Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-09-18

among the workers at trades. IF every
private enterprise is demanding them
why should the United States be slow
IN dmanding them. 1t ought to be first
but If 1t can not be first, 1t should
reach the point as soon as it can.
.---s----------
SIDE ISSUES.
Cedar Rapids Republican.-No great
er political truth was ever uttered thar
the one voiced by Senator Harlan in
his famous speech before the republi
can convention Of 1898, when he de
clared that the principles of the repub
lican party had never been repudiate6
by the people of the United States. He
then went on to show that up to that
Time republican defeat had come about
only through the subordination OF
broad republican principles, by putting
emphasis upon some specific act Of
legislation, and making that the para
mount issue. He argued that the re
publicans had met defeat in the con
gressional elections of 80 and '92 not
80 much on the protective principle as
on the specific application of that prin
ciple known as the Mckinley law, and
that party defeat had come about in
Iowa because the republicans had tenn
porarily obscured the fundamental
principles of their party by devotion to
policy that was acknowledged to be
no test of party fealty. to-wit: prohi.
bition.
What Senator Harlan said in 1893 is
as true today as 1t was when he utter.
ed 1t. The republican party need not
fear defeat or serious trouble of any
kind so long as the partys principles
are made the issue of campaigns. But
the republican party should understand
1T gets on dangerous ground the min
ute 1t attempts to set up any other
standard or test of party fealty than
devotion to republican principles.
II the republican party in Maine
shall keep on with the present policy
OF making side issues paramount to
general republican principles, 1t will
at no distant day need the services Of
some such man as Senator Harlan was
to call the party back from It's wander
ings in the wilderness-back unto the
highway Of republication. From this
distance 1t looks as though the repub-
licans Of Maine had beeu pursuing
very much the same course the repub-
licans Of this state pursued for eight
or ten years prior to 1893. They have
subordinated the broad principles Of
the republican party to a side issue
prohibition Prohibition is q buzzsaw
that no party can afford to play with,
However satisfactory 1T might be to
have a condition wherein prohibition
might be state wide and feasible pol
Icy for any state, the cold hard facts
are that such situation does not any
where exist, nor is such situation
likely to exist anywhere very soon.
Here in Iowa the republican party
took up prohibition and made 1t an is
sue on the theory 1t was the will of
the majority Of the people deliberately
expressed that this should be done.
But this alleged majority was appar-
ent and not real. Prohibition was used
as wedge to split the republican par
ty from the moment 1t was first in
troduced. The democrats by thou
sands, under instructions from the
leaders, voted for the prohibitory
not because they favored
prohibition, but in spite of the fact
That they were violently opposed to 1t.
In order, as some of them have since
confessed, Ito put the republican par.
ty In hole" The democrats who 80
voted accomplished their purpose;
they did put the republican party in
this state in hole, and but for the
TACT that the party in 1893, needing the
voice OF Harlan, abandoned this side
ssue and hurried back to the broad
highway of republicanism, that hole
would have kept getting deeper and
deeper until the party would have
been lost to sight and sound.
The republicans of Maine have had
sufficient warning. Their candidate for
governor who personified the prohibi
Ion side issue has been elected by
he smallest plurality given a republi-
IAN governor In twenty years. The
republican majorities in all the con-
sressional districts have been reduced
rom fifty to seventy-fve per cent, and
many legislative districts formerly
epublican, and still republican on any
cal test Of republican principles, have
lected democrats. If this warning is
lot needed 1t may be confidently ex-
'ected that at the next election the
Id pine tree state will go over bag and
aggage to the democratic party, Just
s Iowa did In the latter sos as the
My means available whereby prohibit
lon can be gotten rid Of.
Prohibition is only one of several
ide issues. There are other questions
hat come up periodically, which are
My less vexatious and dangerous,
10 political organization ever had
lore splendid set of principles, or
rinciples more easily defended than
nose Of the republican party Stand
lg unitedly by these principles the {
epublican party always has been in.
inc1ble. When the party departs !
ON these principles and takes up :
ome narrow outside question, it is not
lvincible, not even in its strongholds I
A COLLEGE JOURNALIST. $