The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-06-17
DWELLS UPON THE NATIONS GREAT QUESTIONS
Lauds Roosevelt and the Square DEAR Principles in
Great OratorCa Efort.-DecIares Government Will
Never Be Ruled by Selfish Corporation Interests as
Tong as Republicans Are in Power.

thank you most sincerely for the great
honor you have done me in choosing
me to preside over your deliberations
for it is a great honor to be the pre-
siding officer OF a republican national
convention. | can conceive of conven
tions-I have, indeed, heard of con
yentions-where the honor of such q
post as that now occupied by me is du
bious and where if excitement is
present, pleasure is conspicuous by its
absence. But to be the presiding Of
ficer of republican convention is ever
a high distinction to which no man
can be insensible. Gentlemen Of the
convention, again | thank you.
l shall not delay or detain you with
many words. Your resolutions will
set forth the principles of the party
and declare the policies upon which
we shall ask for the support Of the
people of the United States With full
ness and with eloquence, your tenn
porary chairman has already reviewed
the history of the party, has given you
account of what has been done and has
set forth what we hope and mean to
DO. My duty is merely to aid you,
SO far as | can, in the orderly and
prompt transaction of the business
which has brought us together. That
business is Notwithstanding less
than to name here the two men who,
speaking with the simplicity of truth,
will be the next president and vice
president of the United States. In
order to win for them and for our par
ty, an assured as we'll as a merited vic
tory, we must defeat our opponents,
whose exclusion from power is desired
by the country and desirved by them.
No political party in modern times
can show such a record of achievement
during the last fifty years as the re-
publican party. Upon that record we
stand and challenge all corners to the
lists. But 1t is well to remember that
the test we have to meet is much less
severe. This is a comparative world.
We do not go forth to contest the great
prize with an ideal party, which we
sometimes see beautifully depicted by
persons of self-confessed superiority
and chronic discomfort. The glitter
ing abstraction which they present
never existed yet on sea or land. 1t
CLEANS upon us in printers ink, but it
has neither substance nor organization
nor candidates, for organizations and
candidates must be taken from the
ranks Of men and can not be the float
ing phantoms of an uneasy dream. The
American people must choose next
November between us and the demo-
cratic party. With the democratic
party and with that alone, must the
comparison be made. We differ from
that party in some important particu-
lars. We both, it is true, have past
and history, but we treat those pos
sessions very differently. They wish
to keep their past a profound secret.
We seek by all means to publish ours
to the world. If We refer to their his
tory they charge us with calumny. We
regard ours, truthful and undistorted,
as our greatest glory. To the youth
of the country they say: Judge us
solely by our undiscovered future"
We say: Read our record. judge us by
our past and our present, and from
these learn what we are, what we have
been and what we mean to be-" Re-
call the cries which have sounded from
the lips of those two parties during
the last half century. On the one side
Slavery secession. Reputation of
the public debt, fiat money. free trade,
free silver. the overthrow of the
courts, and government ownership"
On the republican side-'FTee soil,
free men, the Union. the payment of
the debt, honest money, protection to
American industry, the gold standard,
the maintenance of law. of order and
of the courts, and the government
regulation of great corporations"
The old shibboleths of the democrats
are today the epitapha of policies
which are dead and damned. They
serve only to remind us of dangers es-
capped or TO warn us of perils to be
stunned. The battle cries of the re-
pablicans have been the watchwords
of great causes. They tell of victories
won and triumphs tasted: they are
embodied in the laws and mark the
SASiiSN ny WHICH inc IepubiII
has risen to ever greater heights of
power and prosperity.
As we thus call up the past and the
echoes of these old conflicts again
sound in our ears and touch the
chords of memory, one great fact
stands forth clear and shining. The
republican party has never failed ex-
cept when it has faltered Our long
career of victory, so rarely broken,
has been due to our meeting boldly
each question as it arose. to one fac
ing every danger as it crossed our
path with entire courage. fearless of
consequences and determined only to
be true to the principles which
brought the party into existence and
to the spirit which has inspired it from
its birth. We faced secession rather
than assent to the extension of slav-
cry. Rather than submit to secession