Imperial Valley press., 1912-11-02

which he will not be--he will be ex-
pected to work in favor Of protection
of citrus fruits, in spite Of the fact
that the national platform of his party
declares that a protective tariff is a
violation of the national constitution.
But aside from this, the whole aru
Gle is based on the assumption that the
tariff should be taken off food pro-
ducts, to reduce the cost of living, and
thereby it is proposed to strike a blow
directly at the industries of this val
ley.
Ii is a matter of common knowledge
that the big packing firms have for
years been building up a great base
of supplies in Argentina, and that the
Democratic party now proposes to take
the tariff off meats and livestock,
that this country can draw its supplies
from the South American republic
named, at the expense of the livestock
men of this nation.
Mr. Kettner has gone on record as
saying in effect that in congress-if
elected-he will work for the continued
violation of the United States consti-
tuition for the sake of protecting the
the question arises whether he will not
go still further and work for the vio-
lation of the constitution for the pro-
lection of the livestock industries of
Imperial valley or will he seek to up
hold the national Democratic policy by
killing the American livestock indus
try through free trade, to reduce the
cost of living, in accordance with the
~ t.
column?
The fact of the case is that when
A candidate for office compromises his
political position by beginning to re-
pudiate the national platform on
which he stands he gets into very deep
water and Mr.. Kettner is already n
a foot above his ears
To be consistent in trying to avoid
killing off Californian industries, Mr.
Kettner must be entirely inconsistent
in trying to stand on a platform whi ch
he himself repudiates.
But the position of Mr.. Kettner is
that of almost all Democratic candi-
dates for congress-he is obliged to
stand for the violation of the constitu-
tion by protecting the industries in
which his constituents are interested,
while at the same time he is compelled
to yell loudly against such violation Of
the constitution for the protection Of
other industries. And the result of
this must be either that the Democrat :
! ic party as a whole would repudiate its
platform as soon as it got into power,
or as each item came up for revision
the majority of congress would stand
for the destruction of the orange and
lemon and livestock and 9th r indus
tries, agricultural and otherwise.
1t is true that the dairy industry is
not yet affected, but for years great
quantities of butter have been import
ed from Holland to America, and it is
a certainty that with a party in pow
er which believes a protective policy
to be unconstitutional, it would not be
long before this country would be sup
! piled in great part with butter from
/ Argentina, especially as the Panama
canal is certain to increase maritime
| traffic facilities.
! Unfortunately for the Democratic
| party, its tariff policy is such that its
candidates cannot stand for principle
! but must, in self defense become trim
mers and time servers. and Mr.. Kettner
| is in this respect simply in the regular
| list.
! But Mr.. Kettner has gone further
than this. He not simply tries to catch
| the votes of protectionist Democrats
but his leading supporters are ex-
J Republican Bosses in spite of which he
poses as Democrat.