Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-10-16
RAPs ITS OWN PLATFORM BY
SEVERELY CRiTlCIsING RE
PUBLICAN TARIFF PLANK.
LONGWORTH ON DYNASTY
PRESIDENTS SON-IN-LAW DE-
CLAREs 8 YEARS TAFT
THEN ROOSEVELT.
Republicans Are lncensed at the Re-
marks Made by LongWorth in His
Rock Island QII.) Speech on the
Succession of Presidency.
Nv. J. BRYAN.

The Omaha Bee, published by Vic
tor ROseWater, member OF the RepuD-
lican national committee, and head OF
the Republican campaign publicity bu-
reau. has made the bIunder Of critics.
ing vigorously part of the tariff plank
of the Republican platform, the writer
being under the impression that he
was really pouring hot shot into Mr.
Bryan The Democratic leader in
recent speech, had quoted that part of
the Republican platform which is
criticised.
The editorial in Mr.. ROsewater's pa
per goes on the theory that this Ian
guaoe was MI Bryan's own, the WTi-
ter failing to notice that the language
was really part of the platform on
which Mr. Tart is running.
The consequence of this is that Mr..
Bryan and his friends have on a broad
grin and they think that the smiles at
Fairview are likely to spread to all
Democrats in the country.
The words complained Of in the Bee
editorial were these:
'In all tariff legislation the true
principle is best maintained by the i'm
position of such duties as will equal
the difference between the cost OF
production at home and abroad, to-
gether with reasonable profit to Amer
lean INDUSTRIES.
The Bee went on to punctrTe this
language in the following style:
Nothing prettier in the catch-all
line has been offered in this campaign.
The most hide-bound standpatter in
the country can accept that as salts
factory and the rankeSt free trader
can find delight in 1t. The declaration
means simply nothing. An attempt to
legislate along that line would simply
open the way to interminable wrang-
ling as to what constitutes a reasona-
BILE profit, for hair-splitting on wages
on one industry, price of raw materials
in another, rebates and drawbacks in
a third and so on through the list of
thousands of articles that are now on
the tariff revision, at Bryan's direc-
ton, would serve only to halt indus
trial and commercial progress and
keep business unsettled during his
term of office"
The Omaha World-Herald shows
that the words complained Of are not
a part Of any speech Of Mr. Bryan, but
g part of the tariff plank of the Repub-
lican platform.
Mr. Bryan had this to say when the
matter was called to his attentions;
Il am very much surprised that Mr..
Resewater should have attempted to
| misrepresent my position. A good
many unfair things have been said,
but nothing more unfair than that said
by Mr. Rosewater. To accuse me of
using the language of the Republican
platform is an outrage. He ought to
| apologize for this injustice and ex-
plain to his readers that the language
which he criticises was taken from the
/ Republican platform and not from any
! speech of mine.
| This is a rich find. 1t shows how
absurd the Republican platform looks
| to a Republican when the Republican
has chance to look at it in a disin-
terested way. When Mr. Rosewater
thought that the language quoted was
taken from speech Of mine he could
see how ridiculous the language was.
/ hope that his opinion of the language
will not change when he finds that he
was shooting at his own platform in
| stead of at me.
The amusing blunder of the Omaha
Bee suggests a new diversion for the
| campaign. Let the Democrats accuse
me of using various sections from the
Republican platform and from Mr..
Taft's speeches and see how the Re-
publican editors will ridicule the lam
guage."
No utterance of the campaign has
attracted more attention than the pre-
diction of Congressman Nicholas Long
worth, the presidents sonin-law. who
In a speech at Rock Island, H.. declared
that after eight years of Taft, it would
be Roosevelt in the White House
aoain This Ilttarance has .canrn1 p