The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-11-11
The Democratic Administration
Arraigned.

AlC OCtllO(ldll( ADMINISTRATION
Arraigned.
Has Violated Its Pledges. The So-Called
"War Tax" Cost of Living Increased.
Civil Service Debauched and Outraged.
[Speech. Of Congressman Longworth Of Ohio
at New York Oct. i26th.
characteristic of the Democratic party
to promise all things to all men and then
proceed, if successful in deluding suf-
to repudlate Just SO many of their prom
the occasions as they may arise. You
remember the solemn protestations of
good faith that accompanied the plat
form enunciated by the Democratic Con-
vention of 1912. Each plank was sac
red pledge intended to be redeemed to
the letter. That was what they said be-
fore election. What did they do after
election?
Let me enumerate a few of those
pledges and leave it to you to be the
judges of the fact of their redemption.
Rigid economy in contradistinction to
Republican extravaganza; ample reve-
nues for the support of the Government;
industrial prosperity under a tariff law
which provided for effective COMPETE
tion:" reduction in the cost of living;
free tolls for American ships in the PAN
anna Canal; the rehabilitation of the
American merchant marine; strict en-
forcement and extension of the Civil
Service; a single Presidential term, and
many other things. Merely to state
them is to effectively bring before your
minds the evidence of their complete
reputation.
What Of their promised rigid economy?
The fact is that the last Democratic Con-
gress appropriated of the peoples money
SIT, 000,0 more than any Republican
Congress in history, and it would have
been far worse, worse by millions upon
millions, had it not been for certain Re-
publican Senators, who not only waited
watchfully, but acted effectively, to
check the rapacity of the pork barrel
advocates. All this, mind you, in the
face of falling revenues, falling revenues
in times of world-pea falling revenues
before war was ever heard of or even
dreamed of; falling revenues in spite of
increased importations, not only before,
but after the war. Then came what
they called the war tax, tax burden
some and oppressive in the extreme,
tax imposed on objects and business
transactions never before taxed in his
tory except when this country itself was
actually at war. The name "War Tax"
is gross misnomer. Some such tax was
inevitable, war or no war. to remedy the
deficiency caused by the Underwood
| Tariff Law. 1t was a deficiency tax,
pure and simple, but even with the hun
dred million dollars additional revenue
that this tax raised, the deficit grew and
the Treasury balance continued to fall.
! The American people, gentlemen, I'M
der this Administration, are riding hell
bent to bankruptcy and paying for the
privilege with war tax. Their boosted
prosperity has not come. Want and
misery have prevailed in the land. Some
industries, it is true, are prosperous,
but they are Industries which are not
supplying the American market, but the
markets of the warning countries of Eu-
rope.
The cost of living has not been cut
down. On the contrary, from the day
that the Democratic tariff law was en-
acted it has continually risen. The law
granting free tolls to American coast
wise ships in the Panama Canal was re-
pealed. 1t matters not whether the law
was good or bad policy at the time of its
enactment. The Democratic party indors-
ed it; Democratic leaders, from the Pres
ident down, praised it. Its repeal was
fiat reputation of Democratic pledge.
So as regards our rehabihtated mechant
marine, they have swept the last YES
tige of it from the Pacific Ocean and
how fIlr / tn
law had been drafted by the shrewdest
japanese statesman it could not have
served more effectively to transfer the
control of the carrying trade of the Pa
cific Ocean to the japanese.
Of all infractions, though, of their va
rious planks, that relating to the Civil
Service has been the most bare-faced
and brutal. | saw, and | measure my
words, that under this Administration
Civil Service has been debauched and
outraged. / am not speaking at random.
| know of one revenue district where in
the last year seventeen men, all Demo
Gratis, have been appointed, and thirty
men, all Republicans, have been re-
moved, where the only Republicans re-
naming on the roll are men who cannot
be discharged without cause because
they are old soldiers, but the process of
dealing with them is about as effective
as discharge, because they are not as
signed to work and can draw no pay.
Can there be more fragrant debauch-
cry of the Civil Service than to drop
men of, in some cases, thirty years of
experience, for no reason except that
they are of the Republican faith, and to
fill their places with men of no expert
ence at all solely because they are Dem
ocrats2