based on things accomplished. In the meantime, the Democrats have been trying to find out exactly "where they are at." All efforts to bury the hatchet between the gold and silver wings of the party have merely resulted in burying it in the heads of the leaders of the respective factions. William Jennings Bryan has no more affection for Alton B. Parker now than he had the night when he denounced the nominee or. the floor of the convention. The brief enthusiasm created among gold Democrats and in conservative business circles by Judge Parker's gold standard telegram has entirely subsided as the conviction has become general that it was a brick artfully gilded to commit his party to the appearance of repudiating free and unlimited silver. The subsequent utterances of the Democratic candidate have entirely dissipated any favorable impression made by his telegram, and proved him to be a juggler with obscure and meaningless phrases. His proffer of a comparison of governmental expenditures under Republican and Democratic administrations has disclosed that he was ill informed as to the details of those expenditures and the marvelous national expansion that has come during the past twenty years. But the most marked feature of the Democratic campaign has been its instability and infirmness of purpose. One issue after another has been taken up only to be dropped, until now it looks as if the party would have to fall back on the tariff and the trusts, on both of which issues it has been tried and found wanting in legislative courage and administrative effectiveness. American voters know that the protective tariff is not "robbery," and they have more faith in the American antitrust statute than in any curbing of modern trusts under the old common law. The Democratic campaign started with David B. Hill as its sponsor and boss, but recently Judge Farker sought to reconstruct its management, going to New York City and holding a number of gum-shoe conferences at the Astor House with Senator Gorman and several Tammany leaders. It is reported that he succeeded in placating Tammany and that Senator Gorman will supplant Tom Taggart as the real director of the Democratic campaign. What was the consideration promised for the loyal support of Tammany has not transpired.

the BEGiNisirsa of the flood. DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH

But if there is one thing necessary to the success of the Republican ticket, it is that the Democratic candidate shall deserve and get the loyal support of Tammany Hall. Viewing the situation broadly, never in the history of campaigns between Republicans and Democrats were the distinguishing characteristics of the two parties so strongly emphasized as in this one. The Republicans face the problems of the day without flinching from either the opportunities or the responsibilities of action. They have the neoessary convictions, courage and resources to remove mountains. On the other hand, the Democrats exhibit all their old failings of irresolution, theoretical vagaries, lack of settled convictions and conflicting councils that render them unfit to be entrusted with the control of the government. At this stage of the campaign there seems not the slightest reason to doubt that the popular drift is with the party that marches forward rather than that which stands still or marks time in the footprints the other has left in the pathway of national progress. The best proof of this is in the fact that the American people are going about their daily business without any perplexing doubts as to what will happen in November. Best of All Markets. The best of all markets for American manufacturers and farmers is the home market. The internal commerce of the United States aggregates each year more than $23,000,000,000 and is far greater than the international commerce of all the world. This vast market is at our doors. It is among our own people. Why should we surrender it to foreigners, as the Democratic policy of free trade would do, and pay to foreign manufacturers and workmen the money that should go to Americans? "We have known no party in dealing; with offenders, and have hunted dowa without mercy every wrong-doer in the service of the Nation whom it was possible by the utmost vigilance to detectj for the public servant who betrays his trust and the private individual who debauches him stand as the worst of criminals, because their crimes are crimes against the entire community, and not only against this generation but against the generations that are yet to be."-Roosevelt' letter of acceptance. Must Trnst Roosevelt. (Western Laborer (Omaha.) In a former issue of this paper we said we must trust Roosevelt and we will trust him and in our judgment every workingman, skilled or unskilled, of whatever race or creed, should at once make up his mind to trust him and vote for him instead of indulging in vain regrets that they had not when they see Parker's "hand," if by chance or fraud be is elected. WE MUST TRUST ROOSEVELT. 'The prime reason why the expenses of the Government have increased of recent years is to be found in the fact that the people, after mature thought, have deemed it wise to have certain new forms of work for the public undertaken by the public This necessitates such expenditures, for instance, as those for rural free delivery, or for the inspection of meats under the Department of Agriculture, or for irrigation." Roosevelt' letter of acceptance. Bourke Cockran, the hired orator of Tammany Hall, says that "every line in President Roosevelt's letter breathes the spirit of triumphant plunder." Cockran ought to know, for he has been hot on the scent of plunder all his career. Unfortunately, what Cockran knows he does not tell, and he tells what he does not know. The effort to galvanize the New York Democratic campaign into the semblance of life by nominating District Attorney Jerome has failed because Jerome refused to confine himself to half truths on the stump.

