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Show uu A COMPLETE REVERSAL OF POLICY". "How about It," asks tho 'Post of Butte, "would Thomas ,Jcfferson reverse re-verse himself and stand where Wilson Wil-son now stands on the Panama canal tolls?" "If the late Thomas Jefferson were still among the living," says the Post, "he would bo one hundred and seventy-one years old today. But he has been a long time dead; how would It surprlso him could he st this afternoon af-ternoon In the senato gallery, hear the canal tolls talk and ponder tho changes that have been wrought in federal methods! "National, nominating conventions, with the framing of formal platforms by assembled Democrats, were not in vogue at the period when Jefferson Jeffer-son was a presidential figure, but he was a firm bellover in ,thc perpetuation perpetua-tion of all that had been onco decreed to bo what now would be called democratic demo-cratic creqd or democratic policy. "Tolls discrimination was made a democratic policy by action of a congress con-gress in which, In lfllli, Democrats controlled tho house and managed to muster a majority in the senate. In that same year tolls discrimination was mado a part of democracy's creed, through tho agency of a plank In the Democratic platform. "President Wilson, a Democrat, enjoyed en-joyed Easter respite at a famous spa In West Virginia. At ono of tho stations sta-tions of tho railroad running between that place and the city of Washington Washing-ton you can see the famous unlvorsily Jefferson founded and, across tjio valley, val-ley, you have within view Monticello, where Jefferson's homo was and where his tomb Is. Passing tho place if lie did that at a daylight hour President Wilson may have asked himself whether Jefferson, foremost Democrat of them all, would have used presidential prestige nnd patronage patron-age for compelling a Democratic congress con-gress to turn Democratic policy, In legislation, upside down and, with respect re-spect to party creed, to ropudlate a Democratic platform's plank." |