The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1915-02-19
Honor to Abe Lincoln
Banquet at Boise is a Big
Success

SoshOAOd AZ tHo oWy nee
hotel in Boise last Friday even.
ing and celebrated the birthday
of Abraham Lincoln. The history,
aims and duties of the party and
the needs of Idaho were made the
subjects Of splendid talks.
w. d. McReynolds, chairman,
to whom much is due for the
success of the evening, introduced
B. S. Grow, as toastmaster. The
speakers included o. M. VanDuyn
who gave masterly eulogy of
Lincoln; ID. r. Hubbard of Kuna,
who spoke of Idaho's financial
status, with special plea for the
farmers cooperative credit system
M. &. Lewis took fall" out of
the primary law, and D. w. Davis
of American Falls spoke of party
unity, as also did Peter G.. John
son.
There was genuine enthusiasm
and a get-together spirit that fore
casts harmony and success for the
future. The Endorsement of Hon.
William E. Borah, of Idaho, as
the candidate for president in 1917
brought forth applause, and the
boom for the Senator has been
fairly launched
His letter was feature of the
program and as it contains much
of special moment, it is published
herewith in full.
''In my opinion wrote Senator
Borah, "the Republican party will re-
turn to power about IL o'clock noon
on the 4th day of March, 1917, and
trust will not be misunderstood
when I say it will return greatly
christened and immensely strength
ened. 1t will find when il returns
task commensurate with the efficiency
and power of its best days. And take
it that the supreme effort of Republi
cans everywhere would be to see that
we are prepared for the work which
seems SO certainly to be entrusted to us
again.
''If the outlook proves accurate we
will find ourselves obliged in the first
instance to restore industrial conditions
to measurable state of prosperity and
stability. Men dispute as to the causes
but no one can fairly gainsay that our
industrial situation is now one of hesi-
fancy, of extreme embarrassment and
in many portions of the country of utter
decentralization. There are at least
three million working men out of en-
ployment.
81 had view the other day of a
bread line in one of our great cities.
The scene and study of faces in the
line of march were such as to abide
with a man for lifetime. They were
not faces marked by drink or degener-
acy but the faces of clean, self-reliant
American citizens though touched with
utter humiliation and encouragement
''Many of the conditions which we
now experience believe to be due to
unwise and uneconomic policies. These
conditions are aggravated also by the
ever growing and in many respects the
perfectly useless burdens of govern
ment.
ave are now utilizing all the differ
ent forms of federal taxation. Our ex-
penditures increase about two million
dollars annually. We create not hun
dreds but thousands of new offices each
year. 1t has come to be that if some
one sees what he conceives to be an
evil the only remedy at hand is to
create new commission, shift reSpon-
sibility and add an army of federal en-
ployes.
ssNo wonder, therefore, that in the
midst of peace we levy a war tax of
a hundred million dollars and are now
blinking at deficit of a hundred mil
lion more. With private incomes de-
creasing, with profits falling, with
dividends being passed over, labor un-
employed, and with taxes increasing,
we will have enough to consider when
power is again assumed.
ssI have said that in my opinion
many of these things are due to unwise
legislation and unsound policies. But
we would be unfair to ourselves and
uncandid with the people il We should
contend that all these conditions which
confront us are due to legislation lately
had or political policies lately invoked;
The causes which have superinduced
some of our most serious conditions lie
deeper and the remedy will have to be
vastly more comprehensive than the
mere changing of the tariff law or the
discarding of prevailing policies. How
ever much these things may be essen
tial they are by no means the only
things to be done.
SIT was in one of the great common
wealths of this union | learned from
personal investigation that notwlth
standing the guarantees OF state and
national constitutions, in an industrial
crisis men have been herded IN groups
of fifty and hundred, and at a time
when the courts were open, driven be