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

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to the tariff commission and the sub
ieet of conservation. And yet less than
one year ago these were the issues
which the Republican party chose and
upon which they elected their candi-
! date to Congress. The address of Mr..
! Peters was partisan. 1t was anthem
| ocratic and Progressive. 1t was
negative speech 1t did not contain one
| consoling or constructive thought 1t
J did contain a very important and far
reaching recommendation. 1t recon-
mended that Republicans be urged to
run lor public office. I read from
| copy of the speech:
Let us encourage numerous candi-
! dates for office Let us ask good men
| to become candidates to the end that
any confidence our platform may Gre
| ate may he strengthened and supple
mented by the men who stand on it.
The Republican party as at present
made up, is doomed. 1t is like a ship
without q rudder on a storm tossed
sea. 1t has served its purpose. 1t has
had its day. 1t may win temporary
victories, but it's work is done Its
| leaders are at war among themselves.
Hardly any two think alike. There is
as much difference between Mr.. La
Toilette and Mr.. Taft, Mr.. Cummings
and Mr.. Penrose, as there is between
a Democrat and a Republican. And
house divided against itself must fall.
The old Republican party today is a
! mass of struggling and conflicting ell
ements. largely held together by the
forces of the invisible government
and the men who seek to control this
great government for personal and
selfish ends.
1t refused to keep faith with the peo-
pie of Maine and delivered the State
into the hands of Democracy, and it
is only by the grace of the Progress
sive party that it finds itself in power
today. 1t refused to keep faith with
the people of this nation and deliver
ed the country into the hands of the
Democratic party. Long before the
convention of 1912 a large Republican
majority in the House of Represen-
tatives was changed to an overwhelm-
ing Democratic majority and the
United States Senate was all but lost
to the Republican party. Unmindful
of the sentiment which engulfed it
those in authority and power complet-
ed their party's undoing at Chicago
when they captured the party name
and machinery by sacrificing those
underlying principles which are abb
solutely essential to the preservation
of any political party in this nation
and without which no political organ
iZation can endure.
The Progressive party will live. It
will live because II is right. 1t may
meet with temporary discoura cement
and defeat but such defeats will only
serve to make it the stronger. 1t will
live because it meets the require
ments of changing social, business and
economic conditions. Tt will live be-
cause it's principles appeal not only
to the head but the heart. Its under
lying principles are not local; they are
not even confined to the state and
to the nation; they are world wide.
They have largely contributed to the
many excellent policies of the Ger
man government, and England, con-
servative England, proud mistress of
the seas, on whose worldly possessions
the sun in heaven never sets, under
the magnetic and magnanimous gem
eralship of the great Lloyd George. is
at last awating TO the fact that con-
seryafion of human health and hui
man life mean conservation of the
nation. she is at last arousing herself
to the significance and truth Of the
words of the poet,
princes and lords may flourish or may
fade,
A breath can make them as breath has
made;
But a bold peasantry. their country's
pride,
When once destroyed can never be sup
piled"
The principles of the Progressive
party are SO broad, so humane, so ad-
mtrably adapted to the changing con-
ditions of our social and industrial life
that minor difficulties as to detail. per-
sonal criticisms of individuals and
hair-splitting criticisms of local par
ty principles win not or cannot stop
or stay it. We can stand for a nom
partisan expert tariff commission be-
cause political environment. the pat
ronizing influences of those who seek
special favors have not yet, nor can
they in the near future, shape the
Judgment or in any way affect the
principles of the Progressive party
which is being recruited from the
ranks of independent citizenship. We
can stand for federal control of great
corporations doing interstate bust
ness and whose business management
may seriously affect the rights of the
whole people in the necessities of life,
because the Progressive party does
| not nor has it ever depended upon
| these great business institutions for
funds with which to finance its cam
paigns. We can stand for those great
principles in our platform which aim
| to give to the laboring masses as a
whole, not any particular faction
| thereof, greater returns through wage
! laws and laws which shall conserve
| the health and happiness of those who
! toll, because the men who seek I'M
| just profits, those who ask for unrea-
| sonable dividends on watered stock do
not have, nor can they ever have any
place of power or influence in the Pro-
gressive party.
We can stand for conservation of
natural resources, the preservation OF
great natural agencies for the general
| ing Of power, the preservation of for
| est lands which so vitality affect the
wlel-being of any land and which are
the natural heritage of great and
free people, because those who have