The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-08
Speech of Champ Clark
 ~ as Permanent Chairman

XIV. if repeated by an American Pres ident-"I am the state." If President Roosevelt Is at all worthy of his high position he must entertain supreme contempt for the political suple5acks, particularly for. those claimed to be Democrats, who go about with sancti- monious moan, saying:
 ''The President Is wrong in his Phil ippine policy, but we must support the President" Out upon all such cringing idiocy Suppose a case: Suppose that when George III undertook to force our fathers to pay the stamp tax Pat rick Henry, instead of delivering that great lyric speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses. which precipitated the revolution and which still stirs the heart like strains of martial music. had risen in his place and said gently as 8 sucking dove: His most gracious majesty is wrong about this stamp tax business, but we must as loyal subjects support him. right or wrong" And suppose Washington, Jefferson, War ren, Adams. Green, Lee, Hamilton-all that glorious host of warriors and sages-had weakly agreed to that. what would we be today? Instead of being the richest, most puissant repub- lie in all the flood of time, we would still be English colonies, ruled by British co-consuls and governor-gener- als, without any voice whatever in the government under which we live. Roosevelt Wrong.
 Those immortal state builders were reared on the fiction 'that the King can do no wrong" but that when he did do wrong. they boldly and ironi- | cally trampled that preposterous false hood under their feet, and wrestling a | continent from his grasp. dedicated 1t | as the home of freedom and to the twin propositions that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed" and that "all men are ere ated equal" There were men In the 1 land in 1776. Are there only manakins now? do not believe such a mon- | strous libel. George III did wrong Our fathers fought and conquered him. Theodore Roosevelt does wrong. We will oppose and overthrow him. Support the Presidents policy. eh ? Will some gentleman please tell us what that policy is? Has he any? If so, why does he not say SO. The truth is he has none. He is an opportunist waiting for something to turn up. He Is letting things drift and they are drifting to the deuce. Meantime our soldiers are being killed and are dying of disease in shoals. For what pur- pose? Will anybody undertake to say? I defy any jingo to stand up and de- clare with a straight face what the Presidents policy or the Republican party's policy is.
 No one can say. but some say more's the pity and shame-"The Pres ident is wrong. but. we must support the President"
 To this complexion has 1t come at last by reason of the new fangled jim goism that we must shut up our think CTS. close our mouths and chloroform our consciences in order to be consid- cred patriots?
 It avails nothing to claim-as some do-that Colonel Roosevelt is better than his party. It is to be hoped most fervently that he Is a great deal bet ter. but truth to tell, a President can- not be better than his party. Even if he tries to be he is ruined politically Johnston, Hayes, Arthur and the younger Harrison all tried that exper. iment and all of them were refused second terms, either in convention ol at the polls. So 1t will be with Colone Roosevelt. His particular friends ma. deem him better than his party. Ht may think so himself. but neverthe
 less the party will drag him down tc i its level. No man ever found himseli in worse political fcompany than doe. President Roosevelt in this year oi grace. He is in the hands of the Re. publican Philistines. and they will bint him with their withes.
 Republican False Pretenses. | In every State in the Union, 1t is { | felony to get property of any sort-ol to attempt to get it, by false pretenses If the same rule applied to the get ] ting of office or to attempts to ge
 them. the whole Republican Party could
 be sent to the penitentiary. One O. | their false pretenses-the one on whicl
 they harp the most this year is tha
 the Democratic Party Is in favor O
 free trade The charge Is false-a Ii,
 made out of whole cloth. There ar, l individual Democrats who are fire, | traders just as there are individual Re
 publicans who are atheists, but i | would be precisely as true and fair t, denounce the Republican Party as tn, party of atheism as to denominate tn, Democratic Party as the party of fire, | trade
 It never was a free trade party an,
 is not now. The man who charge
 that it is does so because of his ignor ance or of his mendacity.
 | Democrats favor the cutting dowl of exorbitant tariff rates to a reason
 able basis. They believe that in man.
 schedules of the present law the rate are too high; those that are too higl
 we are in favor of cutting down.
 We favor any modification of tn jtariff schedules that may be require' to prevent them becoming a shelter fo monopoly"
 I wonder if Mir. Secretary Shaw eve
 heard those words before? They ar
 taken verbatim from the Iowa Repub
 lican platform of 1901. The Secretar.
 whooped it up a great rate for Cover
 nor A B. Cummins and others nomi mated on that platform. He scornfull,
 denounces 1t now as the dead low
 idea" but it was righteous declar
 ation borrowed from Democrats am
 is not dead-not even dying.
 Where tariff rates are so high tha
 they enable American manufacturer
 to sell their wares abroad cheaper thal
 they do to Americans here at home, W
 say they ought to be reduced.
 Is it treason? If so, make the mos
 of it. Let Republican spellbinders an