Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-01

Montpelier. May 26.--With SIS delegates
out OF possible total of Gil present and
uuly qualified as the roll, the state repub-
Hcah convention gathered in Montpelier
CITY hall at 11:20 o'clock to eecs eight
delegates to the national convention to
held at Chicago June Z. to adopt a plat
form and to enthusiastically endorse JUS
t1ce Charles E. Hughes as the presidential
nominee of the party.
An incident of the hour preceding the
actual getting down to business was the
Dig ovation accorded Senator Carroll S.
Page when he appeared on The platform
applause also attended the entrance Of
Gov c. w. Gates and Congressman
FRANK L. Greene to the convention hall
STANLEY c. Wilson, chairman of the re-
publican State committee, called the con-
sention to order and the call was read
~ Secretary j. Rolf Searles. The read
ing of the call was dispensed with,
Che roll as presented by the credentials
committee being accepted without cues
Zion.
Frank f. Howe of Bennington. former
~ lieutenant governor, was introduced as
temporary chairman and later made the
permanent chairman along with Warner
X. Graham of Rockingham as secretary
and Benjamin Williams of Proctor as
sistant secretary
Chairman Howe in making his intro
ductory speech was frequently inter-
rupted by hearty applause especially
When he was proceeding with his ar
faignment Of the present administra-
ton.
CHAIRMAN HOWES SPEECH
Mr.. Howe addressed the convention as
follows:
Mr.. Chairman and gentlemen Of the
Convention:
The Republican party this year stands
on the outside looking in and it is good
place to be-not often, but once in a while
The actor who Is always on the stage for
gets how the play looks from the pit and
the gallery.
The directors of a bank sitting around
the long table behind closed doors are in
danger of sometimes forgetting the people
whose money they handle, and without
whose confidence and deposits the bank
would be of as little value and importance
as an empty tin can in junk dealers
back yard. The executive board of rail-
road company or other public service
corporation often suffers from inability
to understand the point of view from
which its acts are considered
The Republican party has held the
center of the arena so continuously for
the past two generations that it came to
consider itself impregnable and secure,
like Caesars wife. above suspicion.
Perhaps 1t needed the lesson OF 1912 and
the Years following. Anyhow it is for the
party to profit by that lesson and to face
the future chastened by its defeat and
prepared to resume the responsibility
which the signs Of the times indicate is
TO be again placed upon the Republican
party by the voters of the United States
on the first Tuesday Of next Novem.
Der.
If the Republican party needed a lesson
the country needed 1t more. The affairs
OF the nation had been conducted so long
and so successfully by the statesmen of
the Republican party that the country
had almost forgotten that it could be
plunged into business depression and
started on the road toward national dis
credit and disgrace by the mistaken acts
of an administration. meaning we'll, but
building on foundation of theoretical
rather than of practical service.
We have no quarrel with the individual
members Of the Democratic party. They
are our neighbors and our friends and
are just as patriotic and pure minded
as we. We admire and applaud their
Sdealism and We doubt not the sincerity
OF their motives. But We question their
Judgment and lament the distressing
failure OF their governmental ideas, \
rainbow is beautiful thing but the
strength Of its arch does not warrant
kts use ss chief support.
The don!ocratic doctrines sound we'll
enough when cleverly spoken, but so also
do the stories of Baron Munchausen. 1t
is only when tho doctrines OF the democ-
racy are put in effect that their weakness
IS shown. The country has had upwards
of three years experience now Of absolute
democratic control of government and it
Is enough to make the blind see, the deaf
hear and the lame ard the crippled, as
we'll as the able bodied, walk to the polls
and vote for change.
The few minutes which are at my COM
nand do not permit me to go to any depth
of detail. The first year and half fol-
lowing the democratic victory of 1912 saw
the overthrow of the protective tariff I'M
der which America had become the
greatest and richest and the most power
full nation on the face of the earth Twelve
months of the Underwood tariff law threw
million American workmen out of their
ness men and employers face to face with
disaster and possible bankruptcy.
Did the administration at Washington
or the democratic majority in Congress
do anything to correct the error? They
did not. Had it been the first experience
of the kind we need not have been sur
prsed but it was not the first. II was the
fourth. IT had happened once under Mar
Tin Van Buren,, democrat. 1t happened
again under James buchanan. democrat,
it occurred once more under Grover
cleveland, democrat Now for a fourth
time the blunder was repeated while in
the White House sat Woodrow Wilson,
democrat,
We learned in childhood that the
leopard cannot change its spots 1t ought
/ BY this time to be equally clear that the