The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-11
TAFT STRIKES OUT
Continued from Page one.l
President Recalls Naval Battle.

My Fellow Citizens of the swedish
American Republican League:-F'ifty
years ago the heart of the nation stood
still in dreadful anticipation of the
dire disaster which seemed to await
our northern seacoast from the attack
on our most formidable naval ships,
and nothing seemed proof against the
fire of her guns, while every attack
upon her was utterly without effect.
Just in the nick of time, when ship
after ship had succumbed to this new
terror, a small iron vessel, with no free
board but with a central turret on a
turntable, sailed into the Chesapeake
bay and up into those waters that lie
between Norfolk and Fortress Monroe.
There when the Merrimac came out the
second day to complete her work this
insignificant cheese box on a raft
steamed across the path of her looming
antagonist and offered battle.
Il need not dwell upon the details Of
that contest 1t was one of the most
critical of the war, and when it closed
and the Merrimac, disabled and beaten
off steamed slowly back to her moor
ings of the morning, every lover OF
the nation, breathed more freely, and
all those in authority, from President
Lincoln down, felt that a load had
been lifted from their hearts and the
victory might still come to our cause.
Lauds Builder of Monitor.
THE designer and builder of the Mon
was a professional naval engineer and
inventor. Born in Sweden in 1903, ne
came to the United States on the IN
Vitation of d United States naval OH
Ger in 1889. A small iron vessel with
engine and crew, designed by him ana
built at Birkenhead IN England, haV-
ing preceded him. He resided in New
York from 1889 until his death in 1888,
Or so years, and in the course of tha-
long American life he invented much.
IL
ton properly grateful to him, that
which has created a debt on the part
of the American nation to Swedish IN
genuity, is the invention and construc-
ton of the Monitor, which saved our
navy, and so saved the country in o..
I am glad to be here to celebrate with
YOU this event, now half century
old, and gratefully to acknowledge on
the part of the American people what
is due from them to the race of Gus
tavus Adolphus and John Ericsson
Pride of Republican Party.
You are a Republican club. You
have supported that party in the past
and propose to support it in the fu- |
ture. Pursuing the principles 1or |
which it always has stood. that par
ty has guided the ship of state, with
the exception of two separate terms
of four years, for the half century
since the Monitor was baptised in
fire and there is nothing in the MS
tory of the world more inspiring than
the story of the achievements OF that
party since 1862 and the progress Sc
cured by them.
Nothing excites the criticism and
Indignation of our dear old enemy, the
Democratic party. so much as re
counting of the deeds of the Repun-
1ican party in the last fifty years.
Their nervousness at the phrase, we
point with pride used so frequently
and so justly in Republican platforms,
awakens their every effort at sarcasm
Il defer to this feeling on behalf |
of our Democratic friends, and do not
stop to claim that the Republican
party is entitled to the confidence of
the nation because of the stability and
progress which it has given that ma
ton in the last fifty years.
Traces Meaning of Progressive" |
Il agree that a party may serve the
public we'll and then cease to he use
full and that it is in its performances
in the immediate past and in the
proba bility of its performances in the
future that we are to find
a reason for its continuance in power.
I'm the history of politics from
time to time new phrases are coined to
new issues and new
One of the terms which
has come into constant use today is
progressive and it is supposed to
indicate the opposite of 'reactionary'
or 'ultraconservatiVe. We differ as to
haps we can reach a definition that
will suit everybody by tracing the his
tory of the progressive movement and
It's ultimate objects.
During the two decades prior to
1900 this country saw an enormous
expanse in the development of it's ma
terial resources, in the expansion of
its business activities and in the in
crease of capital and of business in
the legitimate purpose of reducing the
cost of production of general use and
necessity was manifested, and the in
genuitY of business men and of their
legal advisers was largely Absorb bed In
effecting profitable plans based on
his discovery
Use and Abuse of Capital.
But these combinations, while they
Tad a legitimate purpose and a legiti- !
nate result in reducing the cost of /
production, also offered an alluring /
to the use and abuse of !
great accommodations of capital to
Itifle competition, establish monop-