The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-21


determinations have been actually
abolished. No monopoly of business
in any line is now maintained by a
secret reduction OF freight rates to 1t
which is denied to competitors"
He declared that 'the people have
ruled through the Republican party.
have no hesitation in saying that not
since the beginning of the government
has any other national administration
done so much for the cause of labor
by the enactment of remedial legisla-
ton as Theodore Roosevelt and the
Republican congresses elected and sit
ting during his terms of office"
Other Legislation Needed.
''It is true" he said, shat addition
al legislation is needed to perfect the
machinery for enforcing the principles
laid down by Mr.. Roosevelt and de-
clared in the remedial statutes already
presented.
THE present congress" he said,
has re-enacted the employers liabil-
fly act. has strengthened the safety
appliance act, has passed the govern
ment employees compensation act, has
directed investigation into mine dis
asters and has passed model child
labor bill 1t has not amended the in
terstate commerce law so as to pre-
vent over issue of stocks and bonds on
interstate railroads and it has not
gested by Mr.. Roosevelt"
Great care he said, would be re-
quired in the enactment of additional
legislation, and the fact that the Dem
ocratic party has had but little recent
experience in the responsibilities of
power and but little training in actual
legislation makes the party and its
distinguished leader utterly oblivious
of the necessity for care and caution
in the enactment of statutes which
are to accomplish changes in our So
cial and business relations.
"They seem to have an impression
that an evil which is very insidious
and which is exclusive in it's character
when definite legal description is to
be given of it and heavy penalty is
TO be prescribed for it. may be safely
met by statutory denunciation
or a short period. We have seen
within the short four years of the
present administration such measures
as government ownership of railways,
election of federal judges and national
initiative and referendum proposed as
remedies for our existing evil and now
withdrawn under assurances that
they Will not be again suggested"
Abuses Due to Bad Men.
He declared the Republican party
was not responsible for the abuses he
had described and that ''the evils were
que 10 the 1alllDlllty or human nature
and the willingness of ambitious and
interruptions men to turn an instru-
mentality necessary in human pro-
gress to a vicious purpose" OF all
possible agencies for reform, he said,
the Democratic party under it's pres
ent leadership is the one least entitled
to any credit.
while the resolution in its plat
form in 1896, 1900 and 1904 de-
nounced the abuses of corporate
wealth." he said, they never propose
feasible plans or made prominent
and chief issue of any campaign the
carrying out OF what have now be-
come known and properly known as
the Roosevelt policies. On the contrary
In 1895 the party made the chief is
sue disastrous financial experiment
which would have retarded the pro-
gress of this country a quarter of a
century and sullied its financial honor
In 1900 the party reiterated its ad-
herence to this suicidal policy OF
population OF natural and private
debts and obligations and then ad-
vanced as the paramount issue of the
campaign, not the trusts, not cor
porate wealth and abuses, but rather
the reputation of all our international
responsibilities growing out of the
Standardization war and the de-