Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-06-18


tt.tRi<en frota,.taass ranks of men and cam
not be the floating phantoms of an I'M
easy dream The American people
must choose next November between
us and the Democratic party With
the Democratic party. and with that
alone, must the comparison be made
We differ from that party in some i'm
pcrtant particulars. We both it is
true, have a past and a history but we
treat those possessions very different
ly. They wish to keep their past
profound secret. We seek by all means
to publish ours 10 the world. If we
refer to their history they charge us
with calumny. We regard ours, truth
full and undistorted, as our greatest
glory. To the youth of the country
they say-"Judge us solely by our I'M
discovered 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-" Recall the cries which
| have sounded from the lips of these
two parties during the last half GEN.
fury. On the one Sidc-"SlaVery, Sc
cession, Reputation of the public debt,
fiat money, free trade, free silver, the
overthrow of the courts and govern
ment ownership"
On the Republican side, Free SOIL
free men, the Union, the payment of
the debt honest money. protection to
American industry. the gold industry,
the maintenance of law of order and
of the courts and the government
regulation of great corporations The
n oh of
today the epitaphs of policies which
[ are dead and damned. They serve only
to remind us of dangers escaped or to
warn us of Derils to be stunned. The
battle cries of the Republicans have
been the watchwords of great causes.
They tell Of victories won and tri-
umphs tastad--they are embodied in
the laws and mark the stepping stones
by Which the Republic 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 Re-
publican party has never failed ex-
cept when it has faltercd. Our long
career of victory, so rarely broken
| has been due to our meeting boldly
each question as it arose, to our fac
ing every danger, as it crossed our
| path, with entire courage, fearless of
consequences and determined only to
| he true to the principles which brought
the party into existence and to the
spirit which has inspired it from it's
birth.
| We faced secession rather than assent
| to the extension of slavery. Rather
| than submit to secession we took UP the
dread burden of Civil war. But a few
| years ago we permitted thousands of
| Republicans to leave us, thereby i'm
periling our political power rather than
abandon the gold standard and plunge
the country into disaster and dishonor.
| In these latest years, as in the most
remote, we have been true to our tradi-
tiOrs. In the process of development
Il point was reached where the country
was confronted by a situation more
perlous than any it has ever faced eX-
cept in the Civil war and we Republi-
cans We're, therefore, obliged to deal
with problems Of the most complex
and difficult character.
shrunll from the task. Much has been
Gone,-much, no doubt. still remains to
do-but the great underlying principles
Rave been established and upon them
we can build, as necessity arises, care
fully and deliberately.
have spoken of the seriousness of
the situation with which the country
was confronted. Its gravity can hard
| 7
conditions and was the result of forces
beyond the control of men. Science
and invention, the two great factors in
| this situation, have not only altered
radically, human environment and our
relations to nature, but, in their appli-
cation, they have revOlutioniZcd econ
omic conditions. These changed econ
omic conditions have, in turn, affected
profoundly society and politics. They
have led, among other things, to COM
binations of capital and labor on a
scale and with n power never before
witnessed. They have opened the way
to accumuations of wealth in masses
beyond the dreams of avarice and new
err before contemplated by men.
The social and political problems thus
created, are wholly new. 1t is a falla-
cy to suppose that because the ele-
ments are old the problem itself must,
therefore. differ only in degree from
those which have gone before. The Gle
ments may be old but the problem pre-
scented by change in the proportion
of the elements may be, and, in this
case is. entirely new.
Great individual fortunes and rich
men are, it is true, as old as recorded
history. Nearly two thousand years
ago the tax farmers of Rome formed a
Trust" for their own profit and pro-
lection; the English people, three GEN.
turtles ago, revolted against the patents
ana monopoies granted by Elizabeth
and James to their courtiers and mo-
nOpolist fcrestallers and SPECTATORS in
the necessities of life were a curse in
our revolution and bitterly denounced
| hy Washington. Yet, it is none the
| less true that the same things today
| present questions different in kind as
we'll as in degree from their predeces-
| SorS.
1t is the hugh size of private for