Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-22

OTTUMWA COURIER, TUESDAY, oCTOBl
FOR MEN AND WOMEN TO THINK ABOUT.
This campaign is one in which the personality Of
the different candidates should not cut any figure with
the voters Judgment 1t is always safe to assume that
any man who is candidate for president OF the United
States is good and has ability and personal popu-
larlty Some Of them will have more than Others but
in the very nature of things all of them have some de-
gree of personal worth and merit they could not be
nominated for that high Office
The policies of the party each represents are what
AFFECT the voter In almost every presidential campaign
ever held in this country there have been more than
two candidates. but it has been very seldom that any
more than two of them factors in the election In
recent times the contest has been between the repub-
can and democrat parties. This year that is the
condition The real contest in this campaign is be-
tween the republican and democrat parties. There
very few people who feel that Roosevelt has the
remotest chance Of being elected president In the cleo
ton next month He, himself, is too much OF a poll
tician to think for moment that he be elected
He can however be factor in the election to the ex
tent of dividing the republican vote sufficiently to elect
Governor Wilson, That the only result that Colonel
Roosevelt's candidacy can accomplish ..
1t is therefore up to the voters to decide whether
they want to elect President Taft and continue the
present prosperous conditions vote for Roosevelt or
Wilson, and eject Wilson, and give him an opportunity
of putting in force his free trade policies, which have
always produced panic in this country, and will do so
again if the laws he and Champ Clark advocate are
enacted.
This is a matter that should have the thoughtful
consideration Of every voter. Every man and every
woman should take the question home and ask: will
be benefited by change from present conditions to free
trade conditions?"
You read the history of the country when it
was under low tariff administrations A..a
Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1928,
shortly after the enactment Of protective tariff law
In 1882, in message to congress- he said "Our
country presents all sides marks of prosperity and
happiness unequalled in any portion of the world"
The next year he signed tariff bill which provided
for gradual reduction of the tariff every two years for
ten years. BY the time two reductions had been made
the country thrown into what is known the panic
of 1887, which continued until the enactment Of the
high tariff law in 1872 Hogs and cattle sold for less
than 81 each at sheriff sales. Want and misery
every where In 1888 as President Jackson said the
country was prosperous--peope employed and
work plenty, yet the politicians said: 1--WE must
have change and he signed bill reducing the tariff
against the advice and peadings Of Henry Clay and
other who wanted the prosperous conditions to
continue. The tariff Of 1912 brought prosperity again
and in a message to congress in 1916 President Polk
said: Labor in all it's branches is receiving ample
ward, while education, science and arts rapidly
larging the means Of social happiness. The happy
condition Of our people is without example in the
history Of nations"
The Walker bill was enacted in 1916 by the demo-
cratic party This bill again reduced the tariff Daniel
Webster spoke for three days against the Walker bill
When Webster first entered politics he was free
trader but he changed to be ardent advocate Of
the protective tariff.
Senator John M. Niles Of Connecticut, democrat,
spoke against the bill and asked: "Why should the
country change from prosperous conditions to condi
lions of want and misery? Why should shut up our
factories here and buy our goods in England?"
=. Senator William H. Hayward of North Carolina
said that the people of his state were free traders but