Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1908 — WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SHOULD BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE NEXT ELECTION [ARTICLE]

WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SHOULD BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE NEXT ELECTION

Written by W. L. Wood, of Parr, in Contest for Prize Offered by Republican National Committee

The Republican ticket from bottom to top should be elected at the next November election. No just reason can be given by any intelligent American citizen why it should not.

This nation has become great through republican management and republican leadership. We should not forget past experience. Democratic rule has always brought failure as its best results to the American people. Republican rule advocates and maintains prosperity to every citizen within our borders or under our protection. The party stands for equal rights to all American citizens and special privileges to none. The Republican party recognizes the fact that capital and labor are two great factors that are entitled to due consideration. Both are as necessary as sunshine and rain. It promisee that< the rights of labor should be carefully guarded and demands honest pay for the honest day’s labor. It is the only party that has ever attemped to stay the strong arms of the trusts. Through republican management intemperance is prohibited by way of local option in districts where the citizens demand temperance. The democratic party has never done anything that would induct a thinking, Intelligent voter to support that ticket. Through republican management it is possible for any man to advance from the most humble conditions of life to the highest plain of citizenship. Through republican management it can be truthfully said that, “We are a government of the people, by the people and for the people." It has breathed the great spirit of freedom which is adhered to and admired by all the civilized nations of the world. American freedom is looked upon as the morning s'ar from pole to pole and from center to circumference. The republican party has always brought prosperity to the whole people and especially to the American farmer. . J| the American fanner

will compare his profits of today with those received during Grover Cleveland’s administration, he* C*n readily see the difference. He will find that he has received a profit in and under republican rule that will yield him more than forty per c c nt over that received through democratic rule. Through republican management the markets of the world are open to our commerce. Our aricultural interests are in the morning of their prosperity, and under republican rule they will continue to advance. No American farmer can afford change his present substantial condition for what he knows to be a leap into the darkness. Neither should he from past experience choose to remain in the dark-

ness. Today the producer can get the highest market price for what he has to sell. On the other hand the consumer can buy'the necessaries of life for less money than he could under democratic rule when he received less tor his products and less for his labor.

Mr. William Jennings Bryan who has made two races for the president’s chair, and has as often been defeated has a smooth story to tell the people. He has become rich in telling his troubles to the American people and prophesying the destruction of the nation. His prophecies have all failed while the wheels of prosperity have rolled substantially on.

The American people have been nils-led by democratic theories and in good and prosperous times our cltl- 1 zens have been careless and have b* en 1 led away by free trade policies and ' have reaped their reward to their I sorrow. Those dark days of 1«93-4' should yet be fresh In the minds of every American farmer, merchant, mechanic, mine worker and men of every vocation of enterprise of the entire United States of America. It will be remembered with regret by every American citizen. Having

; failed in their tariff howl Mr. Bryan ’ introduced a new scheme />f sixteen to one. Up to date his chances have been sixteen chances to lose to one ’ to win. Mr. Bryan’s ambition has b?en to get rich and get himself before the public and perchance be presl-

dent it is not possible for the American people to be led astray and destroy the prosperity that they enjoy and will enjoy as long as this government is under the management of the Republican party. From its birth down to the present time it has always stood for something, while Mr. Bryan and the Democratic party has not stood on the same platform two vears in the lest half century. The Republican party has always stood for freedom and can be depended upon in time of peace or in time of war. It destroyed slavery and preserved the Union. After that bloody war for freedom it restored credit It has expanded domain. It has established a sound financial system. It has developed the industries and resources of the country and has given to her the natural seat of honor that belongs to her. In the commercial world it will meet the pew problem of government with the same courage and capacity with which it solved the old. Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt this government has attained the highest plane of honor. It is a speech in American history in no other period since national sovereignty was won under Washington or preserved under Lincoln. Has there been such mighty progress In these ideas of government which makes for justice, equality and fair dealings among menT The highest aspiration of the American people has found a voice in the administration. American manhood has been lifted to a higher and nobler sense of duty and obligation.

Under the guidance of Republican legislation the American people have become the richest people in the •world. Today our wealth exceeds that of England and all her colonies. Our wealth exceeds that of France and Germany combined. When the Republican party was bom the total wealth of the United States was sixteen billion dollars, today it has reached the gigantic sum of one hundred and ten billion dollars. This advancement has been made in a single generation. Great Britain has gathered but sixty billion dollars in the last five hundred years. The United States today owns one-fourth of the world’s wealth and makes onefourth of all the manufactured articles. She furnishes coal, the power of all activity; iron, the chief basis •f all industries; cotton, the staple of all fabrics; wheat, corn and all other products that feed mankind. American supremacy is undisputed, and yet her great national wealth has been scarcely touched. We have a vast domain of thirty million square miles literally bursting with the laden treasurer still waiting the magic of American capital and industries to be converted to the practical use of mankind. A country rich in soil and climate with its navigable rivers, its steam and electric railways, its various products of the field, the factory and the forest with the gratitude of God’s beauty. We have experienced the great blessing in the past and through republican management and republican legislation, we have confidence in the future.

W. L. WOOD.