SONG OF DEMOCRATS.

Sing a song of Democrats, lJL And note their poignant pain; They find no balm in Gilead, No hope in this campaign; Vermont has gone Republican, And now, just look at Maine. Sing a song of Democrats, Their spirits sadly droop, As Parker mounts the scaffolding To do his loop-the-loop, For well they know hen he comes down He'll land right in the soup. Chicago Conservator. ILLEGAL CORPORATIONS. President's Action in Enforcing Laws Aealott Them. (Northwestern Christian Advocate, Sept. 20.) in holding large corporations to strict accountability to the law the President is serving the best interests of those corporations as well as conserving the welfare of the country. All corporation which are operating on an unlawful basis should be compelled to conform to the law. If they cannot or will not they should go out of business. This, some have been forced by the lawless conduct of their promoters and operators to do, to the great loss of their stockholders. Many formerly wealthy men are now broken in fortune because corporations with which they were connected were formed and operated in violation of law. The action of the President in enforcing the law would prevent, not promote, such losses. One of the crying needs of America to-day is such respect for the laws of the nation as the President has shown, lie did not make the laws, but it is his duty to obey them. He has set an example which every citizen should follow. If that be done, we shall hear no more of mobs breaking into jails, defying police and militia, and hanging or burning prisoners suspected or convicted of crime, and burning property in a wild frenzy of disorder and lawlessness. The bitterness of its irony over the unassailable strength of President Roosevelt's letter of acceptance, the New York Times exclaims, ''has done absolutely the right thing, the very lesf thing upon every government occasion, and with assured confidence he promises to keep on so doing. He has made no mistakes; he will make none." This is meant for irony of the red hot kind that comes from gnawing on a file. But the question is not whether President Roosevelt's course has always been absolutely impeccable, but what different course could the Democrats have pursued on these government occasions that would not have landed us in the fogs, fens and mazes of national demoralization and impotence. What has become of that grand array of 18-karat Democrats Judge Parker summoned from the cabinets of Cleveland's two terms for purposes of comparison with Hay. and Taft. and Shaw, and Root? Are Olney and Carlisle and Fairchild and Harmon and Vilas wasting their powers in behalf of the man who flung his all at the feet of Senator Gorman, the sleek, crying, "Save me. Arthur, or I sink." President Roosevelt is a sincere friend of labor, and labor admires and respects him. He is an honorary member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and the esteem in which he is held by its members was fittingly shown at the convention of the Brotherhood in Buffalo, when 5.000 persons wildly cheered the President's name in the course of an address by Grand Master Hannahan. Like the Indian, who, when unable to find his camp and it was suggested he was lost, replied, "Me no lost, wigwam lost," so the Democratic party insists, notwithstanding its constant change of front, that the country, not the party, is lost. The Democratic party, without a fixed policy, would be as safe a guide as the Indian in a strange wilderness.

Effort to Show that President Roosevelt Is a Lover of War.

