The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1916-09-28

have, If the end of the war should
come with this tariff still in force.
Not only do those conditions still
exist which brought disaster to the
country in ether Democratic admins
trations, which are surely stopping
industry in the early months of this
administration, but new and more
complex considerations add to the
gravity of the situation. To simply
re-enact an old-fashioned tariff now,
would not be meeting the situation
intelligently. There must be a recog-
milton of the tremendous industrial
change which war has wrought in
Europe.
"What have we done that is ef-
fective, what are we doing, to pre-
pare ourselves against the coming of
peace and the beginning of this COM
mercial struggle? After the demon
stration in other administrations and
in this of the futility and danger of
free trade and tariff for revenue
only, after the admission of the pro-
tective tariff principle, after the Gre
alton of a tariff commission, still
nothing concrete, nothing definite,
has been done. We might lay aside
every other issue in this campaign
and rest our case on the tariff alone
(Which we do noS and prove beyond
a doubt that there should be a de-
cisive defeat of the administration
for its neglect of the tariff.
"In the face of such peril, patriot
ism should rise higher than pride
of opinion or obsolete party policy,
but the administration has left the
country commercially unarmed, like
an army of soldiers without weapons
before trained army with deadly
machine guns.
"a vote for the Republican ticket
is a vote for a scientific tariff for
revenue and protection. We need a
tariff that will give sufficient aid to
our efficient producers to enable them
to compete on even terms with for
eign cheap labor when the war is
over. We are now as unprepared
for the coming of peace as we are
unprepared for war. AS surely as
this war must end, so surely will
the present tariff law or any other
essentially like it, bring a slowing
down of business, a period of idle
ness for millions, a financial disaster
for the whole country.
''NOthirg is so important in my
opinion as the matter of securing to
the country the benefits of a sound
economic policy which will maintain
prosperity among our people when
war profits are a thing of the past.
The Democratic party has failed to
give us that policy. it has left un-
needed the demand of the country
for a tariff that will protect our in-
dustries and our working men,. Be-
cause it has so failed, the return of
the Republican party to power in
November becomes of vital impOr-
ance to the welfare of our people. ....
"In the great struggle for human
freedom and national existence out
of which the Republican party was
born, the American people turned to
that party as the hope of the nation
in its dark hour. That party full
filled the hopes and aspirations of
advancing civilization; it saved the
country from dissolution and wiped
away the stain of slavery.
To-day in another crisis of our
history, the people turn to that same
Republican party. We approach the
November election as we did in 1854
but not with the same exalted con-
fidence in the ability of the leader
and the same administration. We
note the distrust of US among Euro
pean nations; we are ashamed Of
our Mexican policy; we shudder
when we think of the consequence
of our semi-free trade tariff, which
has left US naked to the competition
of the world. We apologize for the
absence of merchant marine. We
realize that to stand for America
first does not mean the continuance
of strictly partisan administration.
We distrust it's construction ability.
We remember that the Democratic
party would have ruined the country
in 1896 and we turn again to the
Republican party as the people
turned to it in the hour of stress
when Lincoln was its leader.
"The voters of Ohio should not
only give their votes for a return of
Republican administration at Wash
ington; they should keep Governor
Willis at Columbus. In a time when
the management of State affairs
! brought questions of special difficulty
! he has given the State an honest and
efficient administration. His re-
election to complete the work which
he has so we'll begun is vital part
of Republican success in Ohio.