Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-11
TO THEFIRSTVOTERS
Reasons Why Young Men Should
Support Mckinley.
ADDRESS BY FIRST VOTERS LEAGUE.
No Young Man Can Afford to Follow
the False Gods of Free Silver and
Little Americanism-Text of the
Address.

The First Voters Republican Ma
tional league has issued the following
address to the first presidential voters
OF America. Every young man should
read 1t and consider well it's argu-
ments:
To the first presidential voters of AM
erica:
The census of 1890 shows that there
We're in the United States in that year
2,5l6,O43 young men of the ages of q
to "a inclusive. Considering the in
crease in population during the last
decade, 1t is safe to say that on the 9th
OF next November at least 100000
young men will be eligible to cast their
nrst presidential votes. When we re-
member that President McKinley's
plurality, with single exception the
largest ever given to a president, was
gu 1854, and when we consider the fact
that young men are not bound by par
ty ties, 1t appears how great and how
decisive is to be the influence of the
frst voters upon the result of the
struggle now in progress.
In every crisis of our history the
numbers, the freedom from traditional
prejudice and the enthusiasm of our
young men have been the determining
factors in the final result. We have
now reached another great crisis in
our national development, and once
more the young men should come ac-
lively to the front. Four years ago
coterie of men obtained control of the
democratic party, thrust aside the
great, conservative leaders who had
led them to victory in the past, and
promulgated platform filled with Sc
ductive appeals to class prejudice and
to the cupidity of human nature-a
platform that struck at the independ-
ence of the judiciary and demanded
that we should sacrifice our national
honor by debasing the currency. Those
leaders were repudiated by the people,
and as each succeeding year has given
additional proof of the absurdity and
falsity of their arguments, the popu-
lar contempt for them has increased.
Realizing this they know that their
only hope for success in the present
campaign lies in their talking so per-
sistently upon other questions that the
people shall forget that they are the
same men who led the assault upon
our prosperity and national honor in
1896.
Driven by this necessity they have
invented number of sham issues,
among which Imperialism" is declar-
ed to be paramount. Nothing could H.
lustrate more forcibly the straits in
which they find themselves. During
the course of a war, in the declaration
OF which the representatives of all par.
ties united, we overthrow the domin-
lon of Spain in the Philippine Islands.
Having taken this step we became re-
sponsible for the results that SHOULD
follow. When we had freed the people
from their foreign oppressors we could
not deliver them over to anarchy or to
the irresponsible tyranny of local des-
pots. In the fulfillment of sacred OBJ
legation, therefore, we have entered
upon the work of establishing peace,
order and good government in these is
lands that we may give to their people
the conditions of a happier existence.
This is a practical and honest course
OF action that any party in power
would be compelled to take, or stand
before the world convicted of incom.
potency and cowardice. But notwith-
standing these plain facts democratic
leaders assume that we have entered
upon career of ruthless foreign con-
quest with view to building up vast
colonial system. Upon this false as
sumption they erect the hobgoblin of
imperialism, and proceed to launch
against it their solemn philippics.