The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-29
Says Republicans Are Glad to
 Make Roosevelt Issue
PARKER HAS CHANGED FRONT
Thinks Man Who Voted for Fres Silver In 1900 and Declares for Gold In 1904 Should Not
 Be President.

Indianapolis. Ind. September 2s.-The first republican meeting of the campaign in Indianapolis was held in Tomlinson hall tonight. An illuminated procession escorted Senator Albert ]. Beveridge and Congressman Overstreet to the hall which was well filled.
 Congressman Overstreet presided. He introduced in brief address Senator Bev- eridge. who spoke in part as follows:
 What is this campaign about? What business man but wishes that no election was necessary this year. The administra- tion's policies are successful at home and abroad. The best that the opposi- tion's ablest man, Grover Cleveland, can say for 1t is that 1t shows signs of re- turning sanity" Yet this political con valescent demands control of the govern ment, declaring that 1t could not now undo much that the republican party has done if 1t would. and would not undo much that the republican party has done if 1t could.
 "The first result of Parker's election would be a tariff agitation without re- suit since MT. Parker himself tells us that. republican senate would prevent legislation. Such agitation spells busi- ness uncertainty; and uncertainty spells business disaster.
 Even If the opposition controlled house. senate and president they them selves could not tell what kind of tariff law they would pass. For some of themi like MT. Bryan, are free traders; some, like MT. German, are protectionists. Think of an engineer trying to run his en- gie backward ands forward at the same time; what would happen to that engine is what would happen to the country with the opposition in power.
 No Problem More intricate.
 Men talk of tariff revision as though 1t were simple thing-an easy task. No problem is more intricate. What Is the ta-iff? It Is not an artificial structure to be taken apart and put together like the trick box of a juggler. It is the develop ment of theory of statesmenship. It is a growth and not creation. Those who prepared the soil of this nation planted in that soil the seeds or the American Industrial independence which men call protection. If here and there a branch now needs pruning, those wno planted the tree and have guarded its growth should do 1t, not those who resisted its planting in the first place and who for hundred years sought to lay the axe to its roots.
 Even the changing of a single sched- ule is no work for the prejudiced or ignor- ant For other schedules are related to 1t; and to all these Is adjusted the vast business of the greatest of business na- tlons. Republican revision of any sched- nle means the thoughtful consideration of every other scheduled.
 On the Trust Question.
 As to the trust question Senator Beyer- idge said:
 "The organizations of industry should neither be persecuted nor favored. They should have simple justice like everybody else. All men. all interests protected or punished by law according as they do right or wrong-this is republicanism in a sentence, Amerlcanism in phrase.
 How would the opposluon's remedy of free trade in trust made articles hurt the Standard oil company There Is no tariff on oil. Or the anthracite coal com blnation. if there Is one? There Is no tariff on anthracite coal.
 If trusts necessarily raise prices. why has the price of sugar steadily fallen for more than thirty years? 1t is said there is a sugar trust. And why has the price of beans gone up? there Is no bean trust. Or the price of wheat2 there Is no wheat trust. So free trade will not prevent trusts, and prices rise and fall with and without trusts.
 "So far as legislation can remedy tho evils of trusts. republican legislation-the Sherman law the rebate law the de- partment os commerce and labor law-ths only Legislation evert enacted on the sub- ject--wll 70 it if enforced. And Roose- velts election means enforcement of those laws nd all laws"
 Discussing at length the financial question, Senator Beveridge said:
 Scores Judge Parker.
 The way to keep the gold standard out of dauger Is to keep 1t in the hands of those who put 1t out of danger.
 "In 1896 was no more a time for si- lence and hiding than in 1861 was ims for cowardice and evasion. It was not only political struggle but on both sides it was a moral struggle. On both sides men who had for years talked and compromised. threw aside expediency and acted on principle. Was Grover Cleve- land silent tten? Did he by his vote condone what he declared with his voice would be a crime? Was Senator Teller and the band of lifelong republcanE who marched out of the St. Louis con- vention silent then? Did they condone
 
 claimed would be a crime? Was John Nj. Palmer and General Buckner And the host of gold democrats silentT
 Thousands of lifelong republicans left their party; thousands of life-lons democrats left their party. Among eighty m. .llions of people there was new alignment. hundreds of thousands changing sides; and all because of a prin- ciple which they believed a detriment to the future of the republic, yet at this hour when men are destroying their po- litical future for principle sake, when brother turned against brother rather than forsake convictions. and even fam flies were divided-at this supreme moral hour in the history of the American peo- ple equalled - its fervor and purity only by that other moral awakening that ranged brother against brother on bat tlefields forty years ago; in this hour made heroic by devotion to beliefs on both sides-Alton B. Parker was silent, but he voted ior free silver Is that the -~~~~>~~~---~~~-~~--~-~-~- ~-~--~~-~-~--~~~->~~~-~~-