The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-03-17
Friday, March IT., 1916.

. i 4sA0A VA 1S@S'
come out for the repeal OF the act.
Good for him. But if these big dem
ocrats keep on changing their opn-
ions there will soon be left only Mr..
Bryan to hold the fort.
"But do we really wish the United
States to have a merchant marine!
Very we'll, then. How hard do we
wish it? The government cannot
compel Americans to build ships.
Isn't that so? 1t can only coax, ana
tempt, and encourage them to build
ships. Isn't that so? The cheapest
announcement it can offer is to
permit our shipowners to compete
on even terms with the shipowners
of the world. Isn't that so? If that
involves subsidies or their equiva-
lent, then our government must equ-
alize conditions or go without It's
ships. Isn't that SO? For our gov
eminent itself to go into the bust
ness, well, that has been suggested
and even urged by those who ought
to know better, but the mocklns
laugh with which the country greet
ed the suggestion shows that the
people still have some appreciation
of the functions and limitations OF
government. '.5 e.
"Thus far | have been urging a
get-together policy that transcends
partisan politics and appeals to the
citizens as such. In the light OF
recent events this would almost
seem to be superfiuous. For even
Mr.. Wilson having gotten from
under the hypnotic spell of his late
secretary of state-whose unctuous
God bless you on leaving the cab
met was spoken with the fingers
crossed and evidently meant quite
the opposite-even Mr. Wilson has
recently come out in favor of In
comparably the biggest navy In tf1e
world. Good for him; used to say
the biggest navy in the world, but
am willing to accept his amendment.
Tariff Revenues Are Needed.
"And what this nation needs and
must have is revenues. It is scarcely
necessary to argue that protective
tariff is the only source of revenue
that has always proved adequate--a
tax, if it be tax, easier to pay and
easier to collect than any other tax;
a tax that falls almost altogether
upon the rich, Protection is what
Blaine called it. the policy of en-
lightened selfshness. Every attempt
to substitute some other scheme Of
revenue has always proved futile and
abOrtive. And so today, not the war
tax and its machinery, nor the in
come tax and its machinery, nor the
corporation tax and its machinery.
nor the custom house and its ma
chinery-not Ossa piled on Pelion-
meet the situation, and therefore,
long before the outbreak of the
/ European war we were warned to
look out for bond issue to make
up an appalling deficit. And here at
last the administration is on solid
ground The United States can always
borrow to tide. over a few years of
experimental folly. -
isn't it apparent to you, gentle
men, that the present administration,
having gained some little knowledge
of the world, must either recede from
it's cloistral speculative policies for
the good of the republic, or that in
due time it must be supplanted by an
administration to whom experience,
rather than theories however plaus-
/ ible, or hopes however sanguine,
: shall be lamp to the feet and a
lodestar to the mind. What this
country really needs and always
needs is republican administration
of it's affairs. ,--.,.s-,rs .. - ~.
"The man whom the republicans
shall nominate for president in 1916
is not so important as that he should
have a united party back of him.
That is the essential thing. The re-
publicans must never again permit
their venerable antagonist to march
dryshod into power through any Red
sea cleavage in the republican ranks.
Wherefore we must get together. not
as hyphenated republicans, but as
rejuvenated republicans. The re-
publican convention of 1912 had a
brainstorm-a conniption fit-and
fell into it. There was really differ
ence among the delegates as to fun
damental policies, so far as these
were national In scope; but there
were dominating-ycs, ana domineer-