River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-10-29
DEMOCRACY VERSUS
FREE DELIVERY.
Rejected Beneficial Measures and
Enacted Disastrous Legislation.
a Trinity of Benefcent Republican
Laws-Free Homeste ads-Na-
tional Irrigation-Free
Delivery.


record as having strenuously opposed
establishment Of rural free delivery
service on the ground that it was abb
Bolutely impracticable and too eXpen-
siye to meet Democratic appreciation.
Yet the only time this same Democratic
party has held the reins Of power dur
ing the past fOrty-fve years, it in
creased the national debt at the rate of
half million dollars a day during it's
entire term Of office, and each day we
lost a half million dallars in foreign
trade. The value of farm products de-
creased more than five hundred million
dollars.
Disastrous Democratic Regime.
The business Of this nation, in two
months after the enactment of the Will
son law decreased six per cent. Banks
closed their doors, business houses as
signed, the balance of trade was
against us. We had deserted mills,
smokeless factories, silent machinery.
We had tramps and beggarS and indus
trial armies and starving women and
children. In the midst Of plenty, with
bountiful crops rotting unharvested in
the fields at Il million hearthstOnes sat
Famine, pitiless and cruel! 1t shut
the door of industry and clothed labor
III rags.
1t fought under the dishonOred ban
ner of free silver. 1t subscribed to the
drveling stupidity that a nation can
create values by law, that the govern
ment could stamp a lie upon fifty cents
worth of silver and make it a dollar. 1t
opposed keeping our flag in the Orient
and advocated that it be lowered in re-
treat and trailed in the dust Of dis
honor. And yet this same party which
has not learned anything or forgotten
anything in fifty years, opposed the eX-
tension of the rural free delivery serv-
ice on the ground of expense.
People Coming Into Their own.
At least 60 per cent of our people
are so situated as to be served success
fully by the rural delivery service.
They and their fathers have been the
pioneers of this country, in blazing
the trail of civilization and in subju-
eating the land for the benefit of all
the people. They are the legitimate
heirs to all the benefits this govern
ment can legally and consistently be-
stow upon them They are the natural
beneficiaries of three of the greatest
pieces of Republican legislation known
TO recent American history-that trim
ity of laws looking toward the creation
and development of homes on the pub
lie domain for all who wish them
the homestead law, the national irriga-
tiOn law, and the establishment of a
rural free delivery. Each and all of
these have been fought by the Demo
cratic party and in after years two of
these measures have been claimed by
that party as it's offspring. 1t is more
than probable that before the eXpira-
ton of another fifty years, the Demo
cratic party will claim the credit for
having established rural free delivery.
Democrncy's ''IIind-Sfght."
The party's remorse over it's repeated
failures and it's attempt to deceive
the people sometimes comes to the sur
face and appears i'll more or less pitt
full light. For instance, at all modern
Democratic conventions the Democrats
show their veneration for the memory
of Abraham Lincoln. Although while
he yet lived. while is was doing the
deeds for which they now praise him,
the Democratic party, north and south,
exhausted the vocabulary of vitupera
tion in traducing and maligning and
reviling him. They praised the great
Mckinley only after his death. The mo-
tive in such cases may be appreciated
while the morals of a political party
which seeks to have its former Opposi-
ton to a public measure forgotten in
the loud clamor of its present appro-
baton, cannot be approved.
Republicans TO Perfect the Work.
The rural delivery service will be
continued under succeeding Republican
administrations until it will be fully
provided for the entire United States.
1t drives home the impression upon our
people that this great government care
fully looks after their individual inter-
eStS and personal convenience as far as
possible Through this service the gov
eminent delivers at the doors of rural
citizens their mail as promptly and
conveniently as it delivers the same to
the residents of cities. The service is
one of the greatest means for the dis
seminatiOn of knowledge and informa-
tion to the people of the country they
have ever enjoyed. BY it they are en-
abled to keep in touch with the markets
of the country and with current events
iii all parts of the world. 1t has ripened
into a permanent service which will
continue to improve and eventually
reach the door of the humblest citizen
in its growing benefits.
Many Benefcent Results Follow.
1t has removed the nightmare of
loneliness and of isolation from the
country and brought to it many of the
benefits of city life. 1t has allayed the
spirit of discomfort and restlessness
which drove many of the better class
of young people to the cities. 1t has
appealed to the densely populated cities
whose noXious atmosphere hastens the
dread disease of tuberculosis and in
duced them to raise the cry of, Back
to the land. back to nature and move
out upon the extended plains. peaceful
valleys and the inviting plateaus of the
country
Rural free delivery. the national
irrigation act and the government
homestead law are the three jewels of
legislation in the crown of the Republi-
can party. whose chiefeSt and priceless
gsn, is its abolition of human slavery.