Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1908-07-15
IN FULL RETREAT.

national convention as spectators and
joined il the demonstration in favor Of
President Roosevelt and Senator La
| Toilette must have felt indignant as
| they watched the panic stricken dele
gates running over each other in their
effort 10 get away from the La Toilette
, reforms. some of which had been in
dorsed by the president himself Con-
gresham Cooper of Wisconsin. repre-
seEtinS the La FCllette men, brought
in minority report signed by himself
alone. Fifty-two members of the com
mittee signed the majority report, and
one signed the minority report. The
Republican party will find the ratio OF
/ % TO one a very embarrassing one to
| deal with in the coming campaign. Mr.
Cooper's report contained a declara-
ton in favor OF publicity as to cam
! pai%n funds. 1t was lost by a vote of
| $50 to 81, more than nine TO one. and
yet the president has been advocating
legislation in favor of publicity as to
campaign contributions, and Secretary
Taft wrote a letter to Mr. Burrows ad.
vocating the passage of a publicity
! bill. How fortunate it was that Secre
tary Taft's letter was finally discov-
cred and published! Senator Burrows,
the man to whom the Taft letter was
addressed, was the temporary chair
man of the convention, and the con-
vention over which he presided turned
down the publicity plank by vote of
nine to one! Who will deny that, on
this subject, the Republican party is
retreating?
Another plank of the La Toilette
platform authorized the ascertaining
of the value of the railroads. This
plank was lost by vote of 917 to 63
nearly 10 to one-and yet President
Roosevelt has advocated this very
proposition. Here is a retreat on the
railroad question.
In another column reference is made
to the injunction plank The injunc
ton plank adopted by the Republican
convention is a retreat from the posi-
ton taken by the president and from
the position taken by Secretary Taft
in his speeches. although neither of
them went as far as they ought to have
gone in their effort to prevent what is
known as government by injunction
Here is the third retreat
The president has advocated the in
come tax as a means Of preventing
swollen fortunes and of equalizing the
burdens of government. The Repub-
| lican platform is silent on the sub
ject. Was the president right in the
position he took? If so, then the con-
vention was wrong in not indorsing
him. Will the Republican voters fol-
low the president in this just demand
or will they follow the Republican or
ganization in retreating from it?
The president advocated an inher-
itance tax. but the Republican conven-
ton is silent on that subject. Was the
president ahead of the Republican
party in advocating this reform, or has
the Republican party recedcd from the
presidents position? Did the president
give a false alarm on this question or
has the party sounded a retreat?
In the presidents message to con-
eress last spring he presented an in
! dictment against the conspiracy formed
| among the great lawbreakers to pre-
vent the enforcement OF the law and
to evade the punishments provided by
| law. The platform adopted by the Re-
| publican convention contains no init
nation of danger. If there are any
conSpirscies. the convention did not
see them; if there are any combina-
| tons, it had not heard of them; if
there are any dangers ahead, il was
unconscious of them. Was the presi-
dent mistaken when he issued his de
| fiance, or are the Republican managers
| deceived when they think that an
aroused public will calmly contemplate
the Entertainments of predatory
wealth. This is retreat number six
The convention, by vote of S66 to
| 144-more than seven to one-voted
down the plank in favor of the popular
election of United States senators. 1t
| is true that the president and Secre
tary Taft have never advocated the
| popular election of senators. They
seem to take the Hamiltonian rather
than the Jeffersonian view, but the
most popular reform in the United
States to-day is the reform that has
for its object the election of United
States senators by direct vote. 1t has
| five times been Endorsed by the ma
tional house of representatives-thre
times when the house of representa-.
tives was Republican. 1t has been in
dorsed by nearly two-thirds of the
| states of the union, and there is prob.
ably not state in the union in which
it would not be Endorsed at a popular
election and yet in spite of the record
made in the house of representatives
| and by the various states, this reform
| is rejected by seven-to-one vote in a
| Republican national convention.
There are seven propositions upon
which the Republican party, in ma.
tional convention assembled, has re
treated from the position taken by that
party in congress or from the position
taken BY the president What have