Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-12-19
SEC. DANIELS ON
REACTI0NARIES
Secretary Of Navy Ridicules
Charge that Progressive
ism is Hysteria
CHANGES ARE DEFENDED
Says People Demand that
Senator'S no Longer be
Picked by Corporations

NEW YORK, Dec. 17.-"Reaction-
aries who think to weaken the adyo.
cacy of progressive measures by de-
claring that they are the products of
'hysteria, were roundly denounced
tonight by Secretary Daniels, of the
navy department in an address at
the dinner of the North Carolina So
ciety of New York
"a few days ago." Mr.. Daniels
said, "a distinguished educator from
Southern state in a speech in New
York declared that such new and
progressive measures as the initia-
tive and referendum were revolutions
ary.' Another distinguished authori-
ty, statesman and an educator, re
ferred to certain modern American
political doctrines as wild theories,
which common sense and wise exper-
ience demand be rejected as the re-
suit of hysteria.'
So-CaIied Hysteria Hurts
"The real trouble is that this so,
called 'hysteria' hurts. 1t keeps par
ty pledges; it does not take from
labor the bread it earns, it makes
protection-built wealth pay the in
come tax. 1t elects senators direct
from the people. They call it hys-
terra because it means we can have
no more senators from the New York
Central railroad; no more senators
from the Southern Express company;
no more senators from the New
York, New Haven & Hartford rail-
road; no more senators from the
Standard Oil trust.
"The victims of hysteria are not
the forward looking, promise keeping
reformers, who quietly convince the
people that this new way, this COS
pei of progressive craftsmanship, is
best for the country, but your hyster-
ical man is that incarnate self-ap.
pointed claimant of patriotism who
madly waves the Stars and Stripes
with one hand and grips his rebate
provided, protection-fostered wealth
with the other, and bewails an alleg-
ed tendency to put an end to class
legislation; who wildly proclaim that
we are turning away from those fun.
damental pricinples through which we
have come to orr present high estate.
Reforms Are Made.
Legislators in the recent past have
been the favorites of great corpora
tions. They have f t compelling
power from highe up The imper-
sonal element in the situation made
it hard to cure, but at last the AK
has been laid at the root of the tree
and the people have demanded that
all this must be changed. How? By
legalized primaries, even for presi-
dent; by pure food laws, by an III
come tax, by lower tariff, by laws
to protect seamen, by regulation of
trusts, by the abolition of interlock-
ing directorates and rebates, etc.
Take the tariff. The men who re.
vised it were not hysterical. They
used figures and facts. They were
painstaking, scientific, and what was
the answer? The beneficiaries OF
protection, the infant industries, gray
and hoary with age and obese from
their long pull at the pap-bottle, cried
out: You are going to impoverish
our country Four months under the
new tariff have passed, and the re-
port of Secretary of Commerce Red
field declares that the flooding OF
our markets with the cheap wares
of Europe has not happened as pre-
dicted, and Americas foreign trade
is still evidencing healthy growth.