The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-19
Democratic Leader Reviews PO-
litical Situation of Today.
HE GIVES ADVICE TO VOTERS
People Urged to Let Well
Enough Alone Now, He Says.
Clark Hopes Murdoch Will Be-
come Converted in China.
BY CHAMP CLARK.
(Speaker of the House of Repre-
earfafivfs

(Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives.)
Washington, June 19.-The great
incubating conventions are over and
we have the results in three platforms,
which may be fifty described as long,
longer, longest
There. is no use in wasting words or
time on the Progressive platform, ex-
cept to say that the Progressives
scared or bullied the regular Repub-
Hcans into putting forth a declaration
of principles which constitute an imita
ton of Bull Moose platform
Our Republican friends have evil
IDENTIFY taken to heart the ancient say
ing about the relative drawing powers
of molasses and vinegar so FAR as flies
are concerned. Mrs. Kitty Parnell, in
her life of her masterful, great hus-
band, Charles Stewart Parnell, says that
in private conversation with his intimate
he always referred to William Ewart
Gladstone. popularity called THE
grand old man. as the grand old
SPIDER
G. o. p. Spiders.
So at Chicago. the grand old spid-
ers'' of Republicanism, Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, Senator Murray Crane,
ex-Postmaster Frank H. Hitchcock
Governor Samuel Walker Mccall, SEN
ator Chauncey Mitchell Depew, Sena-
tor Hemenway, Senator Harding, Jas.
E. Watson, Senator Smoot, ct id omne
genus, prepared a nice coy parlor and
invited the Progressive flies to enter,
recalling the metrical story of the
spider and the fly in the old reader.
Whether the Progressive flies will
accept the effusively polite and Oft
repeated invitation of the grand old
spiders is a matter still in the lap of
the gods Some of them-such as
George w. Perkins have fastened to
accept, some of them as Colonel
Roosevelt the biggest of them all,
seem to hesitate, one at least, bril-
liant, gallant, bizarre Victor MUIR
dock, HES himself to a foreign land
to forget his sorrows and to cool his
anger. May Victor, the picturesque
and we'll beloved, find in China more
happiness than he found in Chicago
and return into his own country a
Democrat.
Platform Meat
Substracting from the Republican
platform the things favored therein
which have been enacted into law in
this congress and in the last and the
things favored which will be placed
upon the statute books during the
present session there is not much left.
Counting these things as eliminated
careful study of the Democratic and
Republican platforms seems to indi-
cate that the great battle impending
will be fought out chiefly on the three
issues:
First-The tariff question which,
like the poor, we have with US always
Second-The presidents Mexican
policy
Third-The presidents conduct of
foreign relations with European ma
tons.
The Democrats hold every coign of
vantage, every place IF power. Of
course, the Republicans, being on the
outside are the aSsailants and can Sc
lect the points of assault hoping to
break through the Democratic ranks
somewhere while the Democrats in
the very nature of things must defend
the entire line.
Center on Tariff.
Having studied the Republican
mind and method at short range for
many years am inclined to the belief
that after they have made A rrand
srlutter for little while about the
second and third questions above set
forth they will, through force OF habit,
c"lfre their efforts principally to an
endeavor to convince the people that
we ought to return to the old stake
aE6 rider tariff. How they can 1aake
ANY considerable Roadway in that IL
rection considering the unprecedented
prosperity now blessing the land from
sea to sea, it is impossible to imagine
| urless it should turn out that a ms
, jority of our voters have lost their rea-
son. which is incredible.
b. a long shot, the most effective
and fetching utterance of Senator
Marcus A Hanna was his battle cry:
Let we'll enough alone" which held
| hundreds of thousands of men to the
Republican standard SO long as he
| lived
Stop, Look, Listen.
| As the average citizen in this coun-
| try is better off now than he has ever
! been before, he will stop, look and
| listen good while before he takes the
| leap into the dark which the Repub-
| lican chieftains are most cordially and
| even frantically inviting him to take.
| They offer him nothing better
nothing new, nothing concrete. They
simply stand on the side of the road
making faces and throwing brick bats
at the Democratic procession it
sweeps grandly on to victory with
| bands playing and banners flying.