Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-01-23
PRESIDENT JUST "A TALklN'."

just "a talkin'." Among other things
he said:
The trouble with the republican
party is that it has not had a new
idea for thirty years. | am not
speaking as o politician; am
speaking as an historian. have
looked for new ideas in the rec
4 Ords and have not found any pro-
ceeding from the republican ranks.
After quoting this part of the presi-
dents speech, Mr.. Mann said:
Mr.. Chairman, the president Of the
United States prides himself upon hav-
ing been writer of history. Think
what a chasm he would meet with if
he were to endeavor to write the his
tory Of the United States down to
date! For thirty years during the
busiest period of our country he would
find nothing done and no new ideas
expressed. Certainly the president
will not find during the last thirty
years much that the democratic party
has done or many democratic ideas
which have been advanced, which that
party has not finally repudiated. Sup
pose the president were to start to
write the history of the United States
for the last thirty years. See what he
would omit:
The firm establishment of the single
gold standard of money; the burying
too deep for resurrection of Bryan's
free coinage of silver and the double
standard of money; the setting of
Cuba free and the establishing of the
Independent Cuban government, but
with certain rights retained to the
United States necessary for our well
fare; the establishing of Philippine
policy, to the great benefit of the
Fi,ipinos and to the great credit of the
United States; the ending the old Bull
wer- Clayton treaty, and the construct
ing, owning and operating of the Pan
anna canal by the United States gov
eminent itself by direct labor; the
complete regulation and control of rail
way rates, railway shipments and
safety appliances by means of full
power conferred upon the interstate
commerce commission; the protection
of foods and drugs from adulteration
and misbrandings by the pure food
law; the reclamation of arid and waste
lands by irrigation; the moral clean
ing up through the white slave law;
the tremendous aid given to com
MERGE, to enterprise, to business, and
to labor through the creation of the
department of commerce and labor
and the bureaus of standards, mines,
and 80 FORTH the development of the
department of agriculture until it has
become one of the mightiest forces
for good in the country; the creation
of the bureau of corporations, which
caused and developed into the new
federal trade commission; the policy
that America should have final power
in and control of the north Pacific
ocean and the requirement of the
Hawaiian Islands and other strategic
points; the postal savings bank and,
in reality, the parcel post; the Aid
rich monetary commission, which pre-
pared and proposed all that is good in
the federal reserve bank law; the fed
eral trades commission was first pro-
posed nationally in the last republican
platform and is the direct outgrowth
OF the bureau of corporations, which |
had the honor to first suggest; the
service, which are our guaranty
against disastrous prolonged cpl
denies; the overthrow by Speaker
ftG0U, republican, uOuoc, duu ILc
courts of the theory Of constructive
assence from the legislative body, a
theory which was defended by the
democratic party to the last final ditch
and which had done more to hinder
progress and paralyze legislation than
anything else; the peace treaties; the
advance of the peace ideas; the actual
building of great navy and the organ
izauon of the army into an efficient
and effective preparation for conflict
the conservation of natural resources
the reservation from selfish exploita-
ton of the water powers, forests, min
eral products, great scenic effects, and
go forth: the creation Of new national
forests in the east; all of these would
be missed by the president as an his
torian if he we're writing history Of ,
the last thirty years. He can find
no new ideas and nothing done, but I
would like some day for some gen.
tleman on the other side of the aisle
to rise and tell what the democratic
party has done within the last thirty
years, and what it has proposed which :
it has not repudiated. The president
would miss, too, the creation of a |
tariff board with view to remove
tariff questions of detail out of poll-
tics into the sphere of compon bust
ness sense as far as it is possible.
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