The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1912-07-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Washington Correspond
ent of The Times.

II CHI VI lC L l1ttCSs
Bv CLYDE II. Tavenner.
Washington, D. CHOW that tn
people have come to see the sham o
a high tariff, and to understand tina
continuation of Republican rul,
means a still further surrender of tn,
government to the trust plunderbund
the G. O. P. orators and newspaper:
are trying to raise the spectre of hare
times, and to make it appear thai
business will falter in the event Of
Democratic success.
Such imbecilities never weary the
Republican mind. Without regard tc
the truth, and unimpressed by evi.
dence to the contrary, those men &c
on shouting the same old heresies.
The ''hard tines heresy is twin
brother to the long exploded doctrine
that high protective tariff protects
American workingmen, when every
schoolboy in the land knows that il
does no such thing.
A brief review of recent American
business depression provides a full
and sufficient answer to these foolish
arguments. The last panic in this
country occurred less than five years
ago, when all the machinery Of gov
eminent was in full control of the Re-
publicans, and when Theodore Roose-
welt, who has cure for all known
political evils, was in the White
House. This panic was the least ex-
cusable the nation ever endured.
The Republican party was in full
control of the government when the
panic of 1883 came about. Likewise,
this party was in power when there
came panic in the early part of 1884,
and the country recovered from that
panic during the campaign that re-
suited the election of Mr.. Cleveland.
The Republican party was in full con-
troll of the government for the four
years previous to the panic of 1893,
which was a currency panic clearly
due to the passage, by the Republi-
cans, of the Silver Purchase act Of
1890. This law so depleted the gold
reserve in the national treasury that
few millions in gold were borrowed
by the government in New York, in
order to keep the treasury reserve up
to 500, OO0,0 900 until the Harrison adj
ministration could get out of office,
and thus make it appear that the panic
was due to the incoming Democratic
administration.
The silver panic of 1898, which was
entirely due to the Republican Legis-
lation, is the only one for more than
half a century that did not occur while
the Republicans were in full posses
sion of the government. Yet Repub-
lican orators and newspapers, true to
their habit of hiding the facts and
raising false issues, 90 right ahead
trying to make it appear that the
Democratic party is the party of hard
times.
This is the heresy of the pronounced
kind, and it is safe to assume that
the country will approise it at its true
work. The time is passed when the
voters can be fooled. They are de-
the truth, and what is more
they are showing the abil-
ity to separate the truth from the
false.
The Big Issue.
United States Senator LaFollette,
in the closing chapter of his autobiog-
raphy, Which has been running in the
American magazine and which soon
IS to be published in book form, gives
what he considers to be the one big
ssue now confronting the American
people. He says:
'In twenty-five years of political
struggle l have found one great issue
'vershadowing all others-the en-
,roachment of the powerful few on
he rights of the many. All the issues
If to-day are phases of this one great
question. How shall the individual,
he farmer, the worker, and all those
Who pay tribute, be set free from the
Unjust exactions of the tariff, the
ailroads, and other forms of oppres-
ions by special interests.
when Roosevelt became president
he total stock and bond issues of the
rusts was So, 784, OOO,OOO When he