The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-06-16
THE PARTIES SPEAK.

Both the republican and democratic
conventions have held sessions in this
state and given formal utterance to
the policies and programs that are
supposed to commend them and their
candidates to the voters.
The democrats met a couple of
weeks ago in Olympia and the repub-
licans last Saturday in Chehalis.
The platforms of the two parties
are strikingly similar and appear to
| leave the two old organizations little
to fight about. other than the offices.
Both favor the enactment Of the ma
tional bonus bill, the Smith-McNary
bill, the enactment Of laws to destroy
| the narcotic evil, the repeal of the
poll tax. and the exercise of the strict
est economy in governmental affairs,
with reduction in state and federal
| taxes.
Agreement as to what ought to be
is perfect. the divergence comes only
| in respect to what is. The republicans
| express enthusiastic admiration for
President Harding and the national
administration under his guidance,
while the democrats cannot find Ian
guage Incorporate enough to describe
their disappointment, disgust and alb
florence of President Harding and all
that he has attempted or accomplished.
Likewise. the republicans are wholly
| satisfied with the course of things in
| the state administration and the rec
ords made by the state officers, while
everything that has occurred at Olym-
! pia since the last democratic state ad-
ministration and every person hold
ing office in the state are regarded
by the democrats with a mixture of
horror and hatred.
The two platforms see the state ad-
| ministrative codes from different d.
| rections also. The republicans look
upon it with affectionate eyes and pro-
nounce 1t good. The democrats look
upon without affection and condemn
it as an architectural monstrosity.
The verities are handled with an
engaging nonchalance characteristic
| surprising that little regard is shown
| for consistency But it is something
of a coincidence that both parties are
| Inconsistent in the same matter.
There principal and most startling
Inconsistency is found in their agree
ment that taxes are too high, that
strictest economies must be institut-
ed, that expenditures must be cut
| instead of new sources of revenue
discovered, and at the same time they
| both demand the re-establishment of
| the costly wOmens industrial home
and clinic. a large appropriation for
which, passed by the last legislature,
was vetoed by Governor Hart, un-
doubtedly one of the best and most
| courageous things that the governor
has done
A marked difference between the
two pronouncements is their length.
The democratic platform is disting-
uished for its brevity. Apparently
that virtue was due to the limitations
of the English language as it's auth
ors exhausted their vocabulary of de-
nunciatiOn in the first few para
graphs. However, the republicans
may reasonably argue that the DEM
cratic platform owes its brevity to
the fact that its authors could find
little in the record to condemn.
Let that be as it may, it must be
conceded by even the politically pref
udiced that while the republican plat
form is longer, it also has much more
that is really constructive in ;tc gov
eral planks. Definite suggestions are
made for bringing about economy and
lower taxes and a policy outlined
that holds genuine promise Of relief,
if adhered to by legislature and ex-
ecutive officers. Among these ex-
cellent recommendations are those
urging the adoption of a pay-as-you-
go policy by the enactment of a bud
get law that will apply to every dis
bursting official and will hold such
officials responsible on their bonds