The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-02-07

,up and down the country accusing
Theodore Roosevelt of grand or pc
tit larceny, in purloining his ideas. ="
He declared that Mr.. Bryan has writ
ten the last three democratic plat
forms except the one that Judge Par
ker amended with his famous tele-
gram"
+ Mr. Payne declared that Mr.. Bry-
an for four years had been going
among the dWellers of the caves of
Abdullam hearing every mans COM
plant and every mans grievance,
and" he added, where there are
| votes behind the grievance he imme-
| diately champions the mans cause
and when he comes to write the
platform he follows the precedent of
the democratic party for the last 80
! years i'll putting into the platform
something to try to catch the votes
| Of the unWary voter, not with re-
gard to fixed principles but merely
as a bid thrown in. He sometimes
| hits upon good thing and puts it
| in his platforms, but, when anybody
| else with the same means of infor-
nation and knowledge takes the idea
| and WHITES it into law and puts it
on the statute books, Mr.. Bryan
| places himself among that grand ar
my Of men who are going about the
country saying, 1 told you SO.
Mr.. Bryan, he said, goes around
/, the country endorsing Roosevelt for
as far as he goes and then adds,
| in order to dilute the endorsement,
| He Is doing just what l would have
| DONE, and our friends, the demo-
| Gratis, get excited about it.
| Several of the democratic meas
| ures introduced at this session were
| criticised by Mr.. Payne, including a
| number of Mr. Williams bills, in
Guiding the one to place linotype,
wood pulp and white paper on the
| free list. He enumerated the various
| kinds of white paper other than for
printing purposes, his statements
causing Mr.. Williams to interject the
remark that it was the first time he
| had discovered that white paper in
cluded other than print paper"
Mr.. Payne was followed by Mr..
Thomas, of North Carolina, who de-
voted himself to the subjects of state
rights and tariff revision. He said
| that until recently no one had dared
| to affirm that the scope of the con-
stitution could be extended by judi
cial construction beyond it's plain
IucduI1S anu luLSuL OI IudI- Tie gen
eral government could exercise pow
er not granted in that instrument.
Both President Roosevelt and Secre-
tary Root however, had declared and
declared and promulgated doctrines
| new and dangerous and foreign to
all ideas of the founders of the re-
public" The doctrines advocated
{ by Mr.. Root that the states must sur
render more and more of their power
to the national government, said Mr..
Thomas, was prolific of the greatest
evil 1t was the PandOras box Of
| ills.
Mr.. Thomas said that the president
| had announced a strange doctrine
when he declared in speech at Har
risburg, Pa, that an inherent power
| rested in the nation outside Of the
enumerated powers conferred upon
| it by the constitution. That doc
trine, he declared, was fatal to the
American form of government and
| full of tremendous consequences. In
| the matter Of the issuance Of injunc-
| tions by federal courts in North Car
Olina, Alabama and other states in
railroad rate cases before a final hear
| ing on the constitutionality of the
state law, he said that such action
was an unseemly exercise of power
| by federal courts and created dan
gerous conflicts. In the recent rail
road rate controversy in North Caro-
| lima, Mr. Thomas said that his state
has yindicated it's rights to enforce
| it's laws. The action of North Caro-
lima and other states in the south, he
| said, following the speeches of the
| president and Secretary Root and
coming closely after the California
school incident, makes the old ques-
! ton of state rights of great interest,
not only to the house but to the
whole country.
Mr.. Thomas said that he demo-
cratic party did not stand for free
trade, but rather for revision and re-
duction of the tariff. He declared
| that there was no hope along these
lines for any action by the republi-
can party.
Mr.. Thomas predicted that upon
the issue of monopolies and lower
tariff, particularly trade relations
and the preservation of local self
government, democracy would win
success. Either it must win" he
said, ''or the country will become
not union Of states, but a nation
with state lines obliterated and in
the grasp of special interests.
Mr.. Cox of Indiana, expressed be-
lief in the efficiency of imprison-
ment for wrong doors and said if
Rockefeller and Rogers could be in
dicted these indictments would be
| followed by conviction and he was
satisfied that imprisonment for only
one day would do more to correct
evils than even the biggest fines
Mr.. Hardy of Texas, n referring to
Mr.. Payne's remarks, said he could
scarcely tell whether they were an
eulogy of the republican party or a
funeral Grafton for it's burial. The
democrats, he said, had long since
become accustomed to denunciation
as demagogues, but he asserted that
those who were for the people were
always so denounced, "by those who
stand for the classes against the