The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-28

am deeply sensible of the honor
which the Republican National Con-
vention has conferred on me in the
nomination which you formally tend
er. | accept it with full appreciation
OF the responsibility it imposes.
Republican Strength.
Gentlemen, the strength of the re-
publican cause in the campaign at
hand is in the fact that we represent
the policies essential to the reform of
known abuses, to the continuance of
liberty and true prosperity, and that
we are determined, as our platform un-
equivocally declares, to main
tain them and carr them on
For more than ten years this
country passed through an epoch of
material development far beyond any
that ever occurred in the world before
In its course, certain evils crept in.
Some prominent and influential men,
bers of the community, spurred by
financial success and in their hurry
for greater wealth, became unmindful
OF the common rules of business hon
esty and fidelity and of the limita-
tons imposed by law upon their &C
ton. This became known. The rev.
Citations of the breaches of trust, the
disclosures as to rebates and discrimi-
nations by railways, the accommodating
evidence of the violation of the anti
trust law by a number Of corporations,
the overissue of stock and bonds on in
terstate railways for the unlawful en-
riching Of directors and for the pur-
lose of concentrating control of rail-
ways in one management, all quicken
ed the conscience of the people, and
brought on a moral awakening among
them that BODIED well for the future of
the country.
What Roosevelt, Has Done.
The man who formulated the express
sion of the popular conscience and
who led the movement for practical
reform was Theodore Roosevelt. He
laid down the doctrine that the rich
violator of the law should be as amen
able to restraint and punishment as
the offender without wealth and with
out influence, and he proceeded by
recommending legislation and direct
ing executive action to make that prin-
ciple good in actual performance. He
secured the passage of the so-called
rate bill, designed more effectively to
restrain excessive and fix reasonable
rates land to punish secret rebates and
determinations which had been gener
al in the practice of the railroads, and
which had done much to enable unlaw-
full trusts to drive out of business their
supervision of railway transactions
and brought within the operation of
the same statue express companies,
sleeping car companies fast freight and
refrigerator lines, terminal railroads
and pipe lines. and forbade in future
the combination of the transportation
and shipping business under one con-
troll in order to avoid undue discrimi-
nation.
President Roosevelt directed suits to
be brought and prosecutions to be in
stituted under the antitrust law, to en-
force its provisions against the most
powerful of the industrial corpora
IONS. He pressed to passage the pure
food law and the meat inspection law
in the interest of the health of the
public, clean business methods and
great ultimate benefit to the trades
themselves. He recommended the
passage OF a law. which the republican
convention has since specifically ap-
proved, restricting the future issue of
stocks and bonds by interstate rail
ways to such as may be authorized by
federal authority. He demonstrated
TO the people by what he said, by what
he recommended to congress. and by
what he did, the sincerity of his eff
forts to command respect for the law,
to secure equality of all before the law,
and to save the country from the dam
gers of a plotocratic government, to-
ward which we were fast tending In
this work Mr.. Roosevelt has had the
support and sympathy of the republi-
can party, and its chief hope of success
in the present controversy must rest
on the confidence which the people of
the country have in the sincerity of
the party's declaration in it's platform,
that it intends to continue the poll
cies.
Must Secure Progress.
Mr.. Roosevelt has set high the
standard of business morality and ODE
dience to law. The railroad rate bill
was more useful possibly in the imme-
date moral effect of its passage than
even in the legal effect of its very
useful provisions. From it's enact
ment dates the voluntary abandon
ment of the practice of rebates and dis
ordinations by the railroads and the
return by their managers to obedience
to law in the fixing of tariffs The
pure food and meat inspection laws
and the prosecutions directed by the
president under the antitrust law
have had similar moral effect in the
general business community and have
made it now the common practice for
the great industrial corporations to
consult the law with a view of keep
ing within its provisions. It has also
had the effect of protecting and en-
couraging smaller competitive compa-