The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-26
(By THOMAS R. MARs-IALL) (Vice President of the United States)

(Vice President of the United States)
 Soon after my, advent into the Sen ate of the United States, I became
 convinced that a vice president is comparable to a man overtaken by a cataleptic seizure in that he knows l what is going on about him, but that | he is not responsible for it and can i say nothing. There is nothing to 1 prevent him from describing his ex- periences, however, when awakened | by a campaign.
 Three years and more of a most momentous period in the history of the country have elapsed siQce the | last inaugural date, March 4, 1913.
 Almost with the celerity of a moving picture the scenes have changed
 from day to day and from moment to moment No one would be foolish enough to attempt now to explain | these scenes and, if there were, no one else would be foolish enough to
 waste his time by reading the ex- plantations and descriptions. Old scenes have given way to new ones. | Administrations afe judged by the people, not in pieceTneal nor by andy l sis of isolated acts of legislation -or
 administration. The public takes a, birdseye view and approves or rejects
 with the fearlessness of an art critic writing under pseudonyn.
 So far as the upper branch of the Congress is concefned, the first pie | ture which impressed itself upon my
 mind was the number of lordly gen. tlemen representing special interests
 so long accustomed to molding legis-
 lation, growing restive' under the in
 sistence of Democratic majority, aid ed by certain, liberal Republicans, 1 that new system of taxation should be inaugurated in this country l whereby the burdens of government
 would be equitably placed upon 4 , persons and the property of all tne people. Their restiveness increased until they were inspired tosutter dire | threats And here for the first time l Woodrow Wilson appeared in the scene. He solemnly charged that a ] baneful and inimical lobby was infiu- encink. or attempting to influence, the
 taxing legislation of Congress.
 l Straightaway, a lobby committee I was appointed Ito investigate the Pres tdent's charge and the night of it's llappointment was one of broken slum- | Der for me, for the trundling of the trunks and the speedy departure of the Npampered few from the hotel where was trying to sleep constitute l ed nightlong disturbance. From that moment up to this good hour, no one has had the audacity to say that how 1 ever unwise or however foolish or however immature has been the leg l islation of Congress, any of it has been enacted with any other intent kthan to promote the commonweal and develop the betterment of all our cit l izens.
 At that moment, Woodrow Wilson became in fact what he had been in name,-President of the United States
 and responsible head of the Demo- cratic Party. Legislative enactment after legislative, enactment has follow ed each upon the others heels. Their l titles are household, words every where in America to-day. And the remarkable thing about the work Of l this President and party 1eader,-this | s'Democratic !Tyrant' and "Constitu- tiona1 Usurper," who is charged with l interfering ceaselessly with the af- | fairs of Congress, is that practically all of the enactments which he has l believed ought to be written into the statute books and which he has insist ed should be written into them, have so impressed themselves upon the | minds of certain Republicans as to
 command Republican support.
 | I do not now remember any im- | portant enactments save those for Ship Purchase and War Revenue.
 which if ,visualized into a picture showing their passage, would not re- veal from two to a dozen strong Re- | publicans rallying around the standard
 of the President and aiding the Dem
 ocratic cause.
 | Another strange commentary is the 1 fact that all that was prOphesied as 1 an evil work with reference to large business interests in America has pro-
 ven to be a work of benefit. The
 banker and the business man have not l been injured by the legislation of l this administration. Honest men are
 not harmed by those things which contribute to the common good of mankind. So many dire. prophecies
 have been uttered only to pass, off un- fulfilled into forgetfulness that men have ceased to pay any attention to l them. Scene after scene presents it. l self before me with the Republican Leader in the United States Senate, Honorable Reed Shoot, of Utah, play | ing the role of Chief Prophet of Evil. lSir Henry Maudsley maintains that I every man is a monomaniac. The Republican Senate Leader lends ere dence to this view. Ordinarily, he is | a kindhearted, genial, 1evel-headed | gentleman. But let some one men
 ton the tariff and off he goes. In season and out of season, he is the | Mad Mullah of Protection. From the
 moment when he prophesied that free wool would bankrupt the sheep indus | try of this country to the moment when he last prophesied that the arm ] less and legless remnants of the Euro pean War were getting ready to steal l the all-day sucker of protection from
 the infant industries of America. he
 has been a consistent and persistent Prophet of Evil.
 l The record of this administration is | the record of the President of the United States. Whether it has been
 achieved by him as President or as a | leader of his party or by virtue of his own personality, it is a record which | spells good and not evil. It has vii | dened and opened the doors of oppor- tunity to the plain and unassuming
 men of America. It has not hin- dered nor impeded the honest effort