The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-01

| in batting out home runs
 l Gilks believes that he has lost the 1 two other players, who were to be se-
 cured through Cleveland. So far he has
 heard nothing concerning them.
 
 the deliberate purpose of electing a dem ocratic President because they preferred i the triumph of their nominal party foes I to seeing the control of their own organ
 ization wrested from their hands by the
 rank and file of their own party. They
 are foes of decent citizenship. Their l political lives depend upon their keeping
 politics in such condition that decent men cannot succeed them There is no use endeavOring to put into | effect our platform for social and indus l trial justice if the legislative and execu-
 tive officers of the government are mere sub-officers of a boss, whether this boss
 be MT. Penrose, MT. Barnes or MT. Mur-
 phy.
 Want Labor Laws Much of our effort is to secure laws 1 protecting the labor of women and pro hlbitlng the labor of children in mines and factories, providing for workmen's com | pensation and the like. This effort is | pound to come to nought, if. in it's ac- tual working. the forces of government
 are administered by men whose whole theory of action is based on the alliance | of crooked politics with crooked wealth. l Much of our effort is to help industry We propose to make the conditions such I that honest men can earn a fair living i for themselves and their families without | the haunting fear of being prosecuted for , violations of law which they could not
 know were such and which were not vio-
 lations of sound public policy. | Much of our effort is to help men and 1 an xnrlga Inc hal lf.xya l..
 operation among the farmers and the | business men, we believe in cooper
 alton among the wakeworkers. And we l further believe that the wageworkers and the business men must cooperate to-
 gether and work closer together for their
 mutual advantage.
 Returning to the tariff question, he said: l We progressives advocate the imme- l diate creation of a nonpartisan commits sion, with power to propose revision of tariff rates, schedule by schedule, treat
 Ing each case on an intelligent consider ation of it's merits, divorced from favor itfsm and the fostering of special inter ests."
 Progressive Programme l Of the progressive antitrust programme l he said in part
 1 We believe in cooperation among
 business men, among farmers and among | 'ooN "cA ASiS' uc PIO6itbSlN6 dQVO- 1 cate the creation of strong interstate trade commission and would give such ! Commission, primarily, three powers: Il. The power of investigation to ascertain whether a monopoly exists. ''2. The power directly to prohibit all unfair trade practices within its 1 Jurisdiction.
 "3. The power to end the exclusive | control of factor necessary to pro- duction by an order adapted to the circumstances of the particular case Our constructive programme of anti | trust legislation has no quarrel with large business organizations as such On the contrary we recognize that busi- ness efficiency in production can be attained only through business organ ization. But we demand that the gov ernment be clothed with all the nes- essary power to crush monopoly with all it's attendant evils.
 Contrasted with this programme we
 have the democratic antitrust pro- gramme now under discussion in the Senate. That programme proves the in- adequacy of the democratic party for the present and the future of the na- ! ton. It is. and always will be. the states rights party, the party opposed to strong federal action, the party afraid-of-power.'
 Dare Not Use Power "The democrats dare not use power
 themselves. nor let anyone else have it. Their trust programme, as it stands today. is made futile by this fear. The Clayton bill goes hopelessly wrong In that 1t forbids specifically any com bination, or any agreement in interstate commerce, between two or more cor porations, firms or even individuals which in any way lessens or restricts the competition between them. They propose for instance that two farmers selling milk across a state line can not cooperate; and that two men do- ing any business across a state line cannot form a partnership or a cor
 poration. This Is economic absurdity. We have had now 24 years experi- ence with trying to regulate business by destruction" the colonel concluded.
 The result has been nearly flat fail
 ure. The administration proposes policy of further destruction, even
 more unintelligent In conception, and certain to be more futile in perform ance, than the existing policy which 1t | amends. The only alterntive is the I a...xr rtN ~12~~