Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-08-08
practical hold on man and powerful
members of the national Legislature.
THE losses ALWAYS WIN.


THE BOSSES ALWAYS WIN.
Under this boss system, no matter
which party wins. the people seldom win,
but the bosses almost always win"
Continuing his discussion Of parties, Mr..
Bcveridge said: "Thc South has men and
women as genuinely progressive and
others ms genuinely reactionary as those
in other parts of our country. Yet, for
we'll known reasons, these sincere and
honest southern progressives and reac-
tlonarics vote together In a single party,
which Is neither progressive nor reac-
tionary. They vote a dead tradition and
a local fear, not a living conviction and
a national faith. They vote not for the
Democratic party, but against the Re-
publican party. They want to be free from
this condition.: they can be free from It
through the National Progressive party.
The root OF the wrongs which hurt
the people Is the fact that the peoples
government has been taken away from
them. Their government must be given
back to the people. And so the first pur-
pose of the Progressive party Is TO make
sure the rule of the people. The rule
of the people means that the people them
selves shall nominate. as we'll as elect, all
candidates for office. including enators
and presidents of the United States
AMERICAN BUSINESS UNCERTAIN.
Mr.. Beveridge said American business
is uncertain and unsteady compared with
the business Of other nations. what.
then" he asked, must we do to make
American business better? We must do
what poorer nations have done. We must
end the abuse of business by striking
down those abuses instead of striking
down business itself. We must try to
make little business big. and all business
honest instead of striving to make big
business little and vet letting 1t remain
dishonest. AS the Sherman law now
stands. no two business men can arrang.
their mutual affairs and be sure that
they are not lawbreakers. This Is the main
hindrance to the immediate and perma-
hent revival of American business. Under
the DEGREES OF the court. the oil and to-
Dacco trusts still can raise prices I'M
justly and already nave dom so.
Such business chaos and legal para
doxes as American business suffers from
can he found nowhere else In the world"
The speaker declared the Progressive
party will accomplish reforms vital 10
American business.
W mean to put new business laws nm
our statute books which will tell Ameri-
can business men what they can do and
what they cannot do. The next grea,
business reform we must have to steadily
increase American prosperity is to change
the method of building our tariffs. The
tariff must be taken out Of politics and
| treated az "A htiaipaoc 1yla~ l...--
a political question. The greatest need
or business Is certainty, but the only thing
certain about our tariff is uncertainty.
Next to our need to make the Sherman
law modern. understandable and lust, our
greatest fiscal need is a genuine,
permanent. non-partisan tariff commits.
Sion. the speaker said. There has not
been and will not be any sincere and
honest effort by the old parties to get
a tariff commission, nor to take the tariff
out Of politics.
"A tariff .Igh enough to give American
producers the American market when
they MAKE honest goods and sell them
AT honest prices but low enough that
when they sell dishonest goods at dis
honest prices. foreign competition can
correct both evils; a tariff high enough to
enable American producers to pay our
workingmen American wages and so ar.
ranged that the ~workingmen will get
such wage a business tariff wher. changes
VIII be so made as to reassure business
instead OF disturbing II. this is the tariff
and the method OF it's making in which
the Progressive patty believes, for which
1t does battle and which 1t proposes 10
write into the laws of the land.
The Payne-Aldrich tariff laws must
be revised Immediately m accordance 10
these principles"
abolition OF child labor in factories,
mills. mines and sweatshops and a plan
Tor old age pensions were included in
the progressive platform by the speaker
who incidentally favored woman suffrage.
Never doubt that we will solve In
r1ghteousness and wisdom every vexins
problem" said Mr.. Beveridge TOWARD the
conclusion OF his address.