Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-06-26
PARKER GIVES
THE KEYNOTE
Makes Speech as Temporary
Chairman of Convention.

Convention Hall, Baltimore, June %.
In his keynote speech as chairman
of the Democratic convention Judge
Alton b. Parker said:
I'VE meet while the hills yet echo
to wild cries of liar, thief and traitor
and furious walls Of fraud, bribery,
treachery and corruption, and our ears
are weary with the din of the inarticu-
late shrteking and passionate %vilif1ca-
ton of the most shameful brawl of our
political history.
Our candidates, however, are with
out exception men of such lofty mien
that we meet immune from the dis
temper which marked the Chicago con
vention and privileged to discharge a
solemn public duty calmly, deliberate
ly, seriously.
The Brutal Chicago srawI.
The III of government by the
people of the world over has been ma
terially checked by the d~isgraeeful
brawl which terminated in the bedlam
of Chicago. Every good citizen has
been put to shame by the brutality
and the abuse which characterized this
wrangle between a president and an
ex-president. Gratitude, friendship,
party loyalty, patriotism and common
decency were forgotten In the tussle.
The assault upon the unwritten pro
hibition against a third term made In
the wild scramble for the Republican
nomination warns us of the vital ne
cessity of Incorporating In our consti.
tuition a safeguard against repeated
terms.
TN the very beginning Of our con
stitution making 1t was urged by dele
gates participating that safety required
u constitutional limitation Of the period
of years Il man might hold the office
Of president. History warned them of
the coming of a man whose Unsuitable
lust for power would be as consuming
as Caesars, towering high above his
love Of country. The danger seemed,
even to the pessimists, to have passed
with the establishment Of a precedent
by Washington, Jefferson and their
successors.
Indeed, where lives the man who
has not either heard or said that an
unwritten law forbids more than two
terms? And if any one could be so
foolhardy as to seek further he would
be crushed by the wrath of a patriotic
and intelligent people.
Concerning Third Term.
EgINHn mann yvI, maj Inaa.yal lnfnny
at Chicago ace recognized the third
term tradition and acknowledged Its
application to his situation. On the
eve of his triumph In 1904 he said,
The wise custom which limits the
president to two terms regards the
substance and not the form, and under
no circumstances will l be a candidate
for or accept another nomination
Wrong in this year of grace, he was
right in that. Peradyenture, he was
honest with his soul, and he may have
confessed to 1t that even a president
may be tempted to 8 to sordid
devices and shameless opportunities to
gain his ambition. If so, he was in
mental condition to realize to the full
the danger to the republic involved in
setting aside a custom constituting the
only bulwark against the assaults of
men whose ambition chokes their pa
triotism and whose selfish desire for
personal victory and power throttles
those moral scruples with which they
may once have been endowed.
Ro~ossvslts Lust OF Power.
"Would the man who threw his hat
In the ring and sought to slug his OPP
ponent over the p in his fght for
a third term rest satisfied with its
achievement? Clearly his lust of pow
er would have brooked no such limita-
ton.
ga third term would but have whet-
ted his desire for more, and as the
terms slipped away each renewal would
discover greater injury to our constitu-
ton, to the form Of government estab-
lished under it and to every legal curb
on his imperious will.
Single Term In Constitution.
"Unquestionably we have been wrong
In assuming that a tradition against a
third term constitutes a sufficient safe
guard against INSCRIPTIONS ambition
for unlimited power, We need a def
hite constitutional limitation which
shall prevent imparialistic souls from
forcing personal continuation in Of
fee for long periods or for life and the
personal selection Of a successor In of
fee. And the constitutional provision
should go one step further than our
recently assailed tradition, The pro
vision should limit to a single term.
"In this great country, which boasts
of a wealth Of $130,00O,O 600, 900 as
against $4,000, 1000 600 for Great Brit
ain and Ireland, 500, ooo,O00,00o for
France and $50, Ooo, 100000 for Ger
many, all are conscious that too large
q part Of our wealth has been secured
by a small percentage Of our popula-
ton and that the cost OF living rises
faster than the average Income.
Causes Of the High Cost.
"The principal aust Of all this is
to be found In the tariff statutes and
la competition created for the purple
and wringing from the public every
thing which the tariff statutes make
possible.
THE average Of duties under the
terH NJ 1870 ~as az nor papf Nou