Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-10-19
NATIONAL POLITICS
The RESULT MAY Hinge ON LA.
Dor Vote.
Injunction Record Of Taft the Weak
Spot In His ArmOr. Rejection of
Labor Requests In the Republican
National Convention Coming Home
to ROOSt.

CHICAGO, Oct. IS. It is the
general consensus of opinion the re-
suit in this coming election will
hinge upon the labor vote. That
this Is the view of politicians is
shown by the endeavors of both
parties to make clear their devotion
to the cause of the workingman.
The weakest point in the Taft
armor is his early application of the
ready made injunction in the case Of
labor dispute. The gap in the Re-
publican line of battle is the utter
refusal of the Republican national
convention to accept the planks Of
fered by Samuel Gompers and by
Senator Robert NJ La Toilette. The
Democratic party has not catered
to labor. 1t has merely taken the
position that men who work with
their hands have quite as much right
to political recognition as men who
in bank parlors work with their
heads-and only too often work
other people. The record of the De-
mocratic party is clear and clean on
the labor question.
The assertion is made day after
day by Republican newspapers that
Democratic success would mean
| lessening of the opportunities for
| employment, fewer jobs and general
hard times. What is the situation
| today after twelve years of uninter-
rupted Republican domination? That
is the question that workingmen are
asking themselves and each other.
Is employment today so exceedingly
easy to get?
The Roosevelt panic did not come
under Democratic administration.
The panic of 1898 and the depres-
sion of that year was created by
conditions which arose under the
preceding Republican administra-
ton. The panic of 1873, the one
which more than any other shook
the foundations of our industrial
community, occurred under a Repub-
lican administration. If the busi-
ness men and the workingmen of the
country will consider the CONNER
cial history of the nation they will
not be affrighted by the Republican
cry of commercial peril in the event
of Democratic success.
l wonder whether Republican poll
iticians or Republican voters appre-
ciate the underlying significance of
this cry of theirs, that a change of
administration means commercial
distress. That has been repeated by
the Republican organization in every
presidential campaign since 1892.
If it has been true for twelve
years, why cannot it be true inde-
finitely? What becomes of parity
or popular government in such an
event? 1t is idle to say the cry is
now being raised against William
J. Bryan personally, because it was
as noisily voiced in 1904, when AL
ton B. Parker, the candidate of the
conservative element in the Demo-
cratic party, was the nominee.
If the commercial factors in Amer
lean political life desire and can
secure the perpetual retention in
office of the managers of one politi-
cal party, why have elections at all?
Does not Nicholas Longworth voice
the opinion of considerable ele-
ment in the party of plutocracy and
imperialism when he suggests that
after eight years of Taft we shall
have eight more years of Roosevelt?
What do the voters, and particular
ly the workingmen of this country,
think Of the proposition that only
one party is capable of directing the
government of the nation? If we
must have Republican domination in
definitely, there seems to be little
use of holding elections. Primaries
would be all that would be neces-
sary.