The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-03-29
watterson Scores Roosevelt.

Col. Henry Watterson, editor of the Louis
vile Courier Journal, was one OF the speakers
at the banquet on Monday night of the Vir-
ginia Democratic Association of the District
of Columbia He said in part
'sWe are Democrats. We love our coun-
try Our hearts beat true to its institutions.
We would rescue the Government from the
hands of those who are converting it into
Government of the trusts, for the trusts and
by the trusts, and restore it to the hands OF
those who will have some regard for the rights
of the people The Republican party is
syndicated party. Arbitrary power IS its
motto, the Almighty dollar its trademark. If
it be not checked in the gait it is going it will,
in the end, surely Mexicanize the Republic.
Once again in the White House we have the
Man on Horseback. Affecting the simplicity
of the cowboy, he conceals beneath the self
confidence and queer manners OF the broncho
buster the sentiments and ambitions, II not
the talents, of Diaz. To him, a little thing
like treating an Admiral of the Navy, wearing
the laurel leaves of imperishable renown, as
if he were baby in arms, now to be dandled
and now to be spanked is merely an undress
affair begun and ended during off moments
between breakfast and luncheon. To him the
reprimanding of the Lieutenant General of
the Army, grown gray in the fighting OF the
battles of his country, becomes an amusing
horseplay, meant to relax his muscles and IL
lustrate his high mightiness, whilst warning
lesser officers of the army to obey orders and
say nothing. As these things go forward, par
taking somewhat of the character OF feasts to
divert and blinds to hoodwink public opinion,
a bill of army reorganization is prepared and
urged upon Congress, which, if it becomes
law, will make the power of the President alb
soute, and which it is not too much to say
ought to be entitled ''An act to make the
President of the United States military die
tator'' Because the reprimanded Lieutenant
General, answering the summons of a CON-
mittee of Congress- was his duty-express-
es an opinion adverse to this bill, If is pro-
posed to retire him from the service. Taken
in connection with some other matters OF more
or less sinister suggestion, these are menaces
of most ominous import.
THE TRADE MARX IN CONGRESS.
sBut, turn from the White House to the
Capitol. and look at the Republicans in Con-
gress. The trail of the trademark is over them
all. Old High Tariff dances the cancan IN the
House, whilst Old Ship Subsidy does the reg
ulation cake walk in the Senate. Everything
for the syndicates. Nothing for the people.
And, not content with their arbitrary power
in the White House and their mercenary
power I'M Congress, the leaders of this party OF
federalism and false pretention would rip open
Pandora's box to fitch thence the black plrat-
ical flag of negro domination-the equally dis
reputable and bloody shirt of sectional agita-
tion-and, III order to make sure OF the next
House they are proposing to bring forward
another force bill to smite the South, to blight
the North, and to convert a land teemlng with
love and peace into land reeking with hate
and strife. Such is the banquet to which the
exit of Mckinley, the statesman, and the ad-
vent of Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, has in
yited US.
81 am something of a lingo myself. be,
lieve in the expanding greatness and glory OF
nv country. I never see the flag floating
above the dome on yonder Capitol that my
heart does not throb with the proud, glad
my eyes do not fill with happy,
exultant tears-that | too am an American
citizen God bless the flag, and God bless the
boys that fight beneath it. would carry IL
inviolate. would keep them spotless. And,
with this in view, | want to know what is
going on away out yonder across the multi
tudinous, the mysterious waves OF the racine
sea. l want other witnesses than self-seeklng
politicians and self-exploiting soldiers to come
here and tell me. refuse to hold my tongue.
l refuse to rest content. And, if | am told
by whipper-snapper in shoulder straps that,
unless do, l am traitor to my country my
reply to him shall be a slap in the face.
PLEA FOR PARTY UNITY.
Friends, brothers, Democrats, let us have
done with dissension. Let us turn our backs
on the past, our eyes to the future, calling the
old fight off and the old scores square. He
who stands with me against these things is my |
comrade, no matter what he thinks, or ever |
thought, about silver or gold. He who would
deny me place by his side to fight them must
either be very perversed or very blind. Let
us cross no bridges till we come to them.
But already we can see far enough ahead to
take our reckoning. There will be but one
test of Democrat in 1904-toe the line, toe
the line, saying to arbitrary power and abso-
lutism, Thou shalt go no further; we, too, are
in the expansion business; but our expansion
is for the religion of the Constitution no less
than for the religion of Christ and Him cruel
fed; our expansion means peace, not war; the
honor, not the degradation of the flag, and
Just as surely as jefferson wrote the Declare
ton of Independence and Jackson fought the
battle of New Orleans-to resist despotism-
shall we make new Fourth of July and cele-
brate another 9Th of January in resisting this
unrighteous scheme to abolish the Constitution
and Mexicanize the Government"