Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-08-28

ent campaign has awakened great en-
thusiasm. Never in the history OF
our state has a gubernatorial candi-
date received a heartier welcome from
the voters of Maine. or made a better
impression upon them. Hundreds of
Democrats have personally assured
him of their intention to vote for him.
His party is united and full of conf
dence under his leadership, and the
indications daily multiply that he will
receive a plurality at the polls in
September considerably in excess Of
what his most sanguine friends dared
to hope for at the start-a genuine old
fashioned Republican victory that will
assure the country, with no uncertain
sound, that Maine stands today, as she
has stood in the past, for sound money
for national growth and progress, and
for protection to American farms and
American factories
At the start the Democratic organs
undertook to combat the popular
candidacy of Mr.. Fcrnald by a resort
to personal calumny and disparage-
ment-and now, when it is too late to
retrace their steps, they are awakening
to the fact that these despicable meth
DDS have helped the Republican stan
dard bearer in every section of the
state. Intelligent voters in either
party are not to be reached in this way
and nowhere in the world is the
standard of general intelligence higher
than here in our good old State of
Maine with it's splendid churches and
public schools. The voters in this
state have long been accustomed to do
their own thinking, and for this reason
the tactics of the professional mud
singer have never appealed to them.
Cne of the strongest elements in the
great strength that Mr.. Fernald has
developed as a candidate will be found
in the fact that he has scorned to
descend to such methods. He has
assailed no man: but has rested his
case upon the clear, able and forceful
presentation he has made of the great
principles for which he stands. The
enthusiasm which has greeted him
everywhere is the best possible proof
1nt f1,nt Iii
paignlng appeals to the sober good
sense of the people, and that the ar
gumcnts he so clearly and strongly
presents, have carried great weight
with the voters.
There can be no question also but
what the great overshadowing na-
tonal issues have played a powerful
part in this campaign in closing up the
republican ranks, and winning to the
Republican cause many hundreds of
voters formerly affiliated with the
Democratic party. The farmers of
Maine are protected today, under the
Dingley law, in all their products
They clearly recognize the fact that
this protection plays a very vital part
in enabling them to maintain the
good prices they are receiving today
for their products. They were a unit
in asking Mr.. Dingley to secure them
this protection. and they clearly recog-
nize the great service he did them, in
the thorough and efficient manner in
which he looked after and safeguard
ed their interests. They have no de-
sire to sec the duties on farm products
removed. We have quoted the lead
ing Democratic paper in Maine. the
Lewiston Sun. to show that this is
precisely the Democratic program.
The wage workers of Maine have no
desire to return to the conditions that
prevailed under the Wilson law, when
employment in any direction was hard
to find. and wages at the lowest point
they have touched since the close of
the civil war. They believe thorough
y in protection to American labor and
American industry. They lived
through "a tariff for revenue" regime
in the second Cleveland administration
and are not anxious for return to
such conditions.
SO strong has been the popular scnti-
emnt in this state in favor of a con-
tiuance of the protective policy, that
tho efforts of the Democratic party
have been largely concentrated upon
an effort to blind the public to the
fact that the present campaign is a
national one, and that Bryan and the
policies he stands for are the real
paramount issues" involved in it. But
these efforts have been vain
The people of Maine are not to be
misled, and will show by their votes on
September IA, that they clearly recog-
niZe the fact that vote for Fernald
will be vote for Taft. and a con-
tlnuanCc of the Roosevelt noIiciee