The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1916-10-20
NO RELIEF GIVEN
Democrats Have Broken Prom
ises Made to Voters.
Main Plank Of Platform on Which vii.
con Was Elected Was Assurance Of
Reduction Of Livins-instead.
u Has Advanced.

people elect 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 by the Republican party and
from trusts and commercial conspira-
cies fostered and encouraged by such
laws, and we assert that no substantial
relief can be secured for the people
unless import duties on the neces-
saries of life are materially reduced
and those criminal conspiracies broken
up"
The first thing the Democratic ad-
ministration did was to reduce the
tariff and to adopt an entirely new tar
III system, abOlishing the Republican
protective system. This new tariff law
was approved October 3. 1914. That
was ten months before the war in Eu-
rope began.
You do not have to consult any ad-
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
1tx.g,,f -
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-
,cuse 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 liv-
ing 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 land
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 pricesl
True, there Is measure of prosper
ity now. Out of your own knowl-
edge in your own community you can
trace 1t back to its source, increased
European buying incident to the war,
principally war orders. "Blood- soaked
prosperity" some statesman has called
It. 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 cepters?
For example, you find none of 1t 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
cif1c Northwest, the lumber and shingle
Industry, has starved under the free
trade Democratic tariff, to the sole
advantage of Canada, with Canada's
mills and 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
leans? Ask this question seriously of
yourself.