The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-07-12

demned because we chose negotiation
instead Of war then do we confidently
leave our cause with the people Of
this country.
I'VE believe" says the republican
platform, lin the pacific settlement OF
international disputes"
Was presumption ever so inconsis-
tent! Here we have the republican
party in disgraceful bid for votes,
assuming the dual character OF DIR.
Jekyl and Mr.. Hyde. DR.. Jekyl is
exhorting the warriors while M.
Hyde blandly treasures the pacifists.
II you believe in the pacific settle
ment of international disputes, then
pray tell us what diplomatic formula
you would have applied? If. on the
other hand, you believe in force, and
that is the only alternative, if you
believe in the arbitration Of the mus
ket and the sword, then we cry out
to you In the words Of Semei to
David, Come out, come out, thou
man of blood"
Exalted by that heroic mood" the
republican convention at Chicago
grandiloquently exclaimed:
1--WE desire peace, the peace of JUS
tice and right, and believe in main
tanning straight and honest neutral
lily between the belligerents in the
great war in Europe"
Will they specify in what particu-
lar the present administration has not
maintained a straight and honest
neutrality? Do they mean that they
would have declared an embargo on
munitions of war? Surely not, for
they laughed such proposal to scorn
at Chicago. Would they have omit
| ted to take any step that the presi-
dent has taken toward any offending
belligerent? Would they have gone
further with some? Or has the re-
publican party at last descended to
| the level of common scold?
! Only Tariff an ISSUE
With the possible exception of the
tariff plank there is nothing in the
Chicago platform that approaches the
1 dignity of an issue, and Theodore
Roosevelt said not long ago that if
this campaign is waged on the tariff
issue such an appeal will be an APP
peal to the belly and not to the soul
| of this nation.
| The spectacle of the irrepressible
colonel swallowing the Chicago plat
form with its jargon Of weasel words
and platitudes will constitute the
most heroic exhibition of crow eat
ing in the annals of gastronomy.
| In its poverty of constructive sug-
gestion that platform has no parallel
unless it be in that stirring declara-
ton adopted some years ago down in
the Arkansas:
"Youins are out and veins are In,
what youins are for, veins are agin;
Resolved, that youins get out and let
| veins in"
In the light Of the legislative rec
ord of this administration the garbled
phrases of the republican platform
sound like hollow mockery.
! The democratic party in the past
-four years has translated the aspira-
lions of the people into laws; their
hopes have been written into the
statutes.
The democratic congress has re
vised the tariff and thereby fulfilled
4 the dying wish Of Mckinley, duty
(which Roosevelt shirked and in which
Taft sadly failed.
1t has completely reconstructed thu
currency and banking system of the
country.
It has strengthened and clarified
the Sherman antitrust law.
It has standardized the grades OF
our principal agricultural products.
1t has passed rural credit act that
will rescue the farmer from the loan
broker and put premium upon home
building.
It has created a trade commission.
/ 1t has opened up Alaska by the
construction of government railroads.
It has multiplied the armed forces
of the United States by four and
passed the greatest naval measure
ever conceived in this country.
1t is working out a strictly non
partisan commission that will forever
remove the tariff from the realm OF
log rolling and political manipulation.
Above all the congress of the Unit
ed States is no longer set of craven
and plant manikins-it is no longer
a mechanical Punch and Judy speak
ing with the voice Of predatory wealth
and moved by the hand Of invisible
government. Liberated from the fet-
tiers of archaic rules, delivered from
the serfdom of capitalistic influence,
it again responds to the will Of the
masses.
Legislative Victories.
We submit that glorious record of
Legislative victories against the
proved impotence of party that de-
faulted in all those urg,nt reforms !;
that fastened the odious Aldrich
Payne tariff law upon tho people OF
this country, and permitted the army
and navy to decline since the Spanish
American war.
| With sails set to catch every politi-
cal breeze; with platform worthy
the dextrous pronouncement OF Del
phic Oracle-so indefinite in promise,
so vague in denunciation that all the
conflicting hosts Of criticism and dis
content can find common ground upon
it, that unholy trinity, Barnes, Pen
rose and Crane consummated the
hoax by bringing out dumb candi.
date. A candidate whose availability
rests not upon what he has said, but
upon what he hasn't said. A man
who in four years of stress and strain
has never expressed an opinion con-
corning the mighty issues that have
convulsed the world.
! Doxyn of TT dodge a wear ago IL