The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1904-08-20
A RECORD FOR NEEDLESS
NESS AND INCONSISTENCY.

NESS AND INCONSISTENCY.
There IS something like fun Of the
first class in the emphatic asser ions
Of President Roosevelt anent his stead
mess and certainty on the money
question and on other importan public
questions The Dallas News very
properly shows that he was three
years ago personally" ia favor of re
vision Of the tariff, and said so in a
public speech. that year later he
stood for revision to be recommend
ed By commission; that today he 10
a standpatter with both feet. T.
may be added without injustice that ha
has never said one word which would
Indicate even an ordinary understand.
Ing Of tho tariff problem. His vars'
ahleness on the civil service policy Is
known of, all men Even in his policy
# turning the rascals out Of the POS
tai service he fires a Beavers and a
Machen one day and excuses the par
ty bosses in charge Of the great post
ofi9es o, New York and Philadelphia
tsstte next.
But Of all the inconsistency and in.
at II', Of this man VINO boasts Of the
fxedness and certainty OF his footing.
the most egregious instances are founa
IN mis- record on the money and tarin
Questions. This record proves two
things. one is that he changes like
INTO the moon, and the other IS that
he is wholly in the dark on these and
other difficult problems in the book Of
political economy. In this connection
one can not Do be ter than quo e the
Thorn catechisms from the Bunalo
Times.
Was he ever in favor of free silver
coinage?
Yes. In 1884 he supported the ma.
tional Republican platform urging ar
international bimetallic standard TO fix
he relative value of gold and silver
coinage. In 1883 he was 'in favor Of
the use Of both gold and silver as
money. and condemned the Democratic
administration in its eriorts to demon
etize silver" In 1892 he favored
bimeialllsm ami demanded the use
OF hoth gold and silver as standard
money without regard to other ma.
tions. which was precisely the demand
of the Bryan Democratic platform Of
1896. In 1896 he was for The free coin
age Of silver by international agree
ment
When did he frs unqualihedly on
pose bimetalllsm and free silver coin
age2
Never, until four years ago.
What has been Theodore Roosevalt's
position on the tariff issue?
lie has been for free trade. for high
protection. for reciprocity, against
reciprocity. for tariff reduction and 3
s andpatier
What did he say as a FREQ trader?
In hir Life Of Benton he wrote that
Political economists have pretty gen.
orally agreed that protection is vici-
GUS in theory and harmful in practice"
Did he deny that protec i've tarlf
produced prosperity?
Yes In his Life OF Benton he de
clared that "Clay's assertions as to
what the tariff had done for the West
were equally ill-founded as Bcntcn
showed in y good speech, wherein he
asserted with truth that its renewed
vas due to its own re
sources. entirely independent Of fed
eral aid or legislation"
The two words 'heedlessness" and
Inconsistency" characterize fully tte
Republican candidates course; but
this is not all He has not hest ated n
use his opportunities, his powers as
president the spoils. hold the puslic
money as campaign capital, in a des
perate effort to bring about his re-elec-
tion. Hut the weakest of all his
weaknesses is his consistent or per
sis eut Inconsistency in the face Of
which nc hoasts Of steadiness upon
which TIE people may implicitly rely
Mathews did not vote against the
school land bill, The rec