The semi-weekly messenger., 1904-07-12

position, he must entertain a supreme
contempt for those political supple
jacks, particularly for those claiming
to be Democrats who go about with
sanctimonious moan. saying:
The President is wrong in his
Philippine policy, but we must sup.
port 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, Patrick
Henry, instead of delivering that great
lyric speech before the Virginia
house of burgesses, which precipi-
tated the revolution and which still
stirs the heart like strains Of martial
music, had arisen in his place and
said, gently-a as a sucking dove, His
most gracious majesty is wrong about
his stamp tax business, but We must,
as loyal subjects. support him, right
or wrong, and suppose Washington,
Jefferson, Warren, Adams, Greene,
Lee, Hamilton-aIl that glorious host
of warriors and sages, had weakly
agreed to that-what would we be
today? Instead of being the richest,
most puissant republic in all the flood
Of time. we would still be English COL
onies. ruled by British pro-consuIs
and governor-generals, without any
voice whatever in the government un-
deT WHICH we IVe-
Condemned the Wrong.
Those immortal state builders were
reared on the iictition that the king
can do no wrong but when he did do
wrong they boldly and iconoclastically
trampled preposterous falsehood uII-
der their feet, ard wrestling a conti-
nent from his iron grasp, dedicated It
as the home Of freedom and to the
twin propositions that governments
derive their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed and that all
men are created equal There were
men in the land in 1875. Are there
only manikins now? 1 do not believe
such a monstrous libel. George Ill.
did wrong Our fathers fought and
conquered him. Theodore Roosevelt
does wrong. We will oppose and
overthrow him,
Support the Presidents policy, ehy
Will some gentleman please tell u,
what that policy is? Has he any? If
so, why does not he say so? The
truth is he has none. He is an op-
portunist, waiting for something to
turn up. He is letting things drift,
and they are drifting to the deuce.
Meantime, our soldiers are being kill
ed and are dying of disease in shoals.
dertake to say:
declare with a straight face what the
Presidents policy or the Republican
policy is. No one will say; no one
can say; but some say-more's the
pity an1 shame-the President Is
wrong; but We must support the Pres
ident.'
ITO this complexion has it come a,
last by reason of the new-fangled jim
gOism that we must shut up our
thinkers, close our mouths and chic
roform our consciences, in order to be
considered patriots. 1t avails nothing
to claim-as some do = that Col.
Roosevelt is better than his party. 1t
is to L1 hoped most fervently that he
is-a great deal better; but the truth
to tell, q President cannot be better
than his party. Even if he tries TO
be- he is ruined politically. Johnson,
Hayes, Arthur and the younger Har-
rison all tried that experiment. ani
all of them were refused second terms.
either in convention or at the polls.
So it will be with Col. Roosevelt. Has
particular friends may deem him bet
ter than his party. He may think SO
himself, but nevertheless the party will
drag him down to it's level. No man
ever found himself in worse political
company than does President RooSe-
welt in this year of grace. He is il
the hands of the Republican Philis-
their withes
Republican False Pretenses.
In every State in the Union it is a
felony to get property of any sort
or to attempt to get it by false pre-
lenses. If the same rule applies To
the getting OF offices or to attempts
to get them, the whole Republican
party could be gent to the peniten-
tiary.
ssnna of +r,o;r fa,So Drata-sas I'll, :,
one on which they harp the most this
years. that the Democratic party
is in favor of free trade. The chars..
is utterly false-a lie made of whole
cloth. There are individual Demo-
Gratis who are free traders, just as
there are individual Republicans who
are atheists; but it would be precisely
as true and fair to denounce the Re-
publican party as the party of athe-
ism, as to denominate the Demo-
cratic party as the party of free trade.
1t never was a free trade party, and
Is not now. The man who charges
that it is does so because of his ignor-
ance or because Of his mendacity.
Democrats favor the cutting down
of exorbita1t tariff rates to a reason
able basis. They believe that in many
schedules of the present law the
rates are too nigh; those that are
too high We are in favor of cutting
down. we FAVOR any modification of
the tariff schedules that may be re-
quired to prevent them becoming a
shelter for monopoly
Il wonder If Mr.. Secretary Shaw
ever heard those words before? They
are known verbatim from the Iowa
platform of 1901. The secretary
whooped it UP at great rate for Gov
ernor a. B. Cummings, and others
nominated on that platform. He scorlr-
fully denounces il now as the dead
Iowa idea But it was a righteous
declaration, borrowed from Demo-
Gratis, and is not dead-nct even
dying.
Where tariff rates are so high the,
enable American manufacturers to sell
wares abroad cheaper than they do
to Americans here at home. we say
that they ought to be reduced. Is this
anarchy or treason. IF So make the
most of it.