Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-08-19

| cation is as Bourbon and reactionary
now as it was then. If anything it is
worse.
There is equally little hope in the
| Democratic party organization. Two
years ago in their platform and o..
the stump their representatives an
nounced that they would reduce the
tariff and thereby lower the cost of
living and solve the trust question.
They have reduced the tariff. The
only effect this had upon the trust
question was to weaken the smaller
competitors of the trusts in the ill.,
dustries affected by the trusts. 1t did
not reduce the cost of living, but it
did reduce the capacity of the aver
age man to earn living. Their
promises were absolutely falsified;
and their action has been an import
ant contributory cause to business
| anxiety and depression.
AS regards the tariff, remember
that the Payne-Aldrich bill was
vicious bill on the one side, Just as
| the present bill is vicious bill on
| the other side. The two bills were
made under exactly the same meth
DDS are continued just so long as
violent reaction one way will be fol-
| lowed by violent reaction the other
way. If you put in power the Re-
publican organization, under the lead
| of Messrs. Penrose, Barnes, Gallinger
and the others whose hold upon it is
as yet mistaken, you will insure
another violent revulsion against
them You will thereby insure a
| Of
the swing of the pendulum alternat-
ing from one unhealthy extreme to
the other unhealthy extreme
| The one chance of accomplishing
results worth having is to adopt the
Progressive platform as regards the
tariff, the trusts, as regards both
| business and labor. tariff commits
sion of non partisan experts, If as
efficiently handled as the German
tariff commission, will do for this
country what the German tariff COM
mission through decades has done for
Germany. We are not asking you to
try experiments, we are asking you
to go into a plain business PROPOSE
ton which has proved its excellence.
The Trust Problem.
In the same way the trusts can be
handled only along the lines we
championed. 1t is utterly hopeless to
try to do away with combinations in
the business world, just as 1t is
hopeless and mischievous to try to
do away with combinations in the
labor world, just as we ought to en-
courage combination and co-opera-
ton among the farmers. There must
be business combinations The eff.
forts to stop them all cannot be sue
cessful and can only result in mis-
chlef. What it needs is control of
these corporations thorough going and
far-reaching control, a control that
can only come through the action of
the National government. This control
shouIo not be attempted under the
gulse OF lawsuits undertaken to pun
lsh people for what has already been
done 1t should be obtained through
continuing supervisory control exer-
clsed by an administrative BODY.
rms administrative body should In
advance tell honest business men
what they cannot and what they can
DO. 1t should exercise such contro,
over the inception of business as to
put a stop at the beginning to the
mischievous activities of business
that is not honest
The Progressive party, far more
than any other political organiZa-
ton, has concerned itself with the
needs of the wage worker. We be-
lieye in the unions but we demand
the same good conduct from the
union as from the corporation We
believe in the wage workers right
OF organization and of collective
bargaining. We stand for Justice to
the plain decent American who
works for wages just as we stand for
the plain decent American who runs
a business or tills a farm. Whether
a man works in a lumber camp. or a
factory, or sails on fishing schoon-
er. or stands behind a counter, or is
head of a bank or a railroad. We
wish to secure him fair play: we
wish to give him a square DEAL and
to have him give his fellow-citizen
also square DEAL,
The Progressive party does not be-
lieve that the State shall in any
way be busy-body, and intrude it.
self in private life where it is not
wanted. But 1t does believe tina:
tnere are many things that the gov
eminent can do better than individ-
uals can do them, and an even larger
number of things in which 1t can be
of assistance to individuals In help
ing them work together. 1t does not
desire in any case that the govern
ment should adopt a patronizing at
titude toward the individual. On the
contrary, our theory is that the
average Individual, whatever his po-
sition. or whatever the kind of work
he aims to do, should primarily be
true to the old American ideal of
self-help, and that with this fealty
to one old American ideal should be
fealty to another, the ideal of COM
bination for mutual self-help; and
the government should only be called
in when its help is not only neces-
sary but desired
Farmers Most Difficult to Help.
| One of the men whom it is most
| desirable and at the same time most
difficult to help is the farmer. Now