Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1914-07-01
ROOSEVELT, IN FIRST SPEECH
Of CAMPAIGN ATTACKS The
wilson ADMINISTRATION
Calls the Tariff Laws Collosal failure,
and the Antitrust Measures
An Absurdity.
PROGRESSIVE PARTY OFFERS 70NLY REMEDY
Bosses Thwar the Rank and File Of The Republican Party
Warns the Disaffeoted OnesPus Big FLAG Sunt-Presen
Program Is Preventive 10 Prosperity"-'Comins
Issue Is NOT Only Political but Moral

power. One commission should shape
our tariff policies so as, with thorough
knowledge disinterestedly acquired to
! give proper encouragement to our
merchants while also giving proper
| protection to our wage workers, our
farmers and our business men. The
other commission should exercise
strict supervision and control over big
| business. We should treat it with en-
tire justice, drawing the line not on
size, but on misconduct. We should
encourage the big business man who
does we'll and who regards his great
abilities as trust to be exercised as
much in the interest Of the public as
in his own interests. But we should
CHECK and punish him effectuallyI
and promptly when he exercises these
abilities to the detriment either of the
smaller business man with whom he
completes or the wage workers who
should share with him the benefits
of his and their common efforts or OF
! the general public whom he serves
AS regards the tariff wish espec-
tally to call your attention to the
promise made by president Wilson
and his supporters two years ago
They asserted 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 creatures 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 ad-
vocated and that only by the method
we proposed could either the trust or
the tariff question be dealt With so as
to abate the existing evils and at the
same time increase the general well
being. Two sl/rt years have proved
US to be right. Their promises have
not been kept. Their performance
has brought distress upon the nation.
The cost of living has not been re-
duced But the ability of the average
man to earn living has been greatly
reduced. Not the slightest progress
has been made toward solving the
trust question, But the business COM
f1dnity has been haressed and harried
to no purpose and the prosperity Of
the business man has been checked,
exactly as the prosperity of the farm
er and the wage worker has been
checked, AS for the farmer, the pres
ent tariff, the administration tariff,
is so framed as to result in the sacri-
flee of his interests. He had no spokes-
man, no friend in high quarters and
his welfare was contemptuously sac
rificed At every point where his in
terest was concerned he was made to
suffer. AS for the wage worker, the
result of the tariff was that he suf-
fered even more than his employer
for he was thrown ont Of employment
and lost the means to earn his live
lihood.
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 high trusts were
concerned it was the small competi-
| tors of the trusts who were injured
and in many cases ruined. Tariff re-
duction as put into practice by the
present administration has chiefly
benefited foreign rivals and competi-
tors. It has done grave injury to the
business community and the farming
community. and hasc aused suffering
to the wage workers and the whole
policy of the administration has been
one to cause our people in business,
our people on the farm, our people
with dinner pals. to look toward the
future with grave concern and appre-
hension
at is well to keep in mind that we
now have Mr.. Wilson's administration
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