The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-24

Senator John w. Daniel in Harper's
 Weekly.
 You ask me to answer a question. l make the effort to do so with dihi- dence, for l do not pose myself as any Moses to lead the people out of the wilderness. Yet I am one of the peo- pie, and if I have a conviction l am so constituted that I am apt to state 1t.
 Democracy is generally too diffusive. and has often had too much platform and tried too hard to please everybody Few realize that it is easier to say too much than too little. Washington spoke little, but did much. Jefferson spoke scarcely at all, but he did much also. Neither Madison nor Monroe was a great speaker. but they shaped sys- tems and events. What we need, as think, is a commons sense. plain which vii stop when it gets through If the Democratic convention of 1908 goes Democratic 1t is not unlikely that the country may also go Democratic persiflage. the voters will be likely to act accordingly, and go in all direc- tions.
 Now as to your question. What Democratic campaign should be based!
 I venture to answer: The purpose of getting together the voters or the United States to assert the plain anu simple Democratic creed that this IS government of the people; that the highest and plainest duty of govern. ment is to secure to the people equai rights, and to oppose all monopoies and special privileges.
 The tariff, transportation, the trusts, and centralization are the subjects or public interest and consideration. We need no new issues and no new con stitution of strained constructor. Those who seek to invent new issues and new versions of the Constitution perplex and divert the minds of the people from substantial issues ana Jus. views that exist. It is principles ana not "isms' that Democrats stand Tor, and if you take the compass of sound principle 1t will guide you through the tangles of contention,
 Real issues are made by the people themselves, and grow out of their ne-
 Artificial issues are like artificial flowers. good for nothing except Ill the gaslight.
 As to the tariff, reform 1t for the purpose of making it in the interest of the people instead of the interest or monopoly, and the interest of domestic development instead of foreign oeVei- opment as 1t now is in many eases: the laborers', and the builders tools can be bought in South America ana South Africa at cheaper rates tnan here at the very doors of the American taCIOTY folly to claim that our farmers, car penters, laborers and builders, ana our people generally are 'prctected thereby. They are simply mulcted. It is an insult to the intellect of men to claim that our myriad consumers are protected" by charging them more for American manufactures than IS charged for the same American, made articles in South America or South Africa-after paying freight to get them there. Only what you would. in the vernacular, call "a sucker could be gulled by such sophistical conten- tion, Be discriminatory and moderate with respect to the tariff. Correct It's errors. lop off its excesses. eliminate its obvious and un-American discrimina- ton. Respect our healthy and honest industries, having tender care for the wages of our workmen, and avoiding the wrecking results of radicalism.
 It is a fact of more than century history that the United States has never had a tariff measure adopted without some protection in 1t; ana that no man was ever elected PresidenI who did not in some particular favor an item or schedule of protection. Look these facts in the face and do not expect to run amuck against every thing that is not in harmony with doe-