Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-07-21
STlDCER'S
ADDRESS
TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN OF IOWA
clTY CONVENTION SCORES
THE REPUBLICANS.
. LONG ARRANGEMENT

W sS'SsHy 0PScCn the ioteoO man
declares That Republican Policies
Are Wrons-special Attention to
Trusts, Tariff and Expansion.
&
Iowa City, July 10. Especially H
J.sStidger of Toledo, Tama county wal
the temporary chairman of the demo
cratic state convention here today
: his speech to the convention was s
lengthy arraignment Of the republican
party and a general criticism Of the
policies of the party and its candi
dates. Mr.. Stidger talked along the
line OF the Parker platform and tina,
his speech pleased the delegates pres
ent was Indicated by the enthusiasm
with which he was received. He sale
in part:
Gentlemen of the convention: One
hundred and four years have elapsed
since the patron saint of democracy
was first elected to the presidency
and esteem 1t no small honor to ad
dress a convention Of delegates assem-
bled under the banners of the histori
cal party of the republic and pledged
to the faith Of the immortal Jefferson
Since the democratic party assum
ed the administration of the govern
ment under. Jefferson it has been com
m1ssioned by the people to administer
their affairs for longer period thar
all other political parties combined
During these 104 years the democratic
party has administered the affairs o.
the nation flfty-six years, while dur
ing the remaining forty-eight years
that responsibility has been divided
between wings. republicans; ant
when the republicans who recently as
sembled in Chicago wrote their plat
form, they were SO proud of the fac
that they had controlled the admin
istration of our government for a per
iod shorter by twenty years than the
time which the affairs of the nation
have teen in the hands of the demo
Gratis, that they congratulated them
selves forty-nine times in the frs
person. If self-esteem and self con
CIRCULATION be virtue, surely these
republicans who wrote the Chicago
platform are fit companions for the
saints.
y Although the fight for freedom Is
old - old as the valleys in which mer
have toiled and as old as the throne.
4 from which tyrants have ruled the
cause, Of democracy is yet young ant
the century that has just passed since
Jefferson restored to us the right oil
trial by jury and the right of free
speech and a free press, has been bui
a respite between the federalism OF
John Adams and the republication Of
Theodore Roosevelt.
In one century democracy fights
for physical freedom - for trial by
jury and the writ of habeas corpus, and
no sooner do the people repose in the
security of constitutional law than cit
liens are deprived of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness under the
structures of martial law, proposed an6
executed by a strenuous plutocracy
that sets at naught the rights of man
And in another century it is fight
for political and religious freedom =
a revolt against George III, and an es
tablished church.
Today it is battle of Drawn and
brain against the minions of pelf who
fight honest toll in field and shop and
mine, and struggling talent at deck
and bench and bar, unfair from behind
corporate law corruptly used and
basely administered.
If the old federalist party with Its
English traditions and it's notions Of
centralized power, made us. a nation
the republican party of Hanna, Plat
and Quay has made us plutocracy
and the party of Theodore Roosevelt
us rapidly carrying us over the walls
Sof militarism.
M II the party of Jefferson with It's
French liberalism, it's. doctrine OF
equality, made us American, the duty
Of the hour requires that his followers
shall keep the lamp of Equal Rights
to all, special privileges to none
burning high in the lighthouse of hui
man liberty.
Sacred Rights AssalIed.
If 1T is necessary for the democrat
ic party in 1904 to reaflrm adherence
to the doctrines of freedom of the
press, of conscience and of speech: ii
1t is incument upon our party to de.
r.and equality before the law the right
of trial by jury and the right to in.
woke the writ of habeas corpus; if we
are called upon to condemn sumptu
airy legislation, the enthronenient of
the military over the civil law and ex
cessive, unfair and unjust taxation for
private and corrupt ends; and if we
are obliged to apologize to other ma.
tons for infidelity to treaty stipula,
tions and pledges of good faith and
to our own people for entangling ALI
ances with others it is all because
the republican, arty has invaded the
temple Of this republic, destroyed its
idols and blasphemed it's holy writ.
We have made little progress in the
science of government since Jefferson
wrote the constitution of Virginia and
Dur ancestors held their first town
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