Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-08-18
PARKER's SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE.

thereis little of striking significance
in Judge Parker S speech of accept
ance. 1t is so lacking in positive
significance that the New York
Sun, which of late has been dis
posed to favor Judge Parker's
election, now announces its inten-
tion to support Roosevelt and Fair
banks. We do uot however agree
with the Sun in characterizing
Judge Parker speech as cowardly,
neither do we regard it as the ut
terance of political trimmer.
This speech does not belle the i'm
preston which we had formed Of
Judge Parker as being man of
courage and of intelligent and hon
est conviction. His speech reveals
him as a man eminently judicial,
conservative, deliberate. A jurist,
trained to look carefully into the
merits of both sides of a case, it is
foreign to his habit of mind to ig-
more the qualifications and except
tions which must attend the state
ment of general principles. The
man of this habit of mind must,
however, always expect to be
charged with weakness and
cowaTdice.
In temperament and in under
lying principle Judge Parker is a
typical conservative Democrat.
Ever since the adoption of the Con-
stitution there have been strict and
loose constructionists Judge
Parker in his speech presents him
self as fair and honest represen-
tative of the strict construction
type. The New York Sun is dis
gusted because he did not explicitly
repudiate and attack Organism,
but it is only fair to recognize that
the whole spirit and mode of
thought OF the speech is the very
antithesis of Organism.
While it is plain that Judge
Parker is in fundamental principle
strict constructionist and while
in general way he would like to
see the government administered in
accordance with that principle, he
finds himself confronted with diff
ficult and embarrassing task when
he undertakes to arraign the Repub-
lican policies and administration
and particularly when he comes to
outline a specific Democratic pro-
gram. 1t is very easy to indulge
in generalities regarding the CON
stitutional restraints of the various
departments of government and to
talk about executive usurpation,
but we have yet to hear from Judge
Parker or from any other reliable
Democratic source, specific
enumeration of the acts of usurpa-
ton alleged to have been committed
by President Roosevelt or by his
predecessor. When such bill of
specifications shall be submitted,
we shall have ready one as long
against the administration of Presi-
dent Cleveland.
Judge Parker's views upon the
tariff are not likely to awaken
much practical hope or apprehen-
sion as the case may be. He be-
lieves in the tariff and in tariff re-
form, but holds out no hope that it
would be or could be reformed dur
ing his administration, should he
be elected.
With regard to the trusts he finds
it difficult toapply his fundamental
Democratic principles. In COM
mon with the Democratic platform
he regards the trusts as dangerous
combinations, but he seems to think
the chiefremedy against them must
lie in modifying the tariff laws
which it is alleged foster them.
Such remedy will not alarm the
trusts after what he says about the
prospect for tariff changes. He
also has faith in the efficacy of the
enforcement of the existing laws
against monopoly, and holds the
executive responsible for failure to
enforce these laws. 1t is the ex-
ecutive and not the judicial branch
OF the government that is at fault
in the matter, he says. Yet the
country will not forget that it was
President Roosevelt and Attorney
General Knox who instituted the
proceedings in the Northern Sc
curities case while it was the three
Democratic justices on the Supreme
Court who decided adversely to the
administration. The truth of the
matter is that the trusts have less
to fear from Parker's attitude than
they have from Roosevelt's. The
fact that Judge Parker deprecates