Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1912-03-08


ter to the seven governors, "One OF
the chief principles for which have
stood for and for which l now stand,
and which l have always endeavored
and always shall endeavor to reduce
to action, is the genuine rule of the
people,"
They who are theoretically for that
principle are as the sands Of the sea
in number. Not to stop with the dec
laration but to reduce to action" is
characteristically Rooseveltian. BY
his Columbus speech expounding his
charter of Democracy, he placed him
self on the very front line of the al
ways advancing host of progressives.
BY his yielding to the call Of RepubIi-
tion for president he became the
leader in the fight to bring the Chi
cago convention abreast of public
opinion and to have it's ticket COM
mand the support Of the country.
OF his signal ability to make that
fight no one doubts. OF his supreme
fitness as the next president to re-
duce to action the principle of the
genuine rule of the people there is
wide acknowledgement. In the seven
years of his administration his ac-
complishments were vast. A recent
and briefest of summaries is this:
He inaugurated conservation of ma
tional resources, established the de-
partment of commerce and labor, ac-
quired the canal zone and began the
Panama canal construction, gave back
Cuba to the Cubans, stopped the theft
of waterways and water power sites,
reorganized the consular service, set
tied the Alaskan boundary dispute,
settled the coal strike of 1902, main
tanned the open door in China,
brought about the settlement of the
Russo-Japanese war, negotiated "a
treaties of general arbitration, re-
duced the interest-bearing debt by
S9O,0O0,000, doubled the navy's ton
mage and sent the battleship fleet
around the world.
He brought about the Hepburn rail-
way rate act, the regulation of railroad
labor hours, the employers liability
act, the safety appliance act, the pure
food and drugs act, the federal meat
and packing house inspection law. He
directed the investigation of sugar
trust frauds, the prosecutions for rail-
road rebating. He directed the prose-
cutions of the tobacco trust, the
Standard Oil trust and other cor
porations under the Sherman anti
trust act He won the case against
the Northern Securities company and
secured the conviction of a swarm OF
public land thieves and postoffce
grafters.
He urged on congress complete re
form of the financial system, inheri
tance and income taxes, the parcels
post, a revision of the Sherman act
legislation to prevent overcapitaliza
ton and stock watering and fol
federal Incorporation and regulation
of interstate corporations. He has
made life an inspiration to all mer
of all nations He has set an ex
ample Of clean living, vigorous Labor
and high ideals that has left an in
erasable mark on his countrymen
Now again leading the fight for gen
uine rule by the people, Roosevelt hal
made immediate application of tina
principle by demanding $50 far as pos
sible the people may be given chance
through direct primaries, to express
their preference as to who shall b,
the nominee of the Republican presi
Dental convention"
Like demand was made by Gov
ernor Johnson of California in hi
speech to the constitutional conver
ton which made a great hit with tn
delegates and throughout the country
In the West" he said, "the peopl
! have the power Of expression and 4
the East the politicians have tn
power of suppression That powe
must be broken. The people will a
ways respond to the right when the
know 1t and make their state fire
under a direct primary. That is tn
: first step in the freedom of tn
: people"
In al interview the same day,
;. said: "The difference between tn
!, two wings of the Republican party
shown in their respective attitude
r toward presidential preference pr
maries. In California the progressiv
! Republicans by the 1910 election wo
a control of the party machinery an
!, could have selected the 26 delegate
!. for any candidate they saw fit to SUI
port. But the underlying principle {
progressive Republicanism Is the rul
of the people. So, at a special Sc
, sion of the legislature last Decemb,
n we passed presidential preferenc
4 primary law
It Contrast the Republican progre
J. sive rule in California with the sta
of Washington under a reactional
h governor. In the latter state tbre
# fourths of the people are begging (,
presidential preference primal
'. law, but the governor refuses.
~,