The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-18
SENATOR LODGE SPEAKS
 AS CHAIRMAN AT CHICAGO

I history. Nearly two thousand years | ago the tax farmers of Rome formed a | trust for their own profit and pro-
 tection; the English people. three cen | turtles ago. revolted against the pat | ents and monopolies granted by Eliza | beth and James to their courtiers and monopoiists. forestallers and specula- | tors in the necessities of life were l curse in our revolution and bitterly de- | nounced by Washington. Yet 1t is none the less true that the same things l today present questions different in kind as well as in degree from their | predecessors.
 Tt Is the huge size of private for modern 1assi % combInations sh of % capitsi' " made | possible by present conditions. which have brought upon us. In these later | years. problems .portentous In their our social and political welfare, but | even our personal Freedom. if they are not boldly met and wisely solved. The great body of the American | people neither very rich nor very poor, | the honest the thrifty. the hardwork- ing. the men and women who earn ana hatred of wSalth. whether individual ar corporate. If 1t has been honestly gained and is wisely and generously employed with sense of responsloili- l,, of our people. by habit and instinct alike. wisely conservative, these .peo- pie. who are the bone and sinew of our
 
 and it's safety rest began to observe, l with deep alarm, the recent manifes- | tatlons of the new economic condi-
 More and more they came to believe | that these vast fortunes and these | huge combinations of capital were
 rmed and snt an9 n5 SyroSgh sy cyn | cal disregard of the very laws wnicn | the mass of the people were compelled to obey. They began to fear that p9- | litIcal power was being reft from their hands and put into the possession oI | the money holders. that their dearest l rights were in danger, that their hopes | off by business systems which they | could not understand but which the | individual was sacrificed ana heid
 Advocates of violence. "To those who looked beneath the | surface and ominous unrest was ap parent The violent counsels of violent | men who aimed at he destruction of property and the overthrow oI iaM' began to be heard and harkenea . .o, The great order-loving. industrious masses of the American people tnrned away from these advocates or violence | but at the. same time. demanded that 1 their government should give them, m | lawful, and reasonable ways, the pro lection to which they were entitled. against the dangers they justiy appre- | hended.
 righteous demands. like all the great | public services of the last half century. was imposed upon the Republican party and they have not fltnched from the burden. Under the lead of the Presi- dent. the Republican party, has grap.. pied with the new problems, born oI the new conditions. It has been no light task. Dangerous extremes threatened on either band. On the one l side were the radicals of reaction, Who l resisted any change at all on the otner side were the radicals or StIsl des.ruSettIon These two forms of radicalism are as far apart at the outset as the poles. but when carried out. they. lead alike 10 tremes the Republican President and l the Republican Congress were com pelIed to steer and while they advanced 1 steadily soberly and effectively, they were obliged to repel the radical as- saults on either hand.
 l RegulntiOn of Corporations.
 Yet. notwithstanding all these oIL ficulties much has been accomplisheA. The response of the people to the poll cies urged by the President has peen so emphatic that 1t has been made clear.
 once for all, that the Government or the United States is never to be doml-
 mated by money and financial inter
 ests, and that the political party which
 permits itself to be ruled py them IS
 thereby doomed to defeat.
 "The policy of the Republican Par
 ty in dealing with these new and for
 midaole q&uestions quest nrrlo,,s wnrTn n9s combinaa
 tions of capital and in great public ser i vice corporations, has been Iormulateo
 and determined. That policy IS to use
 government regulation and supervision
 for the control of corporations ana
 combinations so that these great ana
 necessary instruments of commerce ana
 business may be preserved as userul
 servants and not destroyed because they
 have threatened to become 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 its attendant miseries- and eviis.
 Tt is in pursuance of this policy,
 shaped and settled, during the past rev
 years, that old laws have been enforced 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 staute book in order merely people but which it is never intended to enforce The worst laws imaginable
 are those which are allowed to rust. might interfere with vested abuses or
 curb the rich and powerful.
 Enforcement of Laws.
 ''The President has enforced the laws For this performance of his sworn duty. he has been bitterly attacked
 It was to be expected. Vested abuses
 and profitable wrongs cry out loudly
  and some one is sure to be hurt when the bayonets of the law are pushed home.
 Tn the great American electorate, money has few votes but 1t can com mand many voices and cause many
 birds to sing. The result is that the
 President is the best abused and the 7 most popular man in the United States today. He has been more abused than any President except Washington, Lin-
 coin and Grant. He possesses the love | a nf American DRODIe to a degree never equaled except by Lincoln and Washington May it not be said in sober truth. that the fearless , performances of a sworn duty is not without it's exceeding great reward? "But the work has not ceased with . the enforcement of existing laws. A Republican Congress and a Republican President have placed new laws upon
 the statute books, designed to carry out the Republican policy or govern ment regulation in a safe, reasonable and effective manner. The Elktns law, aimed at preferential rebates,
 which have been the curse of our trans
 portation and our business; the Rail vision of railroads more effective and
 the Pure Food Law, which mas been,
 in the highest degree, beneficient to
 the masses of our people, are all monu-
 ments of the policy and the labors of
 the Republican Party.
 Tribute to Roosevelt.
 The President. who has led his
 party and the people in this great