The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-07-12
E. ~. MclNanus Keynote Speech
At Democratic State Contention
County Attorney Takes State and National Issues
Before Democrats in Coliseum at Dies MONIES Today

oines Today.
ished ideals lay charred and crisp
in the raging furnace of human pas
sion. A sense Of national insecurity
has been awakened and resolute
hearts have been stirred with the
ardor Of patriotism. We have stood
on the precipice looking down into a
charnal house of death and destruc-
ton. Minds have been restless, souls
have been stirred and hearts have
fluttered with apprehension. Through
all these days and nights one voice
has spoken our thoughts and deliver
ed our message and that was the
voice Of our president. One form has
been our pillar of cloud by day and
pillar of fire by night, and that the
form of our president. Ono hand has
pointed the way to peace and honor
and prosperity and that the hand of
our president
And now the crisis passes. Tho
suspense Of days and weeks and
months has relaxed AMI diplomacy
and neutrality are triumphant. Trium-
plant in bloodless battle as diplo-
macy always triumphs. Triumphant
without the accompaniment of APP
plause and buster. Unmarked by the
approving shouts of the multitude.
| ensuing by heroic bards. Unstained
by the haunting memories of war.
Will the American people in the
! heat Of partisan conflict forget the
staggering responsibilities that the
fortitude? Can the Quackery Of the
mountebank dull the lustre of his
achievements? Surely the gratitude
of this republic is not so short lived.
Where were the detractors and viii
lifers in the critical hours of their
country's peril? Where dill they stand
when we staggered under the grief OF
the Lusitanta tragedy? Where did
they stand when the president defied
the warning powers in the armed
merchantmen controversy? Where
were they when the resolute words
| Of the Sussex note rang out across
the sea? Were they covering the
pacifists who feared we had gone too
/ far? Were they among those who
! were afraid to insist upon American
rights for fear we might have to de-
/ fend them? Or did they stand in
the ranks of divided allegiance, CIV
| ing aid and comfort to foreign
king? If they were among those who
sought peace at the price of dishonor
where were they in their discontinue
when our demands were met without
strife? If they sulked IN the camp
i of the hyphenate, where did they hide
\ their confusion when the justice of
our position was acknowledged?
i The republican platform declares:
| 1.-THE present administration has
destroyed our influence abroad and
| Inundated US in our own eyes,"
Democratic Results.
What act of the administration
! evokes this melancholy reflection
Has the fact that the department OF
state has procured peace treaties with
the greatest nations of the world sub
jected our country to humiliation?
Have we been put to deepest shame
because the same department has
secured more compensation from
Great Britain for one claim in less
than a year than republican diplo-
macy obtained in eight years for the
| Alabama claims? Has the fact that
the president in less than two years
of negotiation has wrung from the
warning powers a recognition of neu-
trail rights upon the seas, something
that sixty years of republican buster
never approached-has this wonderful
accomplishment destroyed our influ-
ence abroad?
| When the opposition accuse the
| foreign policy Of this administration
with bringing humiliation and degra-
dation we have the right to know
wherein they would have acted in a
different manner. We challenge them
to declare that they would have pro-
tested the rape of Belgium and ac-
! cepted the consequences of such &C
ton Will they contend that the
president did not go far enough in
his demands upon the bclltgerents
Or did he go too far? What substi-
tute do they offer for the notes that
they refer to with studied sarcasm
When the final Lusitania note was
penned, the ex-standard bearer of the
republican party, William Howard
Taft, said:
"The note succinctly, forcibly and
| finally presents the just attitude OF
! the United States, and President Will
| son will have and SHOULD have the
approval Of the American people in
maintaining It,"
| Will our republican friends now say
that Mr.. Taft was wrong? VIII they
repudiate his judgment and subscribe
| to the ignoble utterance Of that polit.-
cal blatherskite, the leader of the Q.
publican party in the house of repre-
| sentatives who, when our relations
with Germany were at the breaking
point, said:
"The president as political dodge
is trying to work UP to a roint where
he can get into war with Germany
during political campaign"
| Who will the American people be-
lieve was right. ex-President Taft who
lauded the presidents policy, or the
honorable Mr.. Mann who profaned the
halls of congress with that infamous
aspersion?
1t seems that the critics of the adj
ministration are willing to rejoice
with us in the results achieved, but
they condemn the method employed.
To them victory with the sword is
IT.