Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-09-08


they could very nicely use Wisconsin,
thirteen electoral votes in their business.
AS to Free Traders.
Those who have the right to speak
for the Democratic party have repeat
edly declared, and proved it, that the
Democratic party is not free trade
party and never was. But, inasmuch
as Republican editors and spellbinders
keep on asserting that the Democratic
party is free trade party and in
sist that we are great sinners in that
regard, it will not be considered inn
pertinent to inquire whether it is real
~ sin to be a free trader If it is a
sin, | wish to introduce to my readers
a very great sinner in that respect, a
most eminent sinner, who is much in
the public eye and under the limelight.
On one occasion he used these words:
The repeal Of the salt tax was an es-
pecial favorite of his. He was perfectly
right in attacking the tax and deserves
the greatest credit for the persistency
which finally won him the victory.
Know who uttered those glowing
words, gentle reader? And to whom
did he refer? Let the Republicans
who read this fall in an epileptic fit
when / state that it was none other
than Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, pres
ident Of the United States. He was
speaking of the great fight which Sen
ator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri,
statesman of the first rank, made to
place salt on the free list. Colonel
Benton kept up this fight for a quarter
Of a century, and when he had won he
declared in his pompous way that he
imagined he could hear the fiocks and
herds on thousand hills believing
out their love and gratitude to him.
The above quoted paragraph is found
on page 90 of the American Statesmen
Series, Life of Thomas H Benton. by
Theodore Roosevelt Query: If Colo
mel Benton deserved s'the greatest cred
it, for placing this great necessity on
the free list, as Colonel Roosevelt says
he did, how does it happen that a
Democrat of today would be a great
criminal to attempt to put some other
necessity on the free list? In the same
book Colonel Roosevelt on page 81 uses
the following language:
Free traders are apt to look at the tariff
from sentimental standpoint, but it is in
reality purely a business matter and
should be decided solely on grounds of ex-
pediency Political economists have pref
ty generally agreed that protection is
vicious in theory and harmful in prac-
tice, but If the majority of people in in
terest wish it and it affects only them
selves there is no earthly reason why
they should not be allowed to try the g.
pertinent to their hearts content. The
trouble is that it rarely does affect only
themselves, and in 1928 the evil was PEE
culiarIy aggravated on account of the un-
equal way in which the proposed law
would affect different sections 1t pur-
ported TO benefit the rest of the country
but it undoubtedly worked real injury to
the planter states and there is small
ground for wonder that the irritation over
it in the region so affected should have
been intense.
On page 90 he uses this language:
1t must be admitted that the tariff did
some harm to the south and that it was
natural for the latter to feel some resent
ment at the way in which It worked.
These passages are not quoted for
the purpose of casting any slur on Colo
mel Roosevelt. but for the purpose Of
applying to the stand patters the old
saying that people who live in glass
houses ought not to throw stones"
The Heeira to Canada.
We have been SO long and 50 thor
oughly accustomed to seeing foreigners
come to America to live and be merged
into our citizenship that we can scarce
" realize the strange and startling fact
that thousands of our best people are
leaving Us to locate in the British
Northwest Territories. Immigrants have
come to America to better their eondi-