Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1904-07-09
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
AS LEADERS DESIRE IT

cepts and practices of George Wash.
ington, as president of these United
States, when advised and counseled
by Thomas Jefferson, as his secretary
of state, to-wit: The broad American
policy Of friendly relations with all
nations and entangling alliances with
none.' With this end in view, we
ought to secure, as far as we can, by
treaty or reciprocal legislation, amic-
able rather than retaliatory trade re-
lations with the nations Of the world,
as well as broader and more profitable
foreign and home markets for our
agricultural, mining, manufacturing
and forest productions.
Trade With Canada.
We ought, especially as democrats,
having the interest of the entire peo-
pie in view, In contradistinction to the
policy OF the republican party, which
has made no sincere effort in that di-
rectlon. to secure more friendly and
mutually beneficial trade relations
with the Dominion of Canada, and
with our children, who, driven by taxa.
tion at home, and induced by fertile
lands and liberal trade laws there, are
daily f1ocking to her fields.
The Monroe Doctrine.
=. We favor the maintenance of the
Monroe doctrine in its full integrity, as
conceived by Jefferson, announced by
Monroe and signally executed BY
Grant and Cleveland. IN this connec-
ton we think it our duty to guard from
European oppression and colonization.
and from European superimposition of
monarchical institutions, the countries
OF the western hemisphere; but we do
not think It our duty, nor did Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe or jackson, imagine
1t their duty as the acting President
of the United States seems to conceive
It to be, to administer the affairs Of
Central and South America.
We believe that the utterances Of the
candidate of the republican party for
President Of the United States in his
letter to ex-Secretary Root upon the
second anniversary of Cuban independ-
ence, In which he intimated that We
we're, as a government iii some way
Gods vicegerent to correct and control
those who "do not conduct themselves
we'll" and those who do not know how
to act with decency in Industrial and
political matters" and those who 'ido
not keep order" and those who edo
not pay their obligations would have
been reckless and unwise, even If they
had emanated from a private Ameri.
can citizen, but coming from one act
Ing as chief magistrate Of the American
republic, they are reprehensible III
yet higher degree. His yet more reck-
less assertion that we have d duty"
in the western hemisphere which 1--WE
cannot ignore;" to intervene govern
n1ently whenever there is brutal
wrongdoing or Impotence which re-
suits in general loosening of the
ties Of CIVILIZED society meets with our
earnest disapprobation. Such d posi-
ton would be in itself a general
loosehirlg'' Of those "ties bf Civilized
society which bind the nations in
times Of peace, at least, in common
brotherhood. we especially resent the
doctrine, which was not born of Mr..
Monroe, but was born Of Mr.. Roose-
welt, that it Ii, or can be, the duty Of
the United States to convert its army
and navy Into a constabulary for the
purpose Of collecting debts due by Cen
tral and South American nations to
European countries, or even to citizens
of the American republic. Spectators
and Investors, when taking their
chances in countries with unstable
governments. do SO with their eyes
open, and generally fix for themselves
/ a profit proportiohate to the risk, the
chief risk being, indeed. these same
unstable political institutions and If.
| responsible governments. If they
choose to make for themselves that
sort of bed. let them die in it. When
the candidate of the republican party
says, concerning our dealings with 9TH
er nations, "all that we ask is that
they govern themselves we'll and be
prosperous and orderly; where this is
the case they will find helpfulness
from u.s." we answer that we are not
the guardians Of the prosperity and do
! mestic order of other peoples, and that
So long as they neither directly nor in,
directly injure us, nor by their conduct
drag us into international entangle.
1nents, we have no more to do with
the internal administration of their af.
fairs than they have to do with that
of ours.
The "open Door"
s. We favor the preservation, so faI
as we can, of an open door for the
worlds commerce in The Orient with
out unnecessary ENHANCEMENT in 0ri
entail and European affairs, and without
arbitrary unlimited, irresponsible ant
absolute government anywhere under
the stars and stripes, or within the jur
isdiction OF. the union. We oppose, as
fervently as George Washington him
self did, an indefinite, irresponsible
discretionary and vague absolutisn
and a policy Of colonial exploitation, nj
matter where or by whom invoked D
exercised; we believe with Thomas JET
ferson and John Adams that no govern
ment has right to make one set O.
laws for those 'at home" and another
and different set of laws absolute il
their character for those "in the colo
MES All men under the American
flag are entitled to the protection q
the institutions whose emblem the fias