The Present Drift

(2 of 3)

"The weakness of our present position, I repeat, is that we underestimate the sincerity, the capacity, and the willingness of the voters to do great things and make great sacrifices for their country. A Democrat in the days of Jackson was a crusader. It can be so again. A Republican in the days of Lincoln was an apostle. It can be so again. . .

"Public expenditures, and thereby the inevitable increase of taxes, is no longer merely an economic question, no longer nothing more than extracting from the pockets of the people an increased sum of money. It has already reached the point where it may, and must be, regarded as a great moral question. It involves not only the material welfare but the moral stamina of our citizens. . .

"And whose record is this which we read in the budgets of cities, states and the Nation ? Whose record is this which tells of increased tax burdens all the way from 300% to 500% in the last 15 years? It is the record of the two parties which have divided power for 50 years in this country. . .

"So far as I am concerned,, I am in that frame of mind, sir, that I welcome relief from whatever source. If it is not to come through the party of which I am a member, still I shall rejoice at its coming. I want the relief. I know it has to come. . .

"We are now passing through a season of humiliation. It ought also to be a season of contrition and repentance. For days and weeks and months there has been going out from this Capital the revolting, nauseating story of carelessness, of incompetency, of venality, of the low, sordid practices and conceptions of public duty. . .

"This situation calls for something more than the canceling of a few illegal contracts; or the punishment of a few individual betrayers of public interest. The evil has its; roots deeper down in the social and political strata. It calls for more than a change of administration. It is only a more virulent outbreak of a disease that affects the whole body politic. Extravagance is only one step on the hither side of corruption. They are both plants from the same putrid soil and flourish in the same infected atmosphere. . .

"It makes little difference in the last analysis to the taxpayer whether his property and his interests are dissipated and destroyed through individual corruptionists or through an unconscionable disregard of sound laws which protect his rights and guarantee his success as a citizen.

"And who is more interested in renovating and remedying this situation, in arresting the trend of affairs than the same young men whose interests we are now considering?. . .

"I would like, in all candor, to ask these young men to look back over the last 30 years brief, fleeting years a fugitive shadow upon the dial when considered as a mere matter of time, but a century when measured by their effect upon our Government. The bonds piled up, the bureaus built up, the offices created, the constant mounting of the tax burden, the spread and waste of prodigality; let them review this record with care and reflection. Then, assuming that this fateful tendency is to continue and there is every evidence that it is to continue protrude themselves into the future for 30 years.

"There will be an officer for every 10 persons in the Republic.