The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-20
CLARK OPENS TIE
 KENTUCKY FIGHT Confines Remarks to Tariff
 and Cost of Living DEFINES PLATFORM High Cost of Living Most Important
 n n e
DEFINES PLATFORM
High Cost of Living Most Important i. and Pressing Question for States men and Philosophers
 to Solve

larlII ana the nlgn cost or nVlnS. lie Salu In part:
 My first duty in making a speech in
 Kentucky, as it is my pleasure, is to thank the democrats of this state for
 the courageous, unselfish and loyal man.
 her in which they stood by me in the
 struggle for the presidential nomination.
 Their splendid and enthusiastic support
 went straight to my heart. l suppose that
 have a quantum sufficit of faults of
 character, but, thank God, ingratitude is
 not among them. Consequently l regarded
 the invitation to aid in opening the cam
 paign here today as command to be
 obeyed. l am glad to be here to even par
 tially repay the debt l owe Kentucky democrats. It is good to be here.
 Tt is needless to tell you that Gov.
 Woodrow Wilson was not my first choice Tor President, but nevertheless he was
 nominated, and he is as much my candi- date as he is of any other democrat be-
 twixt the two seas l am too seasoned a soldier not to accept the fortunes of war with fortitude. Some hypercrltical news paper men have complained that I did not exhibit great joy by reason of his nomi- nation. Why should I? What would they have? l wired him my congratulations l visited him once at his request and gave him such information as he desired. I visited him again at the request of mem bers of the House and introduced them to him en bloc with friendly remarks. 1 refused to try to crowd him out of the limelight by being interviewed in extenso before he could deliver his speech of ac ceptance. l made three speeches for him in Maine, one in Massachusetts and three in Missouri. It must be that these critical scribes expected me to turn Giphops or handsprings or to dance a Spanish fam dango or highland fling to show that 1 was immensely tickled at being defeated for the presidential nomination by the closest shave on record-by what you Ken- tuckians denominate Georgetown graze.'
 "Wilson and Marshall were nominated and will be elected. Col, Theodore Roose- welt will see to that. If we cannot elect President this year. with the repub- licans split up as they are. we will not elect one in my day, and to my mind it is clear that the best interests of the American people will be subserved by the election of a democratic House, demo- cratic Senate and democratic President all three
 "rhe tariff question, like the poor we have with us always. It will continue to be with us until it is settled right, and the right settlement of it is that tariff will be levied for revenue only. That will be accomplished when q majority of American voters realize that the only proper function of tariff taxation is to raise money to pay governmental ex- penses.
 The presentation of the issue in the two platforms Is clear cut It is entirely No man of any considerable informa tion can doubt the meaning. Peo- pie who believe that the sole function of a tariff is to raise revenue with which to support the government economically and efficiently administered, will vote for Wilson and Marshall and the entire dem- ocratic ticket, national state, county anu township. Those who believe that the chief function of tariff is for protec- ton and for the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many will vote the re- publican ticket. Of course, it is hard to tell which is the republican ticket. That Is family row into which l shall not en- ter.
 some people think that a platform is q mere contrivance to get in on, and not u thing to stand on after getting in. From thls criminal doctrine l dissent toto coelo. Promises made in a platform or otherwise during a campaign in order to win an election should be religiously car ried out after the election. If there is in this world that the demo- crats are pledged to, in every conceivable way that men can be pledged, it is to cut down the outrageous and cruel high rates oe the Payne -Aldrich-Smoot tariff law to the revenue basis. and have faith enough Tn democrats to believe that if they are entrusted with power, they will carry out their pledge
 "Who collects the tariff taxes? Every body knows who collects the state and county taxes. You know precisely how much taxes you pay to the state and county. There are men in this audience today who have carefully preserved their tax receipts for the last 50 years, and barring the preachers who are here. it IS no reflection on the piety of the average taxpayer to say that he reads his tax receipt more carefully than he reads his Ribe But how much tariff tax do you pay. and to whom do you pay it? You don't know how much you pay; neither do I. If I had an accurate statement of the things you buy, l could take the tariff law and figure out how much it costs you.
 T will tell you who collects it. Every merchant in the land is an unwilling tax collector. He doesn't want to collect it. He gets nothing for collecting it, It re- duces his sales. It diminishes his profits. Ii compels him to keep invested in stock nearly twice as much money as he would have to invest in the same stock if there were no tariff tax. But the government compels him to collect it. and then re- fuses to pay him anything for so doing.
 ''The most pressing and important ques- ton to which philosophers and statesmen can turn their attention is the high cost Of living-now so high as to bring distress
 into hundreds of thousands of homes, and serious inconvenience into millions of homes. When we reflect upon the fact That the average wage earner in the United States receives only about $40 an- nually on which to support himself, his wife and children and dependents, the wonder is that he can live at all.
 Two causes of the high prices of food products can be cured, measurably at feast by the Congress and the adminis- tration working in harmony: the tariff and the trusts. The tariff ought to be on a revenue or competitive basis. It should be removed entirely on the most necessary article of food, while the trusts should be abolished utterly. Take the beef trust, for example. It fixes the price O. beef cattle, sheep. hogs and goats to the producers paving them only so much aa will prevent their quitting the business of raising animals for food altogether, while they charge the consumers what ever they please. Why people submit to sucn outrageous practices is beyond com rrehension. There is law enough now to abolish the trusts if it were honestly, courageously, vigorously and periodically enfo-ced-wbich it is not.
 ''Everybody of intelligence knows that the tariff increases prices. Nevertheless when some three years ago the Senate of the United States appointed a commits sion. of which Senator Henry Cabot Lodg of Massachusetts wns chairman, to Inquire into the high cost Of living that committee, to the amazemert of man kind. reported that the tariff had little io do in increasing the cost of living