Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-09-12

| much, sometimes on the Sfpulli tl'tt
too little, has been done. Some of our
! opponents complain because under the
! antitrust and interstate commerce
| laws suits We're undertaken which have
! been succcsSful: others, because suits
were not undertaken which would have
| been unsuccessful. The Democratic
| State Convention in New York dealt
with the Anthracite Coal Strike by de-
handing in deliberate and formal fash
! ion that the National Government
! should take possession of the coal
fields; yet champions of that conven-
| tons cause now condemn the fact that
there was any action by the President
at although they must know that it
was only this action by the President
which prevented the movement for ma
| tional ownership of the coal fields from
! gaining what might well have been an
! Irresistible impetus. Such mutually
| destructive criticisms furnish an ade-
| quatc measure of the chance for CO.
herent action or constructive legisla
ton if our opponents should be given
| power.
50 much for what our opponents
: openly or coVertly advance in the way
of an attack on the acts of the Admins
| iStration. When we come to consider
| the policies for which they profess to
| stand we are met with the difficulty
always arising when statements Of
policy are 50 made that they can be in
| terprctrd in different ways. on some
| of the vital questions that have con-
| fronted the American people in the
! last decade our opponents take the
!
bile way to convey their views. They
contend that their lukewarm attitude
! of partial aCquieSccnCe in what others
| have accomplished entities them to be
| made the cuStodianS of the financial
| honor and commercial interests which
| they hay" but recently sought to ruin.
| Being unable To agree among them
selves as to whether the gold standard
| is IL curse or 4 blessing. and as to
| whether we ought or ought not to have
| free and unlimited coinage of silver
they have apparently thought it expe-
dient To avoid any committal on these
subjects, and individually each to fol-
low his particular bent. Their dearest
approach to Il majority Judgment
seems to be that it is now inexpedient
the other and that the establishment of
the gold standard by the Republican
| party should not be disturbed unless
| there is an alteration in the relative
quantity of production Of silver and
gold. Men who hold sincere convic-
tions on vital questions can respect
equally sincere men with whose views
they radically differ; and men may
| En Nf f.,it Will
promising their honor or their self
respect. But it is difficult to respect
an attitude of mind such as has been
fairly described above; and where there
is no respect there can be no trust. A
policy with So slender Il basis of prin-
ciple would not stand the strain of a
single year of business adversely.
! We. on the contrary. believe in the
gold standard as fixed by the usage and
verdict of the business world. and i'm a
| sound monetary system as matters Of
| principle; as matters not of monetary
political eXpedicncy, but of permanent
organic policy. In 1896 and again in
1900 r-Sight<.i men, without regard to
their party fealty in the past. joined to
work against what they regarded as a
dcbaS"d monetary system. The poll
cl"S which they chHmpioncd have been
St"ddfaStly adhered to by the AdminiS-
trltinn: ana by the act of March Il
1900. Congress established the single
gold standard as the measure of our
monetary value. This act received the
support of every Republican in the
House, and of every Republican ex-
cept one in the Senate. OF our nppo-
neutS, eleven SlpuortpI if i'm tbp IJouco