Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-05-24
Taft OPENS 1H[
OHIO CAMPAIGN
Republican State Convention of
Ohio Meets to Nominate
Candidates For Office
TAFT MAKES OPENING SPEECH
His Address to bo the Keynote Of the
Campaign This Fall-He Makes An
Argument In Favor Of Federal Con-
troll of Freight Rates-Text Of His
Address.

N6Ot0O0s
Columbus, May 24.--The republicans
OF, Ohio were represented by more than
eleven hundred delegates when the
state convention to nominate q gov
ernor and other state officers was CALI
ed to order this afternoon. Secretary
| of War Taft, as temporary chairman,
delivered the opening speech in this
years political campaign.
Secretary Taft said in part:
Fellow republicans of Ohio: / con-
gratulate you on the prosperous polit-
| ical calm in which you meet. The
| tremendous victory of last fall SO
stunned our ancient enemy, the democ-
racy, that as a party 1t is hardly even
now showing any sign OF life. Then q
president Hike Theodore Roosevelt. 4
consistent and orthodox republican, is
welcomed with bursts of enthusiasm
and admiration in Texas, and in the
Democratic Iroquois Club of Chicago,
we may we'll liken the present to the
era Of political good feeling which
prevailed early in the last century"
The secretary rapidly sketched the
attitude Of the republican party ON
the currency question since 1896. re-
ferred to the Spanish war and Its re-
suits.
The secretary said that the inter-
state commerce law had accomplished
much but that inequality and injus-
uce remained. Discussing the propos-
ed remedial bill as II passed the house
of representatives, the secretary said
lat attempts to give more power to
the railroad commission so that its
orders when made shall be effective
until set aside by judicial hearing. 1t
does not as yet he said, provide for
a general fixing OF a table Of rates by
the commissio.nt but only calls for a
plant plaint " with sSpeet to y : speeifc @ in
stance Of injustice. 1t seems moder-
ate measure, calculated to give the add
ed power to the commission necessary
to effectiveness to remedying specific
wrongs in rates without creating an all
powerful tribunal which shall I'M aG-
vance take away from railways the
power of rate making and of elastically
responding to varying conditions. 1t
| will not thus paralyze individual eff
fort in meeting the changing demands
OF trade. We can certainly trust our
law givers to respond to the popular
demand and to- regulate the railways
so far as they ought to be regulated,
without interfering with that control
over their own property and with thai
motive for efficiency and economic
management, which are still required
to make successful the enormous bus
mess of railway transportation in AM
erica. This question must be settled
by the republicans The republican
party, by its enemies. is falsely charg-
ed with being a party of the corpora :
tions and a party of the wealthy. The
history of its sacrifices in favor of hu-
man rights, and of its contests for in
dividualism against socialism Is tri-
umphant refutation of the charge. Mr..
Bryan represents an element Of the
democratic party that is fastening as
rapidly as possible, toward doctrine
in which vested rights are little re-
garded He is now formulating q doc
trine in favor of the government own
ership of commercial railroads to
which he hopes to lead his party.
Against this proposition L feel conf
dent that the republican party will all
ways set it's face like flint. only re-
fer to it as Mr.. Bryan's remedy for ths
abuses of which it Is said the railroad
companies are guilty and as an addi-
tional reason why, if such abuses exist.
as, in some measure we know they do,
we should take all reasonable steps to
remedy them in the direction of an in
creased and effective power of govern
mental supervision and regulation, in
order to meet the argument that gov
ernment ownership is the only cure"
Secretary Taft discussed the deficit
in the revenues and said the republl-
cans must provide a suitable means of
avoiding a real and permanent short
age of cash if next year witnesses a
repetition of the deficit. In this con-
nection he said:
ut may be that congress will sue :
ceed in cutting down here and thera
SO as to reduce the deficit, but the ex-
perience of this last session in which
the greatest effort to economic was
made, gives little hope that If the rev
enues continue at the same figure as
last year. the appropriations may be
cut down to point where no deficit
would exist Are the people in favor
of cutting down the naval or army es-
Inmates? l think hear mo- from one
end of the country to the other Ger
tainly the democratic party heard tina.
mo- in no uncertain tones.
::shall we cut down the pensions.
No party has the hardihood to sug-
| gest that.
There remain two alternatives, either
to impose additional internal taxes or
to readjust and revise the tariff. We
have repealed the war taxes which
afforded a large revenue and the
eight years of the present Dingley
tariff have seen in this country pros
perity never before witnessed in the
civilized world. If the deficit contin-
ues in serious amount then in one
| way or the other, either our taxation
on imports or our internal revenue
system must be changed to meet the