The Adair County news., 1907-10-30

joyed himself more than / have dur
ing the last two years. For now
something like seventeen years have
been laboring in behalf Of certain re-
forms, and those reforms are dearer
to me than anything else Of politi-
cal nature that my country can give.
have watched the growth of these
reforms as day by day they have de-
veloped, and just as the farmer goes
out and rejoices in the growth and
development of the crop on his farm.
have watched with delight the
growth and development of these re-
forms, and in the last two years / have
seen these reforms indicated. not
only by events, but even by the con-
LESSONS of Republicans; and these
reforms have at last grown so strong
that they have compelled a Republi-
can president to acknowledge the
need of several other reforms for
which we have been contending, and
ethers will compel the acknowledg.
ment of Republicans before long.
Let me give you four Of these re-
forms that have become so strong
that a Republican president has ad.
mitted the correctness Of our posi-.
ton. Take in the first place the en-
forcement of the law against the
trusts. What a time we have had
convincing some of the people that
the trusts are an evil. | remember
that in our fight on this subject there
were lots of Republicans who were
deluded with the idea that about all
the good that this country enjoys has
come in some way mysteriously from
the trusts, and whenever we said any
thing in regard TO the Standard Oil
trust there was always some Republi-
can who would stand on the street
corners and tell us that it was the
Standard Oil trust that had cheaper
ed the price Of oil. But there is not
Republican now to make that ar
gument, even in back alley.
There were many who thought that
these great trusts were beneficent in
situations, and they were praising
them as If all blessings flowed from
them; but, my friends, in the last few
years they have come to believe, as
Democrats have long insisted, that
the penitentiary is not too good a
place for the trust magnate who con-
spires against the welfare of 80,000,-
900 people, and this sentiment has
grown so strong that not only does
the president say that the enforce
ment of the criminal law would be a
good thing, but as an illustration of
the vast growth-of the tremendous
increase of this sentiment, even Sec
rotary Taft = even Secretary Taft
Qaughter)-has reached the point
where he now admits 3hat it might be
good thing to put one or two trust
magnates in the penitentiary. While
they will admit that it might be good
to put one or two in, the rest of the
people will go far enough to believe
that all of them should be put in. So
that when the president takes an ad-
vanced position on the trust question,
he steps on Democratic ground.
The people praise him for what he
has done in the matter of railroad
regulation, but where did he get his
inspiration? In a Republican plat
form? You read in vain the Republi-
can national platform to find it there,
and if you look in that hated and de-
spised Chicago platform, you will find
the authority for railroad regulation
that the president has at last accept
ed. If you look in the platform of
1900 written at Kansas City, you will
find 1t again, and even at st. Louis,
while we Quarreled over a good many
questions, we wrote that plank into
that platform, and it was our third
national platform that demanded this
reform; and when the president
stepped out and advocated this, he
had to step onto Democratic ground
But let no Republican find fault with
the president because he stands on
Democratic ground on some of these
questions, for he could not go before
you without entrenching on Democrat
ic ground, for we pre-empted all the
ground in front several years ago.
Some of the Democrats have even re-
scented the manner in which the pres
ideht has endorsed some Democratic
ideas, but l do not resent it, for our
ideas were presented to the public
for adoption and our ideas are good
enough to be adopted not only by
Democrats, but by Republicans, and
my regret is not that the president
has adopted some of them, but my
regret is that he has not adopted
more, and that he has not carried the
conclusions that he has adopted fur
Their. When l think of the president
and some of the Democratic things
he has done, | am reminded of some
thing said by Peter Cartwright. A
man asked him if he was sanctifed,
a.