Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1922-09-05
THE BUSINESS MANS PARTY.

The Republican party has lost
sympathetic contact with the bust
ness interests of the country. The
demand for the disproportionate and
haphazard scheme proposed by Mr..
McCumber comes from himself and
other Senators who expect to reap
desirable political benefits, and not
from the business intrests of the
country.=Louis Seibold, National
political correspondent, New York
Herald
The foregoing statement by Mr..
Louis Seibold, one of the group OF
! famous and, sound political writers
who report and comment upon ma
tional affairs, is worthy of serious
arsl sober consideration of the bust
ness men of the country. There is
no greater fallacy in politics than
that business thrives under Re-
publican administration to great
er extent than it does under DEM
ocratic administration. The worst
thing that can happen to business is
financial or economic panic, and
there has been no greater breeder of
panics than Republican tariff laws.
The great panics of 1873 and 1898
came when Republican tariff bills
were the law of the land. The Re-
publican panic in 1922 resulting
from the economic breakdown of
Europe, following the defeat of the
peace treaty, was brought on by the
Republican policy of opposition and
sabotage. 1t is now proposed to ex-
tend and prolong this panic by a
tariff law worse than those which
were responsible for the preceding
great panics.
Practically every big Republican
newspaper in the country has oppos-
ed and denounced this pending tariff
bill. The legitimate business in
terests of the country are opposed to
it. Its effect upon business general
ly will be disastrous, and yet the re-
dictionary Republican leadership
persists in trying to fasten upon the
country its policy of commercial
isolation and economic absurdities in
the interest of few manufacturers.
The Democratic party, still hold
ing fast to the doctrine of equal
rights to all and special privileges
to none," is prominently the party
of honest and legitimate business
and the foe of profiteering and
predatory interests. Its attitude
toward the business interests of the !
country is definitely set. forth in a
recent declaration by Cordell Hull, |
Chairman of the Democratic Nation
al Committee. Judge Hull said:
"The Democratic party welcomes
into it's ranks every class of persons
and of business which desires only
intelligent, equitable and fair treat
ment at the hands of the govern
ment. Democrats have shown by
their recent record that they are
friendly towards all individuals and
legitimate businesses, big and little,
so long as they do not seek some
special advantages or favors from
the government to which they are
not entitled. The national democ
racy is not reactionary, but is keen
ly alive to existing conditions and to
modernized, wholesome remedies
for any evil or threatened evil of
our material or social affairs. 1t
alone has a clear grasp of all phases
of our national life"
The business favored by the Re-
publican party is crooked business,
profiteering business, and business
seeking special privileges and favor.
The business represented by the
Democratic party is honest business,
seeking no favors and opposing dis
ordinations, asking only equal OPP
portunity. Honest business may be
little or it may be big-it matters
not how big if it be honest and le-
ultimate.
Is it not time that honest and
legitimate business, big and little,
separate itself from the Republican
party and ally itself with the Dem
ocratic party? Is it not time that
honest and legitimate business re-
call to mind the defeat by Repub-
lican partisanship of the great re-
construction programme offered by
the Wilson administration in 1919
which would have solved practically
all of the problems with which bust
ness is confronted today?
The correspondent of a great Re-
publican newspaper declares that
1.-THE Republican party has lost
sympathetic contact withe the bust
ness interests of the country"