Daily Kennebec journal., 1914-02-13
Trusts Not to Be
Hanged===New Di=
plomacy Earns
Only Contempt.
The Great Menace Of Today Not
Trusts but Non-Emp|oyment.


in general, came in for adverse crti-
cism at the hands of Former Speaker
Joseph G. Cannon at Lincoln Ami
versary Dinner here tonight. The
former Republican Speaker of the
House Of Representatives coupled his
euIogy of Lincoln and the Republican
party with dire predictions for the
country's welfare under Democratic
rule
MIR. Wilson is our President for the
time being and the Democratic Con-
gress is our Congress, making laws
under which we all must live, and we
will obey the law and grin and bear
whatever ills may come,' said he. But
the rainbow has not come down in
Illinois as our opponents predicted 1t
would ten months ago when Mr. Will
son appeared in person before Con-
gress to deliver his first prophesy of
the New Freedom
Meanwhile President Wilson is en-
gagged in smashing precedents. Some
one has said that a Precedent en-
bodies Principle, and the human
race has been living under precedents
since the days of Moses The Devil
and he has been busy through several
thousand years trying to smash good
precedents. / would not intimate that
the Devil could even get into the
White House grounds with strict
Presbyterian President on guard, but
some of the precedents he is smashing
had good origin and have lived in good
repute through a hundred years. They
are Democratic, too.
THE President has delivered his
messages from the rostrum of the
Speaker of the House. In that he has
smashed a precedent of a hundred
years and followed one of a thousand
years in autocratic government before
the days of Washington and Jefferson
president Wilson smashed another
old precedent in abolishing the New
Years reception at the White House.
This abandonment of an old social Gus
tom is not of Importance. but it re-
minds me of an incident in the ad-
ministration of Lincoln. On the morn
ing of January /. 1863, the President
copied the Emancipation Proclamation
with his own hand, working at his desk
until the hour for the New Years re-
Ctpllpn 10 DeSlH. IHG1 lie Went 10 lile
Blue Room and for four hours shook
hands with thousands of citizens. At
3 o'clock in the afternoon Lincoln re-
turned to his desk with his right hand
so swollen that he could scarcely hold
a pen, but, after manipulating and
massaging the fingers for few min
utes, he took the pen and wrote "Abra-
ham Lincoln" to the most significant
document ever issued from the White
House. Lincoln did not think it nee
essary to smash the old social prece-
dent of New Years greeting, nor to
create another, political rather than
social by assembling the leaders of his
party at the White House to witness
his rapid change of pens in signing
different parts of his name, distribute
these historic pens, and deliver
speech informing a waiting world of
the blessings that were sure to follow
the momentous act. There was no
coinage of phrases, such as "Constitu-
tion of Peace" or the Common Coun-
ell" of the people.
Il am inclined to like the smashing
of old precedents by Lincoln more than
those by Mr.. Wilson. President Will
SoD anu HIS party SiiidSHSu tiiS
Republican precedent of prosperity.
"A year ago, before he had taken up
the full responsibilities of the Presi-
dency, Mr.. Wilson was engaged in
building a gallows higher than Ha-
mans for the trusts, but in the latest
message from the White House we
find that the gallows have been trans
formed into maypole and the Trusts
are invited to join the President in a
May day dance to celebrate the new
Constitution of Peace. The new di-
plomacy that was to convert our bat
tleships into international social CEN
ters has brought only refusal from the
great nations of Europe to participate
in the Panama Exposition; the nations
of the East are irritated, South
America suspicious, and Mexico in
anarchy.
The great menace of today is not
the trusts-however desirable it may
be to have wise legislation to regulate
them-so much as unemployment.
We have domestic depression and for
eign irritation, and there must be
some cause. To my mind it is the re-
versal of old and tried policies. Ex-
periments with the Democratic policy
have not been successful. They have
been repeatedly tried, but only to re-
act on our domestic tranquility"
Mr.. Cannon referred to factional
differences in the Republican party
and suggested that there were no diff
ferences between Republicans and
Progressives on the subject of Pro-
lection.
'You remember Moses said that the
Lord had led Israel out of the desert
and made him to ride on the high
places of the earth, that he might eat
of the increase of the fields, suck
honey from the rocks and oil from the
f1inty rocks; had given him butter of
kline and milk of goats, and fat of
lambs, and to drink the pure blood of
the grape. But Jeshurun waxed fat
and kicked; he grew thick with fat,
and then forsook God who made him
and lightly esteemed the rock Of his
salvation. The children of Israel took
up strange new gods whom their faith
ers feared not, and God hid his face
from them.