The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-06-19

systems which they could not under
stand, but by which the individual
was sacrificed and held down.
The great duty of fulfiIing right
eous demands, like all the great pub
lie services of the last half century,
was imposed upon the Republican
larty, and they have not fiinched from
the burden. Under the lead of the
president, the Republican party has
grappled with the new problems born
OF the new conditions. Dangerous ex-
tremes threatened on either hand. On
the one side were the radicals of re.
action who resisted any change az
all; on the other side were the rad
icais of destruction, who wished to
change everything.
Yet, Notwithstanding all these diff
culties, much has been accomplished.
The response of the people to the poll
cies urged by the president has been so
emphatic that it has been made clear
once for all that the government of
the United States is never to be domi-
mated by money and financial interests
and that the political party which per-
mits itself to be ruled by them is
thereby doomed to defeat.
The policy of the Republican party
In dealing with these new and formid-
able questions which have taken con-
crete form in enormous combinations
OF capital and in great public service
corporations has been formulated and
determined. That policy is to use gov
ernment regulation and supervision
for the control of corporations and
combinations so that these great and
necessary instruments of commerce
and business may be preserved as USE
full servants and not destroyed be-
cause they have threatened to become
dangerous masters.
This policy is the absolute opposite
cf government ownership and all like
measures, advocated by out opponents,
which tend directly to socialism and
TO all its attendant miseries and evils.
The president has enforced the laws
as he found them on the statute book
For this performance of his sworn
duty he has been bitterly attacked.
1t was to be expected. Vested abuses
and profitable wrongs cry out loudly
when their Entertainments are carried,
and some one is sure to be hurt when
the bayonets of the law are pushed
home. In the great American cleo
torate money has few votes, but il
can command many voices and cause
many birds to sing. The result is
that the president is the best abused
and the most popular man in the
United States today. He has been
more abused than any president ex-
cept Washington, Lincoln and Grant.
He possesses the love and confidence
Of the American people to a degree
never equaled except by Lincoln and
Washington. May 1t not be said in
ances of sworn duty is not without
its exceeding great reward?
The Elkins law, aimed at preferen-
tial rebates, which have been the
curse of our transportation and our
business; the railroad rate law, which
more effective, and the pure food
law, which has been in the highest
degree beneficent to the masses of
our people, are all monuments of the
policy and the labors of the Republi-
can party.
The president, who has led his party
in this great work, retires by his own
determination from his high Office on
the Attn of March next. His refusal of
a denomination, dictated by the lofti-
est motives and by a noble loyalty 10
American traditions, is final and ir-
revocable. Any one who attempts to
use his name as a candidate for the
presidency impugns both his sincerity
and his good faith, two of the presi-
dents greatest and most conspicuous
qualities, upon which no shadow has
ever been cast.
But. although the president retires,
he leaves his policies behind him. To
those policies the Republican party
stands pledged. We must carry out
us we have begun, regardless alike of
lhC vi iCoNeich anu thC iou-
icals Of revolution.
We ask for the confidence and sup
port of the American people because
we have met the problems of the day
and have tried patiently to solve them
We appeal for votes and for the power
they confer because we uphold the
presidents policies and shall continue
10 sustain them. We make our APP
peal with confidence because we have
a we'll defined policy and are not, like
our opponents, fumbling in the dark
to find some opinion on something.
We believe in the maintenance Of
law and order and in the support Of
the courts in all their rights and die
nifty. We believe in equal rights for
all men and are opposed to special |
privileges for any. man or any class OF
men, high or low, rich or poor. We,
who established the gold standard,
ere pledged to the cause of the sound
finance. We stand for protection to
American industry and American la
Dor, and we will resist all the as
saults of free trade under whatever
name 1t comes disguised. We will see
to the defense Of the country. We