The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-27
Holds the Opposition Response
BILE for Economic Ills.
SAYS WHATEVER IS WRONG
Has Grown Up Under Their Adj
ministratiOn of Affairs.
He Steers Clear of the Local
Liquor Question.

1 political address since accepting the
Democratic nomination for vice presi-
dent of the United States, Governor
Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana, con-
demned the protective tariff system be-
fore a Democratic mass meeting here
| tonight Governor Marshall was the
first of the party leaders from outside
the state to take part in the Demo-
| cratic campaign preceding the state
! election on September 8.
! Because of the fact that liquor legis-
! lation has been a feature of Governor
MarshalPs administration, it had been
expected by some Maine Democrats
that the speaker might refer to the
! Maine prohibitory law. Governor Mar
/ shall however declared he would not
! discuss local issues.
| 81 am a Democrat" he said in this
connection land because 1 am a DEM
| ocrat 1 believe in the doctrine of local
government. believe, too, at this par
ticular time national issues are of more
! importance than local questions. There
! fore want to talk exclusively on what
| 1 conceive to be national issues"
Governor Marshall said in part:
why must the consumer always be
the goat? I believe in vested rights but
1 do not believe in vested wrongs I
do not particularly censure the manu-
facturers for getting all they can but I
81 plain that the blame is the peoples -
''It is idle for some men to make
declarations. Broken promises are oft
times more eloquent than their words.
who is going to believe the regular
Republican organization when it de-
clares that it is opposed to special priv
iIeges?
''Who takes it seriously when it
points with pride to its enactments 20
curtail monopoly?
and one-half years the leader of the
Progressive party was in power in this
country?
Can anyone put his finger upon
single effort made by him to curb the
mcnopolistic tendency which was then
rampant. Does anyone believe that his
new platform which stands both for
socialism and for system Of licensing
and curbing is anything more than a
bid for votes?
To stand pat or progressive, every
man opposed to special privilege may
say as Nathan said unto David: Thou
art the man. If there are laws to elm
mate special privileges the Republicans
did not enforce them. If there are no
effective laws they failed to enact effec-
tive ones; if conditions are such as 20
prevent proper control. they became so
under their responsibility. 80
Il do not address myself to the man
who believes that honesty is the best
policy. I fear that he may find out
sometime that dishonesty pays and
straightway forget his policy. Nor do
care to talk to the man who is salts
fed with the statement that we are the
richest people in the world. If he
means to say there are more rich men
in America than any other country he
is correct; but if he implies that the
natural and acquired wealth of Amer
lea has been fairly and honestly dis
tributed among the people he is alto
gether wrong.
Source of All Wealth
''The source of wealth is well known,
it springs from the soil; it is dug out
of the earth; it is cut from the for
ests; it is that which God gives with
the labor of the people added thereto.
If it is unequally distributed, a free
people have the power to correct the
evils which permit or cause unequal
distribution; if they do not correct
them, they ought to cease growing
about them.
"I have lived long enough to follow
the changing reasons advanced for the
high protective tariff. 1 have found
them all to be shifty uncertain and
dishonorable. First, it was to pay off
the war debt by compelling the foreign
manufacturer to contribute to the Uni
ted States treasury, then it was to fos-
ter our infant industries, then to pro-
tect American labor against the pauper
labor of Europe, and finally in the last
campaign to eQualiZe the cost of pro-
duction at home and abroad. At last
the frank statement was made that the
government proposed to take it's man.
ufacturies into partnership with 1t and
that this partnership was proposing tic
sell to the consumers OF this country all
the necessities of life except those
grown upon the farms, not for the ben
eft of the government but for the
benefit of the manufacturer.
Government Partnerships.
.I myself, have never been able to
determine what system of business OK
ethics should induce a government to
form a partnership with the man who
made the cloth that is in my coat
while totally refusing to form a part
nershiu with me who buys the coat
and wears it, 1t is not the business or
government to form partnership with
any one unless it forms a partnership
"'The relentless cruelty to the con-
sumner is revealed by the fact that the
products are sold at less price to the
people abroad than to the people al
home. Surplus products, it is ex-
planned, but it is not explained why
men go on from year to year making
products in vaster quantities than are
needed only to sell the surplus at
loss. 1 am in favor of a system OF
TAXATION which will compel the pro-
tected manufacturer to sell the surplus
eft home and the product abroad This
viii for the first time in history COM
pel foreigners to pay the tax
1.-THE Republicans both standpat anc
nropressjve have been responsible for
this condition of affairs. They do not
recede from this system. but they pro-
pose to give US some sort of a scien-
tific investigation which may disclose
like the declarationfrsof independence
that in the course of human events
some slight changes should be made
in the schedules. 1 cannot say how soon
these iniquities can be adjusted and
these burdens removed from the people
but I do say that boards and commits
-irr,- md erner-fs are too slow. that It