The Democratic advocate., 1908-06-19
The Roosevelt Platform.

In more recent years Republican ma
tional platforms have lost their inter-
est with the public as we'll as with the
party itself as soon as they were pro-
mulgated. No one took the trouble 10
interpret their double meanings or
gave heed to promises of good govern
ment that were made only to be
broken But this latest of Republican
platforms essentially differs from its
predecessors in that it is a Roosevelt
document from it's first to it's last par
agraph. barring its rejection OF the
Roosevelt -Gompers attempt to cripple
the powers of the United States Courts.
No other man who ever occupied the
Presidential Office could have INDUCED
in such a ludicrous strain of self-lau-
datiOn.
The first chapter in this Romance
of Political History, entitled 'Republl-
canism Under Roosevelt describes
the present as the greatest era in the
progress of the Grand Old Party. In
it's light the Administrations OF Lin
coin, Grant, Harrison and Mckinley
all pale their Intellectual fires. No
other period since Washington has
made such development in the ideals
of justice, equality and "fair dealing
among men, The highest servant OF
the nation (meaning RoosevelD repre-
sents not only the political sover-
eighty but the worthiest aims of all
his countrymen. Inspired by his lofty
example, American women as well as
American men have risen to nobler
sense of their duties and responsible
ties. The next chapter, bearing the
title of Equal Opportunity for All,
declares that the American nation is
the richest on earth, and that the Re-
publican party alone has made it pos
sible for every citizen to share in this
wealth.
Would it be believed that the man
who spreads all this phosphorus on
these scraps of fustian but a little
while ago bitterly denounced "the
malefactors of great wealth" because
Of their denial of equal opportunities
to American citizens? In this personal
and party laudation it would not have
done to mention the methods and
measures Of the Roosevelt Adminfstra-
ton that precipitated and deeply ag-
gravated one of the greatest financial
and industrial revolutions that the
country has ever experienced; nor
yet would it have been discreet to re-
call to the minds of oblivious citizens,
among other evidences Of this panic,
the fact that for the first time in the
nations history the emigration from
these shores exceeds the tide of immi
grafton.
Likewise would it have been unwise
in this platform parade of statistics to
=, s-nt the startling exhibit of wanton
in an appropriation OF a
billion dollars for next fiscal year;
the unexampled multiplication of Of
fees and sinecures in every depart
ment of Roosevelt's Administration;
the enormous spOliatiOnS of the pre-
datory Trusts and monopolies under
the guardianship and patronage of the
party; the cynical act of
partisan immortality in the Republican
majority of Congress to prevent pub
licity of levies of corruption-money to
carry the elections; and, finally, the
shameless violation of the most sacred
principles Of popular government as
in the presence at Chicago
of delegations from eleven States OF
the Union without constituencies,
white or black, behind them. All this
belongs to the downward current of
political history. The Roosevelt plat
form is the perverted product of dis
eased partisan imagination.-Phil
Record