The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-18

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prevail; for it is they themselves who
would in the end suffer most if in this
country county,. we permitted the average man
/ was denied him. that justice was denied
to the MANY and privilege accorded to tie
| few.
i for the rights of the plain people, we
/ who. are fighting for the right of the
people to rule themselves, need offer no
better proof of the fact that we are fight
| ing for all citizens. matter what their
politics, than that which is afforded by
the action of that portion of the press
| which is controlled by privilege, by the
great special interests in business. News
papers OF this type are found in every
part of the country, in San Francisco, in
Cincinnati, in Chicago and st. Louis, in
Boston and Philadelphia. But they are
strongest in New York. Some of these
newspapers are nominally Democratic,
some nominally Republican some nominal
ly independent. But in reality they are
true only to the real or fancied interests
Of the great capitalist class, by certain of
whose members they are controlled.
Sometimes the interests of this capitalist
class are identical with those of the coun-
try a whole, and in that case these
papers serve the interests of the common
wealth. Sometimes the interests of the
capitalist class are against the interests of
these papers are hostile to the interests
of the commonwealth. But neither their
acting favorably to nor their acting adj
versely to the interests of the common
wealth is anything more than incident
to their support of the interests to which
they are bound.
Press Comes in for Its Part.
THE great and far-reaching evil of their
action is that they choke and foul the
only channels of information open to so
many honest and well-meaning citizens:
The most prominent representatives OF
chusetts supported Mr.. Parker against me
in 1904. Mr.. Parker was a Democrat, but
he was entirely satisfactory to their mas
being ardentlV
did all they could to overthrow the Re-
publican party and to elect Democratic
president. But when 1 began to be SER
iously talked about for the Republican
nomination this year. these papers, one
and all, turned Republican to the extent
of becoming my furious opponents and
the furious champions of Mr.. Taft. There
is an element of pure comedy in reading
in these papers continual lamentations
about the likelihood of my candidacy
breaking up the Republican party. They
themselves did all they could to beat the
Republican party when they thought they
could elect Mr.. Parker. Now these papers
would eagerly champion the Republican
party if they could keep Mr.. Taft as its
nominee for president. In the past they
Mr.. Taft, and none of them regard him in
any way a leader"
Differences an Old Story.
1.-THE difference between US and our
present day opponents is as old as civil
lied history. In every great crisis of the
kind we face today we find arrayed on
one side the men who with fervor and
broad sympathy and lofty idealism stand
for the forward movement, the men who
stand for the uplift and betterment OF
mankind and who have faith in the peo-
pie; and over against them the men OF re
stricted vision and contracted sympathy,
whose souls are not stirred by the wrongs
of others. Side by side with the latter
tensity of conviction, who care only for
the pleasure of the day, and also those
other men who distrust the people, who
less SO to exploit them, and who il
honest so disbelieve in the power of tt
people to bring about wholesome reform
that every appeal to popular conscience
and popular Intelligence fills them with
angry terror. According to their own
lights, these men are often very respec-
table, very worthy. But they live on
plane of low ideals. In the atmosphere
they create impostors flourish and lead
ership comes to be thought of only as
success in making money and the vision
of heaven becomes a sordid vision and all
that is highest and purest in human
bought and sold in the market place.
Opposed undyingly to these men are
the men of faith and vision, the men in
flaming fire, who spun lives of soft and
selfish ease. of s1othful self-indulgence
who scorn to think only of pleasure for
themselves, who feel for and believe in
their fellows, whose high fealty is re-
served for all that is good, that is just
that is honorable. By their very nature
truth and the right. They do not address
themselves only to the cultured and ex-
elusive, few: They. prize character even
science is not the privilege merely of the
men of wealth and cultivation, and they
make their appeal to ali men alike in the
name Of the great fundamental qualities.
and qualities that every man should
have-the qualities of generosity and u,-
selfishness, of fearless honesty and high
courage.
A New Philosophy Needed.
1--WE who war against privilege pay
heed to no outworn system of philosophy.
standing of and sympathy with the liv-
ing and vital needs of those in the com
munity whose needs are greatest. We
are against privilege in every form. We
believe in striking down every bulwark of
privilege. Above all we are against the
evil alliance of special privilege in bust
ness with special business in politics. We
believe in giving the people free hand to
work in efficient fashion for true justice.
To the big man and to the little man, in
all the relations of life pledge justice
and fair dealing.
"A period of change is upon Oar
opponents; the men of reaction, ask US t.
if we would: must either go forward !
or go backward. Never was the ned |
more imperative than now for men Of |
vision who are also men of action. Dis |
aster is ahead of us if we trust to the |
leadership of men whose souls are scared |
and whose eyes are blinded. men of cold |
can find safety in dull timidity and dull |
naction. The unrest cannot be quieted |
by ingenious trickery of those who pro- |
fess to advance by merely marking time, |
Or who seek to drown the cry for justice |
by loud and insincere- clamor about issues /
that are false and issues that are dead. |
The trumpets sound the advance, and /
their appeal cannot be drowned by re- |
peating the war cries of bygone battles, |
the victory shouts of vanished hosts. |
Here in this city of the state of Lincoln |
Fan set forth the principles for which we
stand today in the words which Lincoln