Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1916-10-25
NO Relief GIVEN
Democrats Have Broken Prom
ises Made to Voters.
Main Plank of Platform on Which VIII
son Was Elected Was Assurance Of
Reduction of Livina-instead,
II Has Advanced.

For what purpose did the American
people elect a Democratic administra-
ton in 1912?
Everybody whose memory runs back
four years recalls that the really big
issue in the campaign then was the
high cost of living and the tariff.
There is no argument on the fact that
the plank in the Democratic platform
of 1912 having the widest appeal was
that which declared:
"We charge that excessive
prices result in large measure from
The high tariff laws enacted and main
tanned Ly the Republican party and
from trusts and commercial conspira-
eies fostered and encouraged by such
laws, and we assert that no substantial
relief can be secured for the people
unless import duties on the neees-
saries of life are materially reduced
and those criminal conspiracies broken
up"
The first thing the Democratic adj
ministration did was to reduce the
tariff and to adopt an entirely new tar
if system, abolishing the Republican
protective system. This new tariff law
was approved October 8, 1914. That
was ten months before the war in Eu-
rope began.
You do not have to consult any adj
wiser or table of statistics TO answer
the question: HAS the Democratic
tariff law and other Democratic legis-
lation reduced your cost of living?"
Did you note any decrease in your
living expense In any month fro m the
Inauguration of Woodrow Wilson,
March 4, 1913, down to the present?
Has the Democratic administration
made good on its promises? You are
just as competent TO answer these
questions as anyone else.
OF course the Democrats seek an ex-
euse In the fact of the war in Europe.
They blame that war for the fail
ure of the Underwood tariff law, for
the huge increase in the cost of govern
ment, for the fact that the cost of Hv-
ting goes ever higher.
Remember back, however, to the
months before the war when the I'm
| derwood tariff law was in effect. and
recall what you noted.
Have you forgotten the closed fac
| tories, the stagnation of industry, the
| laying off of men, the soup kitchens
| in the large cities, the poverty and
the woe that was sweeping over the
| land? Have you forgotten the bread
| lines and the ever-increasing appeals
! for charity? Have you forgotten the
high prices?
! True, there is a measure of prosper
| ity now. Out IF your own kuowl-
| edge in your own community you can
/ trace it back to its source, increased
European buying incident to the war,
/ principally war orders. "Blood-sOaked
prosperity some statesman has called
tt. The phrase is descriptive.
| But your own reason tells you that
it is a prosperity that is not going to
/ last.
| Have you not noted that this tempo
rary and precarious prosperity is con-
| fined to industrial centers and to food
| supply regions adjacent to those indus
trial centers?
! For example, you find none of it on
the Pacific slope, a region too new to
maintain great and varied industries
that might fatten on war orders. and
too remote to act as a reservoir of
supply. The great industry of the Pa
cific Northwest, the lumber and shingle
industry, has starved under the free
trade Democratic tariff, to the sole
advantage of Canada, with Canada s
mills aud camps manned by Chinese
Hindoos and other cheap-paid Asiat.
les. The lemon trade of California, a
huge trade when protected, likewise
has starved under the same Democrat.
ic free trade.
Have you felt any of the benefits
promised by the Democrats to flow
from this new policy, benefits based
on the Ill fortune of your fellow Amer
icans? Ask this question seriously OF
xyaarcblF