Newspaper Page Text
pine and unmanly submission to extortion and
injustice. (Applause.) If railroad securities
are so delicate and sensitive that they can be
blighted and withered because the railroads
are required to do simple justice to the pub
lic, then the sooner these securities are pruned
to a proper size and shape, the better for the
public. The Democratic party does not ad
vocate, and has never advocated, injustice *to
railroads, or to any other corporation, but it
has never submitted to, and will never submit
to, injustices from the railroads or other cor
porations to the public, even if the failure to
so submit will cause not one, but many, panics.
(Applause.)
But, Mr. Chairman, it is my desire to show
you and the country how proud some of the
most prominent Republicans in congress have
been, for a long time past, of these very poli
cies that the President has advocated, and which
these “safe, sound and conservative” news
papers in the North and in the West, in the
East and in the South, are saying has wrecked
business, ruined industrial conditions, and
brought on a distressing panic. On June 26.
1906, my eloquent and able friend from Mich
igan (Mr. .Townsend) made a speech on the
floor of this House that was so forceful and so
eloquent that the Republican Congressional
campaign committee thought it worthy of pre
servation and embalmed it in your last Re
publican text-book for the congressional cam
paign of 1906; and, by the way, there are
some very interesting things in that book. I
see from the back of it that you can buy it
somewhere in New York City, either on Broad
way, or on Wall street (Broadway, I believe,
but pretty near Wall street). You can buy it
for one dollar, and I tell you it is worth the
money—not as a source of information, for I
think it is largely a mass of misinformation,
but is a compilation of Republican admission
and confessions, and of a whole lot of things
that are going to rise up and hit the Repub
lican party in the face whenever it becomes
once more thoroughly “safe, sane, and con
servative” and nominates some conservative
reactionary for President. (Applause on the
Democratic side.)
But, to return to Mr. Townsend’s speech.
He said:
“The Sherman anti-trust law, a Republican
measure, has been enforced by a Repbulican
executive until illegal combinations are in
great fear and trembling, while some of their
constituents are either on the road to the peni
tentiary or hiding from the officers of justice.
Under the leadership of an incorruptible, fear
less, and patriotic President, supported by an
equally patriotic congress, a campaign has
been made against fraud and corruption in
what hitherto has been called ‘high places,’
which has given hope and courage to honest
men, and placed the crown of honor where it
belongs, upon the brow of true American
manhood.”
But the distinguished gentleman from Mich
igan is not the only authority that I wish
to cite in this connection. Let me call your
attention to the remarks of the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Watson), made on this
floor, on the very day following the speech of
the gentleman from Michigan, on June 27,
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
1906. This speech was also considered worthy
of the embalming process, and is likewise to
be found in the last Republican text-book.
The gentleman from Indiana, with that
exuberance and eloquence for which he is so
justly famous, gave a long list of the naughty
trusts that have been brought to the bar of
justice by this great Republican President.
He spoke of the paper trust, of the tobacco
trust, the drug trust and the elevator trust (I
did not know that there was one of that char
acter until I heard his speech), of the coal
trust, and of a host of other wicked trusts, a
brief summary of which required nine pages
of eloquence, so numerous and so naughty
were they. Why, he then mentioned the
Nome retail-grocery trust in far-away Alaska.
On that subject he said:
11 The government’s prosecution of rhe trusts
lias extended even to far away Alaska. Com
plaint was made that there was a combination
known as the ‘Nome Retail Grocers’ Asso
ciation,’ which had fixed prices and suppress
ed competition. The government took action,
won a decree in its favor against the combi
nation, and the attorney-general is advised
that the effect has been very salutary.”