INSTEAD, HE IS FOR PEACE Would Not Encourage or Bring About War and Its Destructive Forces, Except to Maintain the Country's Honor. The attempt to make a bogey man out of President Roosevelt, by misrepresenting him as a lover of war, and therefore dangerous to the peace of the country, is doomed to ignominious failure. The American people are accustomed to "size up" their public men with an accuracy unknown in the national life of other countries. They have had President Roosevelt under their gaze for years, and they know him well. More than that, knowing him well as they do, they admire, respect and love him. When public opinion had forced the war with Spain upon the American nation Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy, was one of the officials of the United States who was prepared for the inevitable. Like every other keen observer, Mr. Roosevelt had seen from the incipiency of the agitation for American interference in Cuba that the nation must prepare for war. In his own office he did all that was within his power to get the navy ready for the part it must play. What the navy did is a part of the imperishable history of our country. No one claims more than is due to Mr. Roosevelt in this connection, but to ignore his services in the office of the secretary of the navy in the early days of 1S!S would be an act of ingratitude. These services have been recognized from the beginning and will never be forgotten. Ills War Career. ,. The war opened. The one high public official who resigned his office at the National Capital to take up arms for his country was Theodore Roosevelt. He raised his volunteer regiment and went with it to Santiago de Cuba. The rest is history. Colonel Roosevelt entered upon the duties and hardships of war with all the enthusiasm of a brave and generou nature. He took good care of his men and fought at their head when the time of battle came. After the war was over he came home the idol of the American people. We had known him as a sterling citizen, as a city official working for the upholding of the laws, as a national official urging and enforcing the merit system in the United States Civil Service, as assistant secretary of the navy preparing ships, ammunition and men for the. chances of war, and now he had volunteered for the army, had led his men in soldierly fashion, had withstood the baptism of battle and proved his right to be called a hero of war in defense of his country's word and honor. That is all there is to the war story. Colonel Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York, and in that position he again demonstrated to his countrymen his common sense, his true democracy of feeling, his justice, honor and bis genius for affairs. When he was urged for the Vice Presidency he demurred, naturally enough, but, when the voice of the people became loud and insistent, he obeyed. Trusted as President. When he came to the Presidency the people withheld, but only for a moment of time, their full allegiance. From the first " President Roosevelt was trusted. Never once, by word or act since he sat in the presidential chair has President Roosevelt encouraged or fostered the most remote idea of war. He has beeu interested in improving and strengthening our army and navy, and in all ways has shown himself to be a loyal American to his country, but by no chance has he shown any love of or desire for war, because he has no leaning that way. He loves his country he loves maiikjnd. By what twisting of statements and distortion of facts, by what destruction of truth and letting go of all decency, the opposition to President Roosevelt lias raised the charge against him that he is likely to foster war no one who is acquainted with the man and his life can imagine. The scriptural mystery of the way of the serpent on the rock is nothing to this puzzle of the passing moment. Every word and act of Theodore Roosevelt's life makes against the false iews now set afloat as to the possibilities of his character. The President is a man who loves his country as only that man can love it who has endured the storm of war for its sake. For no possible or imaginable cause, save alone the honor of the country itself, and then i-tit at the stern bidding of Congress, could or would President Roosevelt invoke the ruin and misery of war. It is a slander upon a man of humane nature, strong and cultivated intellect and proved patriotism to foster and circulate the idle vaporings of political enemies to the effect that he is likely to bring about or encourage war. There is no foundation for the slander. It is shameful that it should exist, or, owe existing, should be continued by repetition. Iet us have an end to the silly clamorings of the mendacious tricksters upon this bugaboo. A Striking: Contrast. From 18.92 to 1SI., inclusive, under a Democratic administration and a low tariff, the total exports of American manufactures were ?024,So8JjOI. From 11K to 1003, inclusive, under a Republican administration and a protective tariff, they were $l,Co5.!51.S40. The export of manufactures in any one year of Republican administration was considerably more than in any two years of Democratic administration.

"Tis the Slosanl" As to the President's letter of acceptance, the Republican party and the thinking men of the country those who have read and can understand have but one comment: "Dinna ye hear it? Tis tht sloganr