Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-18

tremes threatened on either hand On
the one side were the radicals of re-
action, who resisted any change at all;
on the other side were the radicals OF
destruction who wished to change
everything. These two forms of rad
icalism are as far apart at the outset
as the poles, but, when carried out,
they lead alike to revolution. Between
these two extremes the Republican
president and the Republican congress
were compelled to steer and While
they advanced steadily, soberly and
effectively, they were obliged to repel
the radical, assaults on either hand.
Money Does Not Dominate Govern
ment.
Yet, Notwithstanding all these diff
ficulties, much has been accomplished.
The response of the people to the poll
cies urged by the president, has been
so emphatic that it has been made
clear, once for ALL that the govern
ment of the United States is never to
be dominated by money and financial
interests, and that the political party
which permits itself to be ruled by
them is thereby doomed to defeat.
The policy Of the Republican party,
in dealing with these new and formid-
able questions which have taken con-
crete form in enormous combinations
of capital and in great public service
corporations, has been formulated and
| determined. That policy is to use
government regulation and super
vision for the control of corporations
and combinations so that these great
and necessary instruments Of COM
merce and business may be preserved
as useful servants and not destroyed
because they have threatened to be-
| come dangerous masters.
This policy is the absolute opposite
of government ownership and all like
measures, advocated by our opponents
which tend directly to Socialism and
to all it's attendant miseries and evils.
1t is in pursuance Of this policy
shaped and settled, during the past
! few years, that old laws have been
| inforced and new ones enacted.
Nothing is more destructive to the
respect for law-the chief bulwark Of
civilized society-than to place laws
upon the statute book in order merely
to still public clamor and satisfy the
people but which it is never intended
to inforce The worst laws imaginable
are those which are allowed to rust,
unused, because, If enforced, they
might interfere with vested abuses or
curb the rich and powerful.
The president has enforced the laws
as he found them on the statute
book For this performance of his
sworn duty, he has been bitterly at
tackled 1t was to be expected. Vested
abuses and profitable wrongs cry out
loudly when their entertainments are
carried, and some one is sure to be
hurt when the bayonets Of the law are
pushed home In the great American
Electorate, money has few votes but
It can command voices and cause
/ many birds to sing The result is that
the president is the best abused and
the most popular man in the Uuited
States today. He has been more
abused than any president except
Washington, Lincoln and Grant. He
possesses the love and confidence OF
the American people to a degree never
eoualed except by Lincoln and Wash
ington May it not be said, in sober
; truth. that the fearless performances
of a sworn duty is not without its
exceeding great reward?
Work Does Not Stop With Enforce
n1ent of Laws.
But the work has not ceased with
the enforcement of existing laws. a
, Republican congress and a Republic
can president have placed new laws
upon the statute books, designed tc
, carry out the Republican policy OF
government regulation in safe, rea-
sonable and effective manner. The
Elkins law, aimed at preferential re.
bates, which have been the curse o
tnfj h111 inc
, the railroad rate law, which made the
: supervision Of railroads more effectiv,
and the pure food law, which has been
in the highest degree, beneficent tc
the masses of our people, are al
; monuments of the policy and the
{ labors of the Republican party.
, The president. who has led his part,