Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-02

your chairman presided with such a Just
and even hand, made crisis in the
party's life. faction sought to force
the party to violate valuable and time
honored national tradition by entrusting
the power of the presidency for more
than two terms TO one man, and that
man, one whose recently avowed polit-
cal VIEWS would have committed the
party to radical proposals involving
dangerous changes in our present con-
stitutional form of representative gov
eminent and our Independent judiciary.
This occasion is appropriate for the ex-
precision of profound gratitude at the
victory for the right won at Chicago.
BY that victory the Republican party
swas saved for future usefulness
After reviewing the legislative enact
ments of the Republican party the
President launched into bitter attack
upon those responsible for the popular
unrest of the present day.
Started by sensational journalism and
unjust and unprincipled undertaking. he
said, "demagogues have seized the OPP
portunity to infame the public mind that
they might turn peculiar conditions to
their own advantage. In the formation
of new parties the President said. these
men have promised the satisfaction of
unrest by the application of a panacea.
BY the ultimate analysis. ] fear, the
equal opportunity which those seek who
proclaim the so called social justice, in
wolves forced division of property, and
that means socialism / venture to say
ai5.tt. fffAfa in
which more real steps of progress have
been taken than in the present one.
But as for the millennium, condition in
which the rich are to be made reason
ably poor and the poor reasonably rich
by law. we are chasing phantom; we
are holding out TO those whose unrest
we fear, prospect and a dream, a vision
of the impossible.
Il do not say that the two gentlemen
who now lead, one the Democratic party
and the other the former Republicans
who have left their party, in their attacks
upon existing conditions. and in their at
tempts to satisfy the popular unrest by
promises of remedies, are consciously
embracing socialism. The truth is that
they do not offer any definite legisla-
ton or policy by which the happy con-
ditions they promise are 10 be brought
about, but IL their promises mean any
thing, they lead directly toward the
appropriation of what belongs to one
man. to another.
"The truth is. my friends, both those
who have left the Republican party un-
der the inspiration of their present
leader and our old opponents, the Demo-
Gratis. under their candidate. are going
in direction they do not definitely
know toward an end they can not de-
finitely describe, with but one chief and
clear object and that is of acquiring
power for their party by popular sup
port through the promise of a change
for the better
"These gentlemen propose to reform
the Government whose present defects.
if any, are due to the failure of the peo-
pie to devote as much time as is neces-
sary to their political duties, by re-
qulring a political activity by the peo-
pie three times that which thus far the
people have been willing to assume.
But after we have changed all the
governmental machinery SO as TO permit
instantaneous expression of the people
in constitutional amendments, in statutes
and in recall of public agents, what
then?
..Votes are not bread, constitutional
amendments are not work, referendums
do not pay rent or furnish houses, re-
calls do not furnish clothing. Initiatives
do not supply employment or relieve in
eaualities of condition or of opportunity.
we still ought to have set before us the
definite plans to bring on complete
o,,J 70 toI Heb
hardship and EVIL for humanity. We lis
ten for them in vain"
The President discussed at some
length the recall of judges and judicial
decisions and the proposals to forbid
the use of injunctions to protect property
against secondary boycott and the use
of juries in contempt proceedings brought
TO enforce DEGREES or orders. The recall
of decisions he labelled the 'grotesque
proposition by the leader of former Re-
publicans who have left their party"
1.-THE Republican party concluded the
President, islands for none of these in
novations. 1t refuses to make changes
simply for the purpose of making a
change, and culttvating popular hope
that in the change something beneficial,
underlined, will take place, We favor
the greatest good to tho greatest num-
Der We believe that we have made pro-
gress from the beginning to now and
| that the progress is to continue into the
| far future; that it is reasonable progress
| that experience has shown to be really
useful and helpful, and from which
| there is no reaction to something worse.
1t Is said that this is not an issue in
| the campaign Itseems to me it is the
supreme ISSUE"