The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1912-06-28

gentlemen seek to shift the issu
from comparison of performances t
a program of promises.
! THE republican contest is only
battle between the great interests. |
is contest of syndicates. The trutl
is at last manifest, and democracy will
triumph.
1.-THE situation is epochal. The con
test will not be a summer day eXcur-
sion. 1t will not be won in a single
campaign.
Special privilege Is entrenched Its
emissaries fill high places. Its re-
sources are incalculable. It's allies are
legion. 1t fights to retain the right to
punder the greatest nation on earth.
The prize is enormous. 1t will not
be yielded without the most desper-
ate resistance.
Fronting such contest, we are
about to select a leader to whom we
must entrust the party and the ma
tional honor.
Half of every battle is the general
No army of men ever fought wei! be-
hind a leader whose loyalty the rank
and file doubted. No army was ever
well generated by a raw recruit or
did it's best behind novice who trip
ped up on his own sword.
Let me name for general him who
has suffered the hardships Of the
camp, the tolls of the march, the dan
gers of the field; who has stood at the
bloody angle; who has proven his
mettle in the baptism of fire.
Let me tell you of such leader.
He was born in the good democratic
state of Kentucky. There his eyes first
opened to behold the lovelight shining
in the fact of a democratic mother
Mingled with the notes of her lullaby
the myriad sounds of farm life were
borne to his baby ears.
About the next thing he heard was
his democratic father reading demo-
cratic platform. He has been demo-
crat ever since.
This man sympathizes with the
people. He recognizes the
nobility of labor. His feet have felt |
the sharp stones of adversely. He |
loves the common people because he
is of them. He has seen them la
Dor at their tasks and he has bent
MS own back in TOLL. He looks his
fellow man in the eye from his own
evel. You need not strain your neck
20 see him. He has never ceased to
owe the common man. He has never
,een ashamed of his early poverty.
I'VE hear much today of progress
;ives. The term has perhaps never
been clearly defined. But if you
mean by progressive, one who studies
conditions and, recognizing an evil,
,ravely seeks for and applies rem
sdy, then, 1 assert that this man has
l record unsurpassed.
81 challenge attention to his rec
,rd. When other men behold the ris-
ng power of financial combination,
3ut stood inactive and appalled,, his
lear vision not only saw the danger 7
,ut applied the remedy. He drew the
irst and most stringent antitrust sta
ute ever enacted in the United States
t has stood the test of all the courts,
nd has become the model for other
tates to follow.
Twenty years ago, he placed
pon the statute books of his state a
aw guarding the secrets of the bal
0t.
'He advocated the direct primary
ystem 20 years ago and applied it
1 his congressional district.
ct is 10 years since he conterded
Dr. the enactment of the most rigid
orrupt- practices act to be found up
n the statute books.
Give years ago he advocated the in
iative and referendum in his own
.ate. He was not as some other are, :
lest the people should de- +
roy themselves.
"As early as 1885 he declared for
lie direct election of senators. Five
mes he has voted for that measure,
I'd for years in congress has been
5 distinguished advocate.
During all of his long public serv-
e he has been one of the most vail
1t champions of tariff reform.
Forty years ago he cast his first
Hot He has voted the democratic
,ket ever since-and voted it
raight. II
I'm the great campaign of 1896, wien
sertion thinned our ranks and dis
ter engulfed our hopes, he helped
raise our banner on the stricken
Id and stood with those who cried,
courage, justice is immortal;
urage, soldiers of democracy; grid
your loins for battles to come
I saw him then, grim, determined
d undismayed. l heard his clarion
ice ring forth without a single note