The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-05-03
Protection KNIGHT
Secretary Shaw Addresses St.
Louis Republicans.
FAvoRs PARTY LOYALTY
Makes Plain The Manifold Benefits
Of Protection To All Our
People.
st Louis, Mo-, April 90, 1906.

publican CluDS Hon. LeSlle M. SnaW,
Secretary of the Treasury, speaking
on National Issues, this evening, in
part said:
Political parties are indispensable
to republics. Formulated political
principles believed in, we'll defined
and clearly expressed, political policies
adhered to are essential to the per-
petuity and progress of the nation.
Prominent if not paramount among
the political evils which confront us
l count the trend toward the oblitera-
tion of party lines.
The fatal weakness of our political
opponents is their incoherency. They
believe nothing; they teach nothing
they have no plans, no policies, no
purposes. Enough of them believe in
Free-Trade so that their platform in
1892 and..again in 1904 specifically de-
clared that Protection is robbery of
the many for the enrichment of the
few, but sufficient number believe
in Protection, so that the Wilson-G Cor
man law, enacted by Congress elect
ed upon an out-and-out Free-Trade
platform, provided ample Protection
for the iron and steel industry, for
citrus fruits and for a score of
other articles. The law as whole
was as incoherent as the p1rty that
enacted it. 1t was open Free-Trade
here and Protection there. The pledge
of the platform was kept as respects
many industries which were ruined in
an hour, and when some industries are
ruined no amount of Protection will
save others.
A Tariff law to be successful
must be coherent. 1t must
Protect, if you please, as does
the Dingley Tariff law, the man who
grows barley, and it must then Pro-
tect with higher duty the one who
makes malt from barley, and with a
yet higher duty him who makes beer
from malt, with another increase of
duty when bottled. A Tariff law
that is not built upon principle is a
legislative failure, and party COM
posed of men who do not believe in
the principles set forth in their plat
form is a political failure. 1t may be
occasionally successful at the polls.
1t may elect its ticket once in a
while, 1t may now and then dominate
Congress. 1t may at long intervals
place its standard bearer in the White
House, but it can never successfully
manage the affairs of the nation.
Political principles are everything.
Men are nothing.
The leaders of all political parties
are honest, patriotic and high mind
ed. The Democratic party, the Pro-
hibition party, the Socialist party are
each dominated by honorable men.
A few scamps in party, and they
exist in smaller number in all parties
than ever before in our country's
history, do not justify universal con-
demnation, any more than few
scamps in church, and they, too,
exist in smaller number, thank God,
than ever before in the history of the
church, justify its universal condem-
nation. But party that believes
nothing, has no doctrine, is not built
around principle, is as worthless as
church without belief.
| knew one such so-called church in
nv State. 1t was organized by a
very reputable gentleman of the legal
profession, and its absence of belief
was it's boast.
Its doors swung welcome to those
who believed in the divinity of Christ,
and equally wide to those who denied
the miraculous conception. 1t invited
those who believed in the atonement
and those who denied the necessity of
a Redeemer.
Like certain of the opposition par
ties, it sprang up in protest to some
admitted evils and weaknesses of the
churches. 1t was successful for a time
in attracting numbers, and 1T built a
fine edifice, but it died of incoherency,
for it believed nothing, taught moth
ing, had no plans, no politics, no pur-
poses. The eloquence of its founder,
his sweet spirit, the influence OF his
blameless life did not make church.
A church -supposes a belief, and a
political party ought to suppose
some political principles. 1t requires
affirmative plans, affirmative policies.
affirmative aims to carry the nation
forward to higher ideals and to grand
er consummations.
Do not misunderstood me. l am
not advocating adherence to party
because of party name, regardless
of the political principles which it
processes, but loyalty to political
principles because they are believed to
be correct. The independent voter,
. ,,,ho 5000 nothinp in DOlitlCal