Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-10-04
Fathers Advice TO His Son.

Ny DEAR Boy: So old man Skin
ner says that there will be war in the
Philippines for twenty years yet; that
we will soon see the day when men
will be conscripted in every township
for service in China. and that we are
bound 10 have financial crash next
spring. and the poor people will see
the hardest times they ever saw.
Well guess the old man is a typi-
cal democrat. He certainly has all
the symptoms. Perhaps had better
tell YOU what the symptoms are
There are certain constitutional
characteristics which distinguish the
Democratic party and opposite char
acteristics which distinguish the Re
publican party. When | tell you
what they are, you will see why l
want you to be a Republican.
/. The Democrats are pessimistic
They always look on the dark side.
They perpetually expect evil ahead
and see nothing but evil IN the things
that now are. You pick up an aver
age democratic platform and you find
it full of phrases like the following:
1--WE protest" 1--WE denounce" 1--WE
disapprove" 1--WE view with alarm
One Of the strongest reasons against
the party is that they are always
striving to make people discontented
with their lot and to fill them with
anxious forefodings for the future.
Right in the middle of abundance and
cheer and victory, they insist that we
are all going ito the bow-wows.'
Now it is the nature of Republicans
to be optimistic. The Republican
party sees the bright side. Thankful
for the blessings of the past, they look
forward with confidence to the future.
They expect good things and the ex-
pectation helps bring good things to
pass. They rejoice in the greatness
and prosperity of our highly favored
land. They look upon our schools
and churches, our farms and factories
our army and navy, and their plat
forms contain phrases like these:
Thankful for the past, 1--we rejoice"
ave congratulate ''we point with
pride. They bring to the people
song of hope and cheer and content.
Be Republican my boy and .'keep
sweet" Don't let yourself get soured
and pessimistic.
2. The Democratic party seems
unable to learn from experience
One reason why l tit in easily into the
Republican party is because | can
learn from experience. Eight years
ago | was free trader. read about
free trade in book and was con-
WINGED. 1t was very nice book and
the free trade theory was presented
in very nice way. l still insist that
free trade is nice thing in book so
long as you keep it in book; but
when you take it out of the book and
apply it to wool and eggs and pig
iron and things, it doesn't work
worth cent. The experience of this
country from 1898 to 1897 made me
protectionist. But our Democratic
friends have failed to learn the lesson
In their platform this year they still
denouce our protective tariff law.
If there is anything positively set
tied by the experience Of nations, it
is that the best standard for anation's
currency and for the worlds currency
is gold. For centuries the nations
bungled along endeavoring to keep
up two standards, silver and gold,
with the result that the comparative
values of the two metals were con-
stantly changing and the cheaper one
driving the other out of circulation,
making currency scarce, values un-
certain, exchange troublesome, and
commerce difficult Through expert
ence, the nations, one after another
learned that the honest way and the
best way is to have one standard and
that standard the best monev-gold-
with hundred cents worth OF gold
in the dollar. We have learned that,
since a standard dollar is a measure
OF value it should contain the value
that it represents.
All civilized people in the world
have learned this except the Popu-
listic Democratic party, They come
out in this year of our Lord 1900 and
propose to roll back the wheels of
progress and return to the financial
ways of barbarism.
Now the Republican party does
learn by experience. 1t keeps up
with the procession. When a thing
has been tried and found wanting the
Repub lican party drops it. When a
thing has been proved to be good by
experience, the Republican party
sticks to it. My boy. the Republican
| Marty Is not nerfect hv q lnnr wars