The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-07-03

He Opposes the Class Distinction and Demands Laws For the Masses and
Also Enactments to Restrain the Combinations Of Wealth From Impos
Ing Upon tho Poot-Many People Were Present to Hear the Speech
There Was Much Cheering Done.

Baltimore.-Former Justice Alton B
Parker Of New York, who was elected
temporary chairman of the convention
was greeted with great applause as
he stepped upon the platform to de
liver the keynote speech.
Judge Parker said in part:
1--WE meet while the hills yet echo
to wild cries of liar, thief, and trail
tor, and furious walls of fraud, bri
berry, treachery and corruption; ant
our ears are weary with the din OIL
the ~articulate shrieking and passion
ate v%illifcation Of the most shameful
brawl Of our political history. GU:
candidates, however, are, without c3
ception, men of such lofty mien that
we meet immune from the distempeI
which seized the Chicago convention
and privileged to discharge a solemn
public duty calmly, deliberately, ser
iously.
"The cause Of government by The
people the world over has been ma
terially checked by the d~isgrace:ul
brawl which terminated in the bedlan'
Of Chicago. Every good citizen has
been put to shame by the brutality and
the abuse which characterized this
wrangle between a President and ex'
President. Gratitude, friendship, party
loyalty, patriotism and common de
cency we're forgotten ! n the tussle.
"The assault upon the unwritten
prohibition against a third term made
in the wild scramble for the Repun'
lican nomination warns us of the Vita
necessity of incorporating in our con'
stitution a safeguard against repeated
terms.
"The man who split his party 1T
Chicago, once recognized the third
term tradition and acknowledged its
application to his situation. On the
eve of his triumph in nineteen hun
dred four he said: The wise custom
which limits the President to two
terms regards the substance and not
the form, and under no circumstances
will I be a candidate for or accept
another nomination
wrong in this year Of grace, ne
was right in that. Peradventure he
was honest with his soul and he
may have confessed 10 it that even
a President may be tempted to resort
to sordid devices and shameless i'm
portunities to gain his ambition. If
So, he was in mental condition to real
lie to the full the danger to the
republic involved in setting aside a
custom constituting the only bulwark
against assaults Of men whose ambi-
ton chokes their patriotism and
whose selfish desire for personal vic
tory and power throttles those moral
scruples with which they may once
have been endowed.
would the man who threw his hat
in the ring and sought to slug his
opponent over the ropes in his fight
for a third term rest satisfied with its
achievements?
Clearly his lust of power would
have brooked no such limitation. A
third term would but have whetted
his desire for more and as the terms
slipped away each renewal would dis
cover greater injury to our constitu-
ton, to the form of government estab-
lished under it and to every legal curb
on his imperious will. This is the
man who menaced us with an increase
Of Federal power by usurpation Of
states rights and without authority of
constitutional amendment; the man
who took the Isthmus of Panama, and
let Congress debate about it after
wards the man who having enough
money to send the fleet on it's famous
cruise to the Pacific sent it without