Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-01

great abilities as trust to be exer-
cised as much in the interest of the
public as in his own interests. But
we should check and punish him eff
fectually and promptly when he exer-
cises those abilities TO the detriment
either of the smaller business man
with whom he completes, of the wage
workers who should share with him
the benefits of his and their common
efforts or of the genertl public whom
he serves.
LAS regards the tariff, I wish espe-
cially to call your attention to the prom
Uses made by President Wilson and his
supporters two years ago. They assert
ed that their method of tariff reduction
would reduce the cost of living and would
thus solve the trust question because,
as they said, the trusts were the Great
ures of the tariff We then answered
that their promises were empty words
that no such results as they stated could
or would follow from the course they
advocated and that only by the method
we propose could either the trust or the
tariff question be dealt with so as to
abate the existing evils and at the same
lltut AIAtI ease the S0uSinl -
Two short years have proved us to be
right. Their promises have not been
kept. Their performance has brought dis
tress upon the nation. The cost of living
has not been reduced. But the ability
of the average man to earn a living has
been greatly reduced. Not the slightest
progress has been made toward solving
the trust question. But the business
community has been harassed and har-
ried to no purpose; and the prosperity
of the business man has been checked,
exactly as the prosperity of the farmer
and the wage-worker has been checked
AS for the farmer, the present tariff, the
administrators tariff. was so framed as
to result in the sacrifice of his interests
He had no spokesman, no friend in high
quarters and his welfare was contempt
uously sacrificed At every point where
his interest was concerned he was made
to suffer. AS for the wage-worker the
result OF the tariff was that he suffered
even more than his employer, for he was
thrown out of employment and lost the
means to earn his livelihood.
AS for the employer, sometimes he has
been able to struggle on with the loss of
profits, sometimes he has had to close
his shop In businesses in which any of
the big trusts were concerned it was the
small competitors of the trusts who were
injured and in many cases ruined. Tariff
reduction as put into practice by the
present administration has chiefly ben
fitted foreign rivals and competitors It
has done grave injury to the business
| community and the farming community
and has caused suffering to the wage
workers and the whole policy of the ad-
ministration has been one to cause our
people in business. our people on the
| farms, our people with dinner pals, to
| look toward the future with grave con-
Germ and apprehension
1T is of course essential to rebuke
those leaders who by their action helped
to put the present administration in pow
er, and, moreover, it is of vital conse.
quence to the future well-being of our
people to drive from public life all mer
whose political activities In state and ma.
ton alike have been such as those o;
Senator Penrose This is not only a DO
litical but a moral issue. / mention TIL,
name of Senator Penrose merely becaus,
he typifies class. I am not concerned
with him as an individual; am concern
ed with him as type. Mr.. Penrost
stands in Pennsylvania as Mr.. Barne.
stands In New York. When we fight these
men and their activities we are fighting
the battles of all decent men, and in par.
ticular we are fighting the battle of tht
honest Republican rank and file, whom
these men have misrepresented and be-
trayed.
ut is well to keep in mind that We
now nave Mr.. Wilson's administration
that we now suffer from a wretched for.
eign policy and from home policies ir
national affairs which have seriously i'm
paired the well-being of our people, pri
marily because of the action of Senator
Penrose in associating with men of the
same type like Mr. Barnes, Messrs. Pen.
rose, Barnes and their associates at Chi.
cago taking advantage of the fact tina,
national nominating conventions are no,
protected by law. followed a course OF
conduct morally every whit as bad as
that which at elections result in wrong.
ooers or number rank being put In
ettipeS' 1Hey stole from the rank anC
file of the Republican party the right to
govern themselves; to nominate their owr
candidates and promulgate their owr
platform. They took this action with the
deliberate purpose of electing a Demo.
cratic President because they infinitely
preferred the triumph of their nomina
party foes the seeing the control of thei,
own. organization wrested from thei,
hands by the rank and file of their owr
party. They are foes of decent citizen.
ship Their political lives depend rnor
their Keeping politics in such condition
that decent men cannot succeed then
and that the ordinary citizens cannot ee,
control of their own government.
Rather than see this control broken
Messrs. Penrose. Barnes and their asso
ciates deliberately put the Democrati,
organization and Mr.. Wilson into move,
at Washington
On course, our contest must alway,
De primarily one for principles. I
must always be a contest to enact int,
law and reduce to the domain of ex
ecutive action those principles Blu
IL is impossible to do this effectiyel,
until we drive from political leader