Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1904 — A ROUSING SPEECH [ARTICLE]

A ROUSING SPEECH

William L Taylor Sounds a •tlrrlng Note at Seventh District Convention. Indianapolis Journal, April 3: Hon. William L. Taylor, chairman •f the Seventh district convention, Which nominated Congressman Over* atreet on Saturday, spoke aa follows •n assuming the gavel: "Von Holst, the great political historian, says that political parties exist as a means to an end and not as an •nd in themselves; that the moment a party ceases to have a fixed policy as an end, that moment its excuse for existing ceases. "The Republican party has always existed as a means to an end; it has always had a fixed purpose and has always known Just what that purpose gras. It has always been able to state It and it has always had the ability and the courage to transform its principles Into positive laws. Those laws have been tried and approved. "The Democratic party formerly was • means to an end. It formerly had purposes and plans. Today it has neither. It is a leaderless, purposeless Biass. It is simply drifting with the tide. Like a ship without her rudder. It will wash upon the rocks this fall. Its only avowed end is to find some landing place. It has elected but one president since 1866, and he has been In exile for eight years. The conspicuous figure wbo has been at the head tor the last eight years is now on his ..Way to St Helena. You cannot put The pictures of these two leaders side by side In any Democratic convention Without starting a row. The Democratic party today Is quaking lest the new 'yellow peril,’ yellow in Journalism and yellow in money, should sweep the Democracy from its feet and secure the presidential nomination at St Louis. The Indiana Democracy is violently agitated. It is trembling between hope and fear—hope that some tull-armed leader will walk out of the Wilderness; despair lest Hearst be dominated. "How different with the Republican party. Its platform could be written by any schoolboy. Its leaders are already named by the common consent of 8,000,000 sovereign voters. Every township convention in this country that meets today can write a platform that can safely be adopted at Chicago. The story of the Repubiican party this year is an open book. "Every principle the Republican party has advocated since 1856 has become a fixed fact in the laws of the country. Every proposition the Democratic party has advocated during that time 1b as dead as the Caesars. It is a remarkable fact that the last avowed purpose of the Democratic party is the first one it now denies. "The chairman of the Republican

■tate committee haa Invited to ait upon the platform at the atate convention ' those men vrho participated in the Republican state convention of 18S6. These venerable patrlota can read upon the -walla every proposition the Republican party has advocated since the first convention. Jhey illumine the first convention. Not a line has been erased or blurred. These men voted for Fremont and did not regrot It. Not one of them bows hie head in shame over a single act of commission or omission. They see the faces of our great leaders looking down from the walls and they are proud of them all. Not a single picture is turned to the wall. From Fremont to Roosevelt we are proud of them all. "How is it with the Democratic party’ Every line written by that party during these forty-eight years of glorious history has been erased. Every leader has been discredited. We look hopefully to the future; they look doubtfully at the past. We know what we are going to do and the name of our commander; they do not know what they will do nor who will command them.

“We know that we are'going to nominate the capable, earnest and energetic Jesse Overstreet tor congress. Some congressmen talk and do not ,work. Some work and do not talk. 'Jesse Overstreet both works and talks. “We also know that we are going to elect a Republican legislature this year and that we are going to re-elect the brilliant and capable Junior senator, Albert J. Beveridge. We know that we are going to nominate and alect as a successor to Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison and McKinley, the Interpid, honest, brave, fearless and competent leader, Theodore Roosevelt. We know that we are going to stand by the flag wherever she floats, as we have always done. We know that we are going to stand by the boy who wears the blue shirt of the American soldier, in whatever gun or clime he marches or sleeps. .We know that everywhere around this world he will carry the torch of civilisation in one hand and the flag in the other, and that wherever he goes the blessings of civil liberty and clvlo glghteousness will follow. , A Fitting Indorsement. ' The resolutions adopted by the comgentlon contained the following paraSapb: "We invite the attention of a Republicans of Indiana to the candidacy of the Hon. William L. Taylor tor the nomination for the governorship of Indiana. Able, courageous, and widely experienced In the busl»ess affaire of the people of the state, gre commend god indorse bis candid*g j tot the offlos of governor, and oprees our belief that up man In th# state Se better qualified or equipped for the discharge of the duties of that high office than ha." ,