River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-10-20
CHOICE OF PARTIES.
Why Young Men Should Vote the Re-
publican Ticket,

clined to make a speech for Judge Par
ker, has found it worth while to write
a magazine article on why Young
Man Should Vote the Democratic
Ticket" With what may be regarded
as the pardonable egotism Of adyanc-
ing years, Mr.. Cleveland gives his own
mistake in choosing between Fremont
and Buchanan half century ago, as
a sufficient argument why young men
should make the like mistake of ally
ing themselves with the party which has
learned nothing and forgotten nothing
since.
If Mr.. Cleveland had cited his choice
of Buchanan as his political idol and
guide as a warning to all young men
to avoid when making choice of the
party with which they are about TO atfilll-
ate his reasoning would have been com
prehensibe 1t may be recalled that
buchanan was the last Democratic Presi-
dent before the war The party to which
young Cleveland (age 19) gave his
callow allegiance in 1856 went into de-
served eclipse in 1860, from which it did
not fully emerge until 1884, when he was
elected President by the Mugwump di-
version Of that year.
From 1860 to 1884 the Republican
party successfully administered the gov
crnment of the United States through
the tribulations of terrible civil war,
to which the temporizing vacillation of
Buchanan contributed, and through the
trying period of reconstruction, resump-
ton of specie payments and wonderful
national expansion.
When Lincoln was first inaugurated
the population of the United States was
81 ,443,3 21; at the time of Cleveland's
first election it was 54,911O00. During
the same period the wealth of the re-
public had risen from $1G 159,G16,0OO to
about $50, 00O,0O0,0O0.
When Lincoln was inaugurated the
national debt was less than S9O,O00,OOO;
by the close of the war of secession it
had risen to $2,674,S15, $3.50, BY 1884,
when Cleveland was elected, it had been
reduced, through Republican financing,
over one billion dollars, to 81, 43S, o42,99o.
When Buchanan was President, full
filling all the ideals of young Cleveland
Of "safe and sane" government, the cir
culation of money in the United States
ranged from $15.S1 DOWN to $13.S5
per capita. During the succeeding
twenty-four years OF Republican admin
istration it ranged from $13.9S UP to
$22.65 per capita.
During Cleveland's first term the
money in circulation ranged from $23.O2
DOWN to $21S2 per capita, rising from
$22.52 to $24.56 under President Harm-
son. Republican, only to drop again from
$24.O3 DOWN to $21.41 during the sec
ond term of the ''sober and conserva-
tive Cleveland.
Starting at Spill in 1S96-the lowest
point in sixteen years-the per capita cir
culation of money in the United States
has risen steadily during the terms of
Presidents Mckinley and Roosevelt I'M
til, according to the latest statement of
the Treasury Department on October /,
1904, it was $31 Lie, estimated on a popu-
lation of S2,214,000.
The fuctuation of the per capita cir
culation of money during Republican
and Democratic administrations affords
a representative barometer of the success
or failure of the conduct of national af-
fairs.
Mr.. Cleveland says he was attracted
to the Democratic party by its doctrines
and Methods The Republican party
invites and attracts all young Americans
to it's support by the soundness of its
principles and an unbroken record Of
splendid and substantial results.
Mr. Cleveland finds ''slight resem-
blance" in and attempts an inyidious
comparison between the campaigns and
candidates of 1856 and 1904. He speaks
Of Frem0nt's nomination as an appeal
''to the peoples romantic sentiment and
love for the spectacular" while on the
other hand ''the Democratic party chal-
lenged the sober and conservative thought
of the country by the nomination of the
mature, undramatic and experienced
Buchanan"
There can be no mistaking the unwar-
ranted parallel this is intended to sug-
gest and emphasize. That Roosevelt does
appeal to the romantic sentiment of the
American people is true, but he appeals
to them because of the singular candor
and genuineness of his nature, the posi-
tiyeness and courage of his actions, the
remarkable versatility and resourceful-
ness -ef his mind. To depreciate Mr..
Roosevelt by inferring that he suffers
anything by contrast with Buchanan re-
vived in the person of Judge Parker
as being immature, dramatic and mex
perenced is to invite comparison alto
gether favorable to the Republican can
didate. In age Mr., Roosevelt is within
two years of being as mature as Mr..
Cleveland was when he was elected Pres
ident, and in experience he has had
more variety of responsibility than both
Mr. Cleveland and Judge Parker rolled
into one.
When it comes to choosing between
parties because Of their candidates the
young voter will not look beyond Theo-
dore Roosevelt as the best living incar-
nation of the spirit of aggressive manli-
ness-a duty-loving, duty-doing citizen.
If the choice is between the records or
the personnel of the two great parties
the choice is equally easy. The Demo
cracy to-day offers nothing to young men
starting out on careers but wornout
creeds aud unfulfilled croakings. 1t only
survives as a brake on the swift ad-
yancing wheels Of American public life.
On the other hand, the Republican
party invites the affiliation and support
Of young men because of its splendid
achievements and the vitality and viril-
ity of its treatment of government af-
fairs. 1t stands before the country to-
day as the party of conscience, candor
end progress as opposed to pretense,
promises and retrogression. 1t is the