Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-04-06
Sayings Of Statesmen.

L. S. Senator Theodore Burton, July
Il, 1913.-"The Democratic Party in its
recent platform adopted at Baltimore.
and by the utterances Of its advocates
on the stump, have charged that the
chief cause Of the prevailing high cost
Of living is the existing protective
tariff enacted by the Republican party.
They boosted that they could and
would Immediately reduce the cost of
living by lowering the tariff wall; that
the exorbitant prices of the necessaries
of life in particular would Immediate
~ fade away and the poor mans table
would hereafter be furnished at frac-
ton Of its former cost. This, my
Democratic friends, was your cam
paign argument; this was the promise
on which you regard yourselves as
delegated to tear to pieces the fiscal
policy which has been the sheet an
Choir of nearly two decades Of UNI
rrecedented prosperity and which is
You have erected tariff policy, blind
to every consideration except the con-
sumner. You can benefit him only by
reducing the cost Of the commodities
he consumes without degrading their
quality or destroying his opportunity
to earn the price Of that which he
must buy. On this result you must
stand or fall. There is no escape. I'm
less very material reduction of prices
Immediately follows the enactment of
this bill it will record one of the most
ill-boding policies ever adopted by a
responsible party in representative
government"
Hon. A. B. Cummins, U. S. Senator
from Iowa.-"The miserable failure of
the present administration in manag-
ing our domestic affairs and it's shame
full weakness in dealing with our for
eign relations have so angered the
people Of the country that it has be-
come not only the imperative duty, but
the deepest desire OF all good citizens
to drive it out Of power and reinstate
as speedily as the laws OF the land
will permit a government that will
restore the confidence and rekindle the
pride which every patriot ought to
feel in the strength and justice of his
nation. It is almost unthinkable that
the overwhelming majority opposed to
the administration will allow their
disagreement upon some things to per-
init continuance of the Democratic
plague which Is now ravaging the
American republic. The one par
amount duty before us is the retire.
ment Of Woodrow Wilson and his fol-
lowers in the House and Senate.
When we win, as we will, some of US
may not get all we want; but we are
hound to get something better than we
have now, for the mind cannot con-
ceiYe anything worse.
The President and Congress began
their mad assault upon our institutions
by the enactment o. tariff law,
which. taking it altogether, is the COM
pletest compound Of ignorance and in
difference ever composed by legisla-
tive body. 1t neither gives protection
to our home markets nor Yields reve-
nue. for the maintenance Of the gov
eminent. 1t defies every principle of
economics ever advanced by the dis
ciples Of any school of scientific
thought Had it not been for the
hideous war which has paralyzed the
industries of Europe it would have nut
the country into bankruptcy. with no
. prospect of a dividend to creditors
Our Democratic friends must SILVER
when they reflect that the immunity
we are receiving, and the prosperity
we are enjoying, derend wholly upon
the most tremendous catastrophe that
ever befell the human race: and that
their fatal design was frustrated ONLY
by the destruction of our competitors
in a cataclysm from which the world
will not recover in century. If they
can draw any consolation from the
situation. as they look upon the hor-
rors across the sea, and then upon the
empty treasury Of their country, let
them have it, for the Lord knows their
burdens are heavy enough"