The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-03-24

pOlClcdl party. mr. DlekeIna gave
sympathetic review of the part played
by our country in those great events
which have challenged the attention of
civilization, wherein our policy has
stamped US as nation having loftier
and purer ideals than those more anc-
lent governments whose courses have
been marked by a ruthless disregard of
right and the exaltation of war and
force. He told of our returning to
China the immense indemnity that fell
to us after the Boxer uprising, and of
how the Chinese government, astound-
ed to think that any nation could be
honorable enough to relinquish spoils
of any kind, had said. I'VE will use this
money to send the brightest of our
young men to the schools and colleges
of the United States that along with
the culture they obtain they may also
imbibe something of national spirit so
exalted and so generous as that of the
great republic which has refused to
mulct us of our money simply be-
cause it had the chance to do so. !" He
told of the Spanish war wherein our
country offered its blood to procure
liberty for an alien race and then freely
relinquished any advantage that might
have accrued from the victory. That
our national life, consistently uphold
ing our glorious traditions, might be as
torch to light the way of the world to
peace and better living, and more of
freedom and equality among men was,
he said, the grandest ideal that we, as
people, can have. Mr. Diekema in a
masterful and convincing manner gave
his views touching the tariff. telling
how surplus of $3.50, 900, 900, left by
the Taft administration had shrunken
to twelve or fifteen millions under
Democratic rule. Then he told of the
great money debt the warning nations
will owe us at the close of their titanic
struggle, how it will be impossible to
pay this in money, of which they can
have but little, and will have to pay
in the products of cheap labor, which,
under Democratic free trade. would
actually paralyze America, industry
and bring about the most distressing
depression ever known in this country.
He advocated that our voters see to it
that men are sent to congress pledged
to secure the enactment of tariff law
that will impose duties at least equal to
the difference in the cost of labor here
and abroad and thus protect prosperity
of the American nation and the Ameri
can hearthstone. 1t was a great speech
that Mr. Diekema made, one that will
be an incentive to better citizenship on
the part of every man that had the
privilege of hearing it. Mr.. Diekema
is a candidate for the nomination for
governor, and if scholarship counts, if
sound judgment counts, if clean life
counts, if capacity to handle large af-
fairs successfully counts, then Michi-
gan in all her broad domain has not a
man better fitted to become her chief
executive than Gerritt j. Diekema
Hon. Patrick H. Kelley, "our con-
gresham" followed Mr.. Diekema and
made, as he always does, a speech that
held his auditors spellbound to the last
word. He detailed the laxity that has
prevailed in the navy department here
despite the fact the President has said
he is finding it increasingly difficult to
keep the country cut of war;" Ships
ordered two years ago, he said, have
not yet been commenced. Submarines,
which would be so effective as means
of defense in event of war, and of
which a number were ordered months
ago, have not yet been completed. while
in contrast the same ship building firm
having our contracst in charge have
built large numbers of these undersea
terrors for Great Britain within the