But, Mr. Chairman, let me say, without any
invidious comparison, that I am about now to
quote from a gentleman who is still more
distinguished as an exponent of Republican
policies. I refer to no less a person than the
distinguished Speaker of this House who, re
turning to the bosom of the people who sent
him here, made on August 16, 1906, an able
and eloquent speech to his own constituents,
explaining what congress had done, ai d what
the state of the country was. On the sub
ject “trust baiting,” the Speaker said:
“He (referring to the President) has been
particularly zealous in administering the law
against the trusts and combinations of capital
which have ignored the old adage of ‘live
and let live.’ The beef trust, the paper trust,
the tobacco trust, the drug trust, the coal
combinations, and various combinations of rail
roads and shippers have felt the heavy hand
of the law, and learned that it is strong enough
to compel them to give all a square deal. The
record of trust prosecutions and invesl’gations
into their practices is too long to here recite,
but it is acknowledged to be the most credit
able even by our political opponents.”
Not only that, gentlemen, but you have been
boasting for several years past of the rail
road rate legislation. You have said that the
Republican party is responsible for it, assumed
the credit and claimed the glory of it. The
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Townsend)
boasts of it; the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Watson) is also proud of it, and the
Speaker of this House (Mi. Cannon) com
mends it. Each of them so expressed himself
in the speeches to which I have alieady re
ferred. Not only that, but your great leaders
have spoken of President Roosevelt in terms
of such unstinted admiration, of such broad
and comprehensive commendation, and of such
fulsome adulation, that the adjectives of a
vocabulary no richer than mine would stand
aghast at the task of repeating what you have
said on this subject. The gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Townsend), in the speech to
which I have referred, said:
“Theodore Roosevelt, President of the
United States, needs no encomium from me.
He has already written his r.ame high upon
that illustrious roll of fame, along with those
of Washington and Lincoln. Washington es
tablished the republic*; Lincoln presented it;
Roosevelt has dedicated it anew to tae cause
of justice and equality. The urst two escaped
not the calumniator and detractor. No man
who has been strong and courageous for the
right ever did, but the people, ihey who make
republics, have crowned him benefactor. Some
there have been who have sought to belittle
our great President, and have been audacious
enough to attack him, but they only bear scars,
and 80,000,000 American people have awarded
him the victory. He at times may have been
impulsive, but the impulse was born of love
for the people; he has been strenuous, but the
exigencies of the times have demanded it,
and it has been the strenuosity of public ser
vice. He has done things, and who is there
so reckless as to rise here or elsewhere and
condemn what he has accomplished? By his
fruits ye shall know him.”
The gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Watson)
paid the President the exceedingly valuable
compliment in his speech of making no refer
ence whatever to the Paul Morton incident.
Hear, also, the distinguished and lovable
Speaker of the House break into eloquent
eulogy of the President in his address to his
constituents. He says:
“In the executive departments of the gov
ernment the record of the party has been bril
liant, courageous, and honest, and the name
of ‘Roosevelt’ has become a synonym for al!
those qualities throughout the realms of civili
zation. He has been the President of all the
people, and he has been tireless in his efforts
to serve the people by wise, just, and fearless
administration of the law.”
It seems to me that the Republican party,
and particularly most of its members in con
gress, is thoroughly committed to Roosevelt
and Rooseveltism; I believe that it would be
a difficult task for them to go to the country
with the contention that we have had a Roose
velt panic, and yet how are they to admit that
this is a Republican panic, since the most ef
fective campaign argument that they have
ever made is the false charge that the Demo
cratic party was responsible for the last great
panic that we had and the contention that no
party under whose administration a panic oc
curred ought to be trusted by the people with
power? What becomes of them in the next
election if the people should determine to ap
ply the old-time yardstick to them? The only
safety for the leading lights of the Republican
party, in congress at least, unless they are
prepared to do a lot of humble-pie eating, is
to nominate the secretary of war, who at
least has the manhood not to eat his own
words and chew up his own record because
hard times have come.
A large and ever-growing number of peo
ple in this country believe that there ought to
be a revision of the tariff. Many of the Re
publicans even believe so. Now, when shall
we have tariff revision? Now, I am going to
(Continued on Page Fourteen.)
PAGE SEVEN