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Show I CAIUfilON TURNS HIS I GUIUSONHOWS Hj Former Speaker Takes Occa-sion Occa-sion to Rap Administration of President Wilson. H SAYS POLICY IS WRONG Smashing of Precedents Is Not to the Taste of the Veteran Politician. PEORIA, 111., Feb. 12. President Wilson's breaking of precedents his addresses iu person to congress, bia abandonment of the New Year's day White house reception and the progress of the Democratic administration in general came in for criticism by for-incr for-incr Speaker .losoph G, Cannon at a Lincoln anniversary dinner lioro tonight. Hj The. former Hopublican speaker of the Hl house of representatives couplod his eulogy of Lincoln and the .Republican party with dire predictions tor the Hj country's wclfaro under Democratic "Ir. Wilson ic our president for the Hj time being and the Democratic con-gross con-gross is our congress, making laws un-der un-der which wc all must live, and wo will obey the law and gnu and bear whatever ills may come." said ho. if Meanwhile, President Wilson is en-gaged en-gaged in -smashing precedents. Some j one hns said that, 'a procedent embodies Hl a principle,' and the humnn race has Hl been living under precedents since the" days of Mosos. Tho devil was tho first smasher of precedonis and he has been busy dirough several thousand veara trying to smash good precedents. I would' not intimate that, tho devil could even got into tho "White house grounds with a strict Presbytcriau TrcsicJen1. on guard, but some of the H! precedents ho is smashing had good origin and have lived in good repute through a hundred years. They arc democratic, too. Autocratic Method. Hj "The president has delivered his message? from the rostrum of the speaker of the house. In that he has i-mashed a precedent of a hundred yeai-s, and followed ono of a thousand years in autocratic govern meut. before fl "the days of Washington and Jcffer- "President Wilson smashed another old precedent in abolishing tho New j Hj Tear'? reception at the vhito house. H! This abandonment of an old social cus- Hj torn is not of importance, but it reminds me of all incident in the ,administra Hj iion of Lincoln. On tho morning of BH .January 1, 1SG3, tho nresidcut copied B the emancipation proclamation with BH his own hand, working at his desk until BBB ihe hour for the Now Tear's reception BBB to begin. Tlien he went to the bluo BBB room and for four hours shook hauds BBB with thousands of citizens. At 3 BBB o'clock in tho afternoon Lincoln rc- BBB turned to his desk with his right hand BBB so swollen that he could scarech' hold BBB a pen, but, after manipulating and jnas- BBH saging tho fingers for a few minutes, BBB took the pen and wrote ' Abraham Lin- BBB coin' to the most significant document BBB ever issued from the White house. Lin- BBB coin did not think it necessary to BBB smash the old social precedent of New BBlj Year's greeting, nor to create auothcr, BBJ political rather than social. Holds With Lincoln. fT am inclined to like the smashing of old precedents by Lincoln more BBn than those of Ir. Wilson. President BBh Wilson and his party have smashed tho Republican precedent of prosperity. BBB "A venr ago, before he had taken up the full responsibilities of tho presi-1 doncy, Air. Wilson was engaged in building build-ing a gallows higher than Human 'a for tho trusts, but in tho latest message from the Whito houso wo find that the gallows have been transformed into a May polo and the tru6ts aro invited to join the president in a May day danco to celebrate tho new constitution of poacc. Tho new diplomacy that was to convert our battleships into international interna-tional social centers has brought only refusal from tho great nations of Europe Eu-rope to participate in tho Panama exposition: ex-position: tho nations of the east aro irritated. South America suspicious and Mexico in anarchy. "The great menace of today is not tho trusts however desirable it way bo to have wiso legislation to regulate tlicm so much us nonemployment. Wo have domestic depression and foreign irritation and there must be some cause To my mind, it is the reversal of old and tried policies, m Experiments with tho Democratic policy havo not been successful. Thoy have been repeatedly re-peatedly tried, but only to react on our domestic tranquil!'." Mr. Cannon rof erred to factional differences dif-ferences in tho Republican party and suggested that there were no differences differ-ences between Republicans and Progressives Pro-gressives on the subject of protection. "I am not an advance agent of compromise com-promise to bring warring factions together," to-gether," he said. "I am just an old-fashioned old-fashioned Republican and a standpatter standpat-ter on prosperity. It is a good time for them to quit Tucking at each other, shoulder up their responsibilities and turn to the rock of salvaton." |
