The daily sentinel., 1908-06-18

rear dller year, rlulnS the saddle by
night and by day. his sword was
dark he kept the fires lighted upon
the hills; when the people wearied
| his strong arm was about them.
''Behold the harvest! In Wiscon-
sin we have real primary law, truth
lives. and the people rule. In Wis
consin our railroads pay their equit-
able share of the public burdens. We
inauaurated, in the Prudential and
Equitable Life suits, the first rebel
lion against the insurance abuses in
this country. We have complete
civil service law and the spOils sys-
TEN has vanished. We regulate our
raiIroat.s and our public service cor
poratEons completely in matters of
rates and service. We have outlined
the Legislative lobby. We have aboI-
ished the bribery of free passes. We
determine the selection of our United
States senators by popular vote. We
have entered upon the conservation
of our mines, and our forests, and our
water powers. Not property or
personal right has been un.justly in
vaded or conffscated. -. -. ....
But over and above all this, he has
builded his genius and his person.
ality into every beam and pillar"
of our government and the flag is
brighter in Wisconsin. These re-
forms are the labor of his hands.
/ We point to the most perfect system
of constructive legislation written on
the books of any state in the union.
The Wisconsin idea-the restoration
of government to the peoples to-
day an uplifting force under every
commonwealth in this republic.
| From the beginning his life and
hDan a f1i N q
miracle, marked all the way by the
shining towers of truth. Again and
again. confronted with the alterna-
tive of comprise or temporary defeat,
he accepted temporary defeat leading
- Ultimate triumph, believing with
Emerson that there is no peace save
in the triumph of principles.
/ "TO those who call him radical
our reply is that the radicals today
are the blind, without perspective,
who will not see that the demands of
conditions have Outstripped the re-
lief of legislation, and who Obstruct
the passage of such necessary relief.
Our further answer is that no
propaganda was ever announced In
his career which has not been justi-
fled by the course of events and to-
day in Wisconsin no man asks for
the repeal of letter of the laws
written upon the books through his
labor and genius. We have never
marched to Moscow, have never
struck our colors, and we have never
sounded a retreat.
"The meaning of conservatism has
been prostituted to mean stagnation.
The country demands progressive
conservative man, who, planting the
flag further and yet further forward,
until justice shall come into its own
and the spirit of American institu-
tions be vindicated.
Eve offer him here. l have seen
him in the fray, with jaw set, his eyes
blazing. his whole figure instinct with
indominatable energy for the justice
of his cause. Man of battle, unpar-
alelled in the history of American
politics. fighting the cause of the
Icommon people, his sword ringing
upon the armor of his enemy, neither
asking nor giving quarter. Call him
ambitious, call him hypocrite, call
him dcmagOgue, all familiar words III
the vernacular of his enemies, but
call him what you will, he will live
in memory as the most splendid type
of fighting citizens which this gener-
alton has given to the republic.
Continuing, the speaker declared
that the country demands progress
sive, conservative man, who will
fight early and late for the rights of
the people. He sounded a warning
| as to what would come, If there is
not change in the governments re-
lations to the great trusts and
merger.
He then declared that while the
battle ragged in Wisconsin, the ma
tional party slumbered. He declared
that Robert NJ. LaFollette is the ideal
successor of Theodore Roosevelt. He
then spoke of the senator's brilliant
record in congress, and, in closing his
speech. he said:
| "The successor of Theodore Roose-
welt should be a man who is neither
| a rampant radical nor a cowardly
| conservative, but a man strong to
understand, fearless to execute. and
| just to conserve the honest rights of
all. He must be a man big enough
| to comprehend the producers right
of protection from the tariff, but who
| shall never forget the consumers
right to protection from extortion;
| big enough to secure fair rates from
public service corporations, and yet
not foreclose their healthy extension:
big enough to extend encourag cement
| to our new possessions, but to re-
strain the country from a career of
absolute imperialism: big enough to
protect honestly acquired wealth. but
to destroy Industrial piracy. He must
be man whose faith in the hewers
of wood and drawers of water is
elemental and profound and who
deems their rights to be as sacred
as the rights of the captain of in
dustry, and not one in whom this
sense is recently acquired or culti-
waited.
I'VE believe that the pioneer in
this movement who was good enough
to break the stubborn soil and plant