Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-04-21

and the commission became Instant
| ly a mere ornament upon the body
polite, without effective power, with
| out serious influence. Freely admit
ting that others began this crusade
before 1 did, it is still true that
when | entered public life in 1900,
began the campaign which I have
continued ever since. In the first
speech that 1 rnade l attempted to
awaken the people of this state to
the Importance of granting to the in
| terstate commerce commission the
power to fix a railway rate and thus
protect d defenseless people. And
l continued to do this. In 1900, in
| 1901, in 1902, in 1903, in company
| with that distinguished citizen of
the state to whom my friend, your
| chairman has referred, man who,
altho it is invidious to bring him
into comparison with any other where
there are so many entitled to great
credit, man who in my opinion has
done more to throw protection and
guard and safety around the people of
this commonwealth than any other
man in all its his tory, mean Governor
William Larrabe,e of Clermont. In COM
pany with him l went to ST. Louis as a
member of the interstate commerce
congress, the object Of which was to
create sentiment that would demand
the congress of the United States this
extension Of the power Of the inter-
state commerce commission; and while
I CHI fod
a member Of the committee to visit
Washington to urge upon our congress
the necessity of this extension of power
on the part of the commission. l did
visit Washington in the winter Of
1904 and did what little could to
enforce my views upon the committees
of that tribunal y do not desire to
harrow your feelings, I do not desire
to increase criticism and therefore
will content myself by saying that
met and our committee met with scant
courtesy from the organized tribunals
of the congress of the United States. I
came back home and I continued that
crusade and there is hardly a county
in this state in which did not attempt
to stir up the people to the importance
of this deform and this amendment to
the law.
Believes in Protection.
"No more profound believer in the
Justice and Importance Of the doc
trine of protection lives than I.
was born in an atmosphere that
would have stifed the first breath
Of a free trader. believe, and al
ways have since first 1 could think
}bo of oil W.
cry competitive commodity produced
by American hands upon the Amer
lean farm, in the American work.
shop, in the American factories any
where, there should be an import
duty that WOULD give our producers
the first and best chance in the Amer
lean market. I believe that the meas
ure of that protection should be the
difference between the cost of pro-
ducing the commodity here and pro-
ducing it elsewhere. And you can
imagine the delight, for / am not
an envious man, am not jealous
Of other men - you can imagine the
delight that felt when a convention,
republican convention, lately as
sembled in Des Moines, not domi-
mated by the friends of this dis
turber, but dominated by other in
fluences, declared that the first duty
Of the republican party after the in
auguration Of the next republican
president was TO revise the tariff
schedules Of the United States. Gap
plause.)
"If it was good republication the
other day in Des Moines, If it was
good republicanism in Ohio when the
republicans of that state commended
to us her valiant son who has found
favor in the eyes of our people; If it
was good republication in Illinois I'M
der the leadership of that prince Of
standpatters, Joe Cannon, the other
day, to declare that it was the duty Of
republicans to see to it that our sched-
ules should not be made the shelter
for monopoly, then tell me, will you,
why it was unsound republication to
advocate these reforms in 1902, in 1903,
in 1904, and in 1905? Remember that
in all these campaigns I was appealing
to republicans, I was appealing to
their judgment, was appealing to
their sense of duty, I was asking for
republican revision from a republican
standpoint, preserving in its full vigor