The Penn's Grove record., 1906-08-17
THE NEW IDEA
Equal Rights In Politics

| brains of the independent movement in
the Republican party spoke at WASH
ington Park on Farmers Picnic day
last Wednesday. The Coloy-Record
movement has got as far south as Cam
den county which has been organized
and candidates for the Assembly made.
Mr.. Record gave an interesting talk
| for an hour on the proposed reform
principles in the Republican plrty.
They are new to that party, but as old
as Jeffersonian democracy and some
have been borrowed from the Populists.
He said each generation has its prob
lens to solve. Revolutionary faith
ers had the problem to solve of liberty.
1t took two ge4erations to settle the
slavery question. But for the last sew,
eral years a question greater than slav-
cry had groTn out of the enormous
production of wealth, which brings
blessings to a few and injusticeto many.
The fact fhat wealth is not fairly and
equitab1 divided must be solved.
Therf has grown up a false standard
in COMMERCIAL life. Children are taught
to gef money any how and to honor
thosf who have it. OF course, 10 man
woTd he guilty of telling his son to
gef money at the cost ofbeing honest,
hht, aside from that, as the youth
grows up he finds men blind to all sense
of right and wrong in business dealings
received everywhere with the highest
honors, and the youth naturally thinks
that if great men resort to crooked bu-
siness methods it must be all right, and
nine times out of ten the boy follows in
the footsteps OF the leaders in the mad
rush for riches.
Before a remedy is found it is better
to find the cause. No nal who poss-
esses from one to six hundred millions
never got it honestly. 1t was either
by corruption or unjust laws. Thefor-
tunes of Carnegie and Rockefeller are
all out of proportion to their superior
abilities over other men and were got
by secret rebates so they were freefrOm
competition.
He said | do not accuse Carnegie or
others of being dishonest, but the
abilities of no one man are so much
greater than the farmers as TO permit
them to amass such fortunes. These
fortunes are accumulated by unjust
laws or the b%reakingof the statute or
moral law.
The only way to correct them is to
send men TO the Legislature who will
pass bills. 1t will not do to elect a
good MAJ in place of a bad man. but
elect a mar pledged to an idea.
Legislation is controlled by the cor
porations electing a speaker who APP
points certain men on committees who
withhold certain bills and strangle re-
form legislation. One of the reforms
| needed is to do away with the nomina-
ton of candidates by delegates and
conventions, usually controlled by
bosses and corporations and have nom
nations made directly by the people at
the primaries.
There are two ideas of government;
one that lhe people can be trusted, the
other that they cannot. He believed
the people a be trusted and should
have the right to designate their choice
us to who should be elected u. s. Sena-
tor. A bill was introduced in the leg
islature to that effect last winter but it
never got out of the committee.
The machine picks out the can
didates for the Assembly and Senate
and when elected they choose the man
picked out by the corporations for the
L. S. Senate, so there is no honorable
career for young men to-day who fight
corporations. The same corporation
elected a Republican and Democratic
u. S. Senator from New jersey for
years and he did not believe that any
man who had been U. S. Senator from
New Jersey for the past twenty-five
years who have been elected by a direct
vote of the people.
If you elect men interested in ideas
who Will enact laws to free the people
from corporation control it will bring
g..
into public life a different set of young
men and it will then be an honor to
hold public offices of trust.
Mr.. Record gave a thrust at the new
tax law. He said the equal taxation
law was dishonesty conceived and dis
honestly passed. BY the increase in the
valuations it will be seen in it that the
Railroad Companies will pay no more
taxes than formerly.
George Waite, a candidate of the
Equal Rights Republicans for the AS
sembly in Camden county spoke briefly
and stated that the new ideas in the
Republican Party was to free the peo-
pie from machine rule. The favored
direct nominations by the people; the
Initiative and Referendum; election of
U. 5. Senators by direct vote of the
people.
West Jersey Wages Raised
As the result of various conferences