Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-13

/
victory in 1912. and not a wave of
! trouble rolled across its peaceful
! breast.
And yet we have no i'll feeling to-
ward our old Republican and Demo.
cratic friends We bear them no ill
Will We accept their criticisms and
! their censure and we congratulate
! ourselves that we have been instru-
mental in someA degree in creating a
/ new set of political beings known as
/ Progressive Republicans and Progress
/ sive Democrats, and that the New
| Republicanism, whatever that may
| be, first had its vague, shadowy and
mysterious being by resaon Of the
activity of the Progressive party in
the recent special Congressional cleo
ton in the old, Third Maine Congress
sional district.
The Republican convention was i'm
portant. Its presiding officer was the
congressman from the Third District
We have no personal criticism to
make of the Hon. John A. Peters. We
appreciate the fact that in this con-
vention he was the personal represen-
tative of the Republican party and
as such is entitled to the respectful
consideration of men of all parties.
AS the spokesman, however, of the
Republican party, or the new Repub-
licanism, his words and his political
acts are of interest to the citizenship
of this district and of this State and
are proper subjects for discussion by
all men.
As I understand it. gentlemen are
oil nv he
or the other because of the principles
for which they stand and because of
the belief of the members of the par
ticular party to which they belong
that they. will stand for and strive
to crystalline into law those princi-
pies which they advocate on the
stump or in the public press. We all
understand perfectly well hat men are
not sent to Congress simply because
it is their wish. Men are not elected
TO Congress for the simple purpose of
beating some other candidate. Men
are not elected to seats in the coun-
ellis of the nation for purely political
purposes. They are sent there because
their constituents believe that they
will stand for certain principles which
will contribute to the material we'll
being of the whole people, and it IS
their sacred duty to see that they
keep faith with those who have ele-
waited them to power; that they fulfill
the promises made and accepted in
good faith by the men at home who
have accepted them at their word by
giving them their vote.
Less than one year ago one of the
greatest political battles ever waged
in Maine was begun at Island Park in
this county. The chairman of the re-
cent Republican State committee was
the central figure. In company with
other prominent gentlemen. he adj
dressed a large gathering of Republi-
cans on the chores of Lake Cobbossee-
contee and the tariff was the bugle
call We were told that II was neces-
sary to send Mr.. Peters to Congress as
a rebuks to the contemplated action
sof the predominant party. 1t was
said that the tariff was the ail-impor-
tant subject and that all other things
sank into. insignificanc in comparison
with it. gentleman from Bath,
one e. c. Plummer went up and down
the Third Maine District and told the
voters how he had figured the matter
out and that because Of the disagree
ing action of the two branches of on
gress which was sure to come, Mr..
Peters election meant that he Whould
be in a position to cast the deciding
vote and that therefore the whole
business fabric of the nation depended
upon the election of Mr.. Peters to the
SD Congress
The tariff at the beginning of that
campaign was the war cry. 1t was
the one subject made more emphatic
than all others in that eventfu / cam
paign, and yet in a keynote speech of
great length, two-thirds OF which was
devoted to questions of national con-
Germ, the congressman from the Third
Maine District barely spoke of the
tariff and did not attempt to discuss
the same in any of its many and
varied phases. Why not, my friends?
Why not? IL the tariff was the all
important issue in 1913, has it ceased
to be of Importance to the manage
ment of the Republican party in
Maine in 1914? Are our old friends
finally awake to the fact that there
are other issues of Importance? Or
are they afraid of this issue having in
mind the very frank statement of ex-
Governor Cobb in his Portland speech
of February last and in which. in
ssubatnce he said That if the pres
ent tariff should prove 40 be satisfac-
tory TO the nation as a whole after
fair and impartial trial. then the Re
publican party would be obliged to
seek new issues.
But even the tariff was not sufficient
for the purposes of the Congressional
contest of 1913, and so the Hon. Au-
gustus p. Gardner made a pilgrimage
into the wilds of Maine for the pur-
pose of putting the necessary punch
into that campaign. Then it was that
this indefnable something known as
the New Republicanism" first saw the
light of day. LARGE ENOUGH FOR
ANY MAN AND SMALL ENOUGH
FOR ANY BOY" The new Republi-
canism was to be the winner. Adopt
ing some of the well defined planks of
the Progressive party the platform Of
the new Republicanism was to be SO
broad and yet so harmless that Mr.. La
Toilette who had fought for years for
the initiative and referendum and Mr..
Taft who has said that the initiative
and referendum struck at the very Vi