OCR Text |
Show I 101 SENATOR TIES GLANCE AT THETUTURE Cummins Predicts Democratic Demo-cratic Defeat,' to Be Effected Ef-fected by Republicans and Progressives. BLAMES LEADERS FOR 1912 DISASTER Defines His Attitude Upon Vital Questions at Appomattox Appo-mattox Day Celebration in Chicago. CHICAGO, April 9. United States Senator Albert B. CnmminB at Iowa criticised the Democratic administration, administra-tion, defined his stand on tho tolls repeal re-peal bill, pronounced the Republican party tho true progressives and blamed the Republican national committee for the Democratic victory of 1912. Ho ivas the chief speaker at tho Appomattox Appomat-tox day celebration of the Hamilton club. Democratic defeat at tho next national election, Senator Cummins predicted, pre-dicted, would be effected by Republicans and Progressives united as the Republican Republi-can party and embracing a platform of progressive doctrines. In dealing with the records of the Democratic administration. Senator Cummnis asserted it was necessary to epcak of congress. "Tho president has for the time be-ing be-ing obliterated that ancient and once powerful part of the government. Thero-fore Thero-fore when I speak of the Democratic administration I mean Woodrow Wil-son. Wil-son. The overthrow of representative government does not soem to have ex-cited ex-cited alarm, but the day will come when the country will undorstand better than it does how vital it is to preserve in-dependence in-dependence of legislative authority. H Refers to Tariff. "The president. passed the tariff law. Tho Republican tariff of 1909 was too high. Wo ought to have reduced it, but 1 wc did not, and are now suffering tho consequences of our folly. Tho fact that ' our tariff was much too high furnishes no defense for tho extraordinary com-pound com-pound of ignorance and' indifference which this administration has fastened upon tho country. It acknowledges no economic principles, but its crowning in justice is in its rank, deliberate dis-crimination." dis-crimination." The Panama tolls exemption repeal probably will pass the senate, accord-mg accord-mg to Senator Cummins. "There arc two entirely distinct and independent questions involved in this Hj controversy,' ' he said. "Tho first con- cerns a domestic policy, and with It no foreign nation has a right to inter-fere, inter-fere, and iro would be a craven people if we permitted even the suggestion of interference. y H Would Make Them Pay, "That is, if we had no treaty obli-gations, obli-gations, is it wise, is it fair io the whole country to give coastViso boats free passage through the canal? My answer is 'No.' I believe these ships ought to pay their just proportion of the expense 'of maintaining uud opcrat-ing opcrat-ing the canal. "The second question concerns our rights under the treaty. To that I ivould 1 gay there is nothing in the treaty that iu any way restricts or limits our abso-lute abso-lute sovereignty in this regard, and the man who is willing to accept the cob-struction cob-struction asserted by Great Britain, or yield to the still mbro ignominious in-tcrpretation in-tcrpretation involved in assenting to j the demand made by the president, is willing to pay a higher price for the friendship of that great country than 1 am willinp to pay for the favor of the whole world. Fails to Understand. "It is impossible for me to under-ftand under-ftand the intellectual processes of those who insist that our contract with Great Britain denies us the essential privilege of regulating our domestic trade. "To repeal the exemption clause un-icr un-icr the message of the president and to meet the attitude which a foreign na-Hon na-Hon has assumed without a reassertion of our power over coastwise shipping is to put the British construction upon ihR r?at (rcver- I am appalled when I think of the consequences of that in-tcrpretation. in-tcrpretation. j "If it is tho correct one, then it would have been far better if we had never entered upon the mightv enter' prise. It binds us to an obligation that a nation with the least senso of self-respect self-respect cannot and will not observe." The Republican defeat of 3012, Sena-tor Sena-tor Cummins said, had been, the result of the failure of some of the leaders to heed the voico of tho rank and file of the party. " We Buffered defeat and disaster," Hl he said, "becauso somo of the men clothed with the power of office refused to grapple with their problems. Hj "The unfair, unjust representation of the south and the overthrow of the primary laws were two of 'the great factors which brought about tho diBin-tcgrahon diBin-tcgrahon which followed." |