The Oskaloosa herald., 1906-10-04

That will be rash question. Mr.
Cannon entered congress In 1873, at
the beginning of Grants second term.
One of the pieces Of Legislation CT tina.
first congress, republican in both
branches, in which Cannon served
was the pas sage of the resumption act
which went into operation in Hayes
time, in 1879, which lifted every dol
lar in the country's currency up to
the 100-cent gold level, and which has
Kept 1t up to the gold line ever since.
Let that democratic demagogue try to
figure out the billions of dollars OF
increased purchasing power which the
resumption act gave to the wages OF
the workingmen of the United States
in the twenty-seven years in which it
has been in operation.
In the third of a century in which
Speaker Cannon has been in congress-
the republican party has adjusted the
tariff to the needs of American labor,
always keeping the interests of the
workingman in mind, and always pro-
tecting him against the cheap labor OF
Europe, as represented by the com
modities which were shut out at our
custom houses in favor of the domes.
tic products. The republicans did
this in the tariff changes which were
made in Grants administration, and
they did it also in the act which A.
thur signed in 1888, in the Mckinney
law which went on the statute book in
1890, in Harrison's days, and in the
Dinsley law, framed soon after Nc.
Kinley entered office in 1897, and
signed hy him. AS in the case of the
specie resumption act, the republicans
had to overcome democratic hostility
in passing these laws, and they had
to defend them against repeated DEM
ocratic attacks. Incidentally too, the
republicans had to repeal one demo
cratic tariff the .Wilson-Gorman
party perfidy and party dishonor"
act--whicn Cleveland denounced and
refused to sign, but which went on the
statutes through the operation of the
ten-day time limitation, Cleveland
declining to veto it, despite his dis
like for it. The republican party, by
its victories in 1896 and 1900, and by
its law of March IA, in the latter
year, prevented Bryan and the demo
Gratis from precipitating the country
to the silver basis, and thus saved the
working people of the country from
having their wages cut in two.
These are only few of the larger
pieces of legislation in the interest of
labor which the republican party has
placed on the statute book in the third
Of a century since Speaker Cannon
entered congress. Gompers and his
fellow-American federation of labor
politicians, when they enter Cannon's
district, will be confronted with this
republican record in favor of the
workingmen of the country. The
same record will hit them when they
I invade the districts of Bartholdt of
Missouri, Jenkins of Wisconsin, Long
worth of Ohio, Sherman of New York,
Hepburn of Iowa, and the rest of the
able and courageous republican con-
gressmen who have been placed on
the federation's black list. This leg
islation is an essential part Of the rec
ord of the republican party, and has
been large factor in the countfy's
prosperity. Let these foes of the re-
publican party try to estimate the ire
mendous advancement which have re-
suited to the workingman by the
homestead act signed by Lincoln in
1862, which has planted millions of
homes throughout the west, which has
created great centers of industry and
which has melted the building of tens
of thousands of miles of railway.
Let them also try to figure the bene-
fit of the laboring man which will
come from the national irrigatian act
of 1902, shaped by Roosevelt and
passed by republican congress. Pos
sibly the demagogues will say that all
this legislation was for the benefit of
the whole country and was not melted
at all by the labor unions. They will
be correct in that deduction. This
legislation was Tor the benent OF all
sorts of workers, of all forms of en-
ployment and of all sections. This is
how the Republican party legislates.
In the Republican party's program of
national betterment there are no lines
of class, section or occupation. The
Republican party legislates for the en-
tire American people. The benefits
of this legislation are felt in the labor
unions as we'll as by the ten times as
many wage-workers outside Of the
unions. Moreover, the American peo-
pie will applaud this action on Nov
ember 6, 1906, by giving the Republic
can party new commission to con-
tinue its good work.