Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-08-21
Let Maine Vote as She Thinks.

the principles of the people of this
State. as exemplified in the record OF
what they have accomplished in the
varied pursuits of their everyday lives
great State and national problems, can
entertain any doubt as to the prepon-
derance Of public sentiment in Maine
respecting the vital issues Of the APP
preaching presidential campaign.
Maine people make no pretence Of per-
lection. but no people in the wide
world have more profound respect for
| individual rights or at the same time
keener perception of the accompanying
duties and responsibilities. None have
been or are less liable to confound
liberty and license. None have seen
more clearly the necessity of protecting
the weaker in certain rights, that
thereby the rights Of all may be pre-
served. No one will deny that we are
a sturdy people, or that we have cour-
age of conviction. None will pretend
that those convictions can be bought
or will be sold. No state ever respond
ed more generously in proportion to
| population when crisis called for sac
rifice. Our attitude in the Rebellion
and in the settlement of questions re-
sulting from that war leaves not the
slightest foothold for supposition that
| Maine would support any policy tend
| ing toward tyranny. either at home or
abroad.
All this would seem to need no re-
capitulation. Nor does it. There is,
however. an election to be held in
Maine, on Monday, September the
tenth. which will be regarded by the
| ton of Names attitude toward the
issues to be decided by this country on
the sixth day of next November Never
have a campaigns issues been of gray
er import than those to be decided this
fall. though there have been elections
when circumstances contributed great
er excitement. Today the Democratic
party is for free silver, for the fifty
cent dollar. just as surely as it was
none the less true because Democrats
don't think it expedient to talk as
much about it as then. That party is
just as much of a free trade party to-
day as it was when the Wilson
bill was put into effect and paralyZed
industry Organism appeals today,
just as it did four years ago. TO the
support Of every crank political or
ganiZation in the country. 1t is just
as determined as then to remodel and
corrupt the supreme court of the coun-
try to its political ends, should victory
afford it opportunity. 1t promises in
the same breath to give the Philippine
islands d protectorate Chat is for home
consumption also to give that faction
and small fraction Of the islanders,
now engaged in killing the representa-
tives OF the law and order we are en-
deavoring to establish there Just what
they want.
To the support of all this that party
welcomes such as the exEnglishman,
Leverson. who boasts that he, as an
American citizen, urged the Philippine
insurgents to treat our soldiers as
pirates: also such pitiful exhibitions of
the dotage of once brilliant mind as
that at Indianapolis when Mr.. Bout
well declared that this government is
responsible for the outbreak Of the
Chinese fanatics because We are en-
deavoring to have lawful government
in place of anarchy in the island
possessions which the fortunes of war
have left in our hands to be disposed
| of in a manner calculated to command
| the respect Of the civilized world
50 long as the ratio Of sanity re-
mains as high as at present it cannot
| for one moment he supposed that the
majority OF the voters IN the state o.
| Maine will support by their suffrage
| any such propaganda as that now put
| forth by the candidate Of the Demo
| Gratis. the silyer-crats. the Populists
| and the this-and-th at-and- the other.
There is, however a question of i'm
portance to be decided and that is
| whether the voters are sufficiently
| aroused to all take the trouble to g
| to the polls and vote as they think.
| Il would by no means seem irrational
| to assume, especially if private inter
| ests call ones attentions elsewhere,
| that il is impossible for the country
to return to the apparently shattered
| idol Of free trade: to declare that the
| borrower need pay back but half that
| which he has borrowed; that the price
of days labor shall purchase but half
| as many necessarics If life a formerly:
| or that this great nation will publicly
| dishonor the memories Of its brave men
| who have died for the flag in the far