Milford chronicle., 1912-06-21
ROOTAPPEALS FOR HARMONS
Fitness to Govern Depends on Willing
ness to Act In Unison.

{ chairman had been announced, Sena
tor Root addressed the convention in
part as follows:
Gentlemen of the Convention-Be-
lieve that | appreciate this expression
of confidence. | wish l were more
competent for the service you require
Of me.
"The struggle for leadership in the
Republican party which has so long
engrossed the attention and excited
the feelings of its members is about
to be determined by the selection OF
a candidate The varying claims OF
opinion for recognition in the politi
cal creed Of the party are about to be
settled by the adoption of a platform.
I'm the performance of this duty
/ by the convention and in the accept.
/ ance Of its conclusions by Republicans,
/ Is to be applied the ever-recurring tes
/ of a party's fitness to govern, its co
herence and its formative and con
trolling power of organization.
without these things there can be
no party worthy of the name. With.
out them party association is a rope
of sand, party organization is an inef
fective form, party responsibility dis
appears, and with it disappears the
right to public confidence.
"Without organized parties, having
these qualities of conference and 10y
atty free popular government becomes
a confused and continual conflict be |
tween a vast multitude of individual
opinions. individual interests. individ /
ual attractions and repulsions from |
which effective government can Only |
emerge by answering to the universal |
law of necessary organization and |
again forming parties.
"The lofty purposes of its great !
originators has been transmitted by
spiritual succession from generation to
generation of party leaders, and it is
no idle rhetoric when we say, as we
have to often said and are about to
say again to the American people:
eve are entitled to your belief in
the sincerity Of the principles we pro.
fess and the LOYALTY of our candidates
to those principles, because we are the
party of Lincoln, and Sumner, and
Seward, and Andrew, and Morton, and
Grant, and Hayes. and Garfield, and
Arthur, and Harrison, and Blaine and
Hoar, and Mckinley
1--WE claim that we are entitled tC
popular vote of confidence at the
coming election because we have
demonstrated that we are the party of
affirmative, constructive policies for
the betterment and progress of our
country in all the fields upon which
the activity and influence of govern
ment can rightly enter.
I'VE claim it because we have
shown our elves a party of honest
efficient and economical administra
ton, in which public moneys are faith
fully applied, appointments are made
on grounds of merit, efficient service
is vigorously exacted, graft is reduced
to a minimum, derelictions from Off
cial duty are sternly punished and a
high standard of official morality is
I'VE challenge the judgment Of the
American people on the policies Of Nc
Kinley and Roosevelt and Taft. The
party stands now, as Nc
Kinley stood. for a protective tariff
while the Democratic party stands
lgainst the principles of protection and
FOR tariff for revenue only We stand
not for the abuses of the tariff but
'or the benefcent uses. No tariff can {
be devised so moderate, so reasonable.
hat it will not be rejected by the Dem
)cratic party, provided its duties be b
adjusted with reference to labor cos
20 as to protect American products E
against being driven out Of the marke e
)y foreign underselling made possible
through the lower rate of wages in
,ther countries.
''The American foreign merchant
ervice has been driven off the face
# the waters because with American
ailOrs' wages and the American
tandard Of living it could not com.
'ete with foreign shipping. The Demo
ratio party proposes to put American
nils and factories and mines in the
anne position. and the American peo
lie have now to say whether they wish
hat to be done
Il have said that we do not stand
Or the abuses of the tariff The CHEF
ause of abuse has been that we have
utgrOwn our old method of tariff
laking. Our productive industries
ave become too vast and complicated
lr commercial relations too extensive
'r any committee of congress Of
self to get at the facts to which the
rinciple of protection may be prop
rly applied"
Mr.. Root then praised the tariff
oard and declared that now that the
ouse is Democratic the tariff com
ission is dead. He pointed out the
)untry's need of currency reform and
efended the Republican party and
resident Taft's administration in The
of the trusts He declared
e government had done its duty tC
e wage earners Of the country by
lssing an employers liability act that
is been sustained by the supreme