We have
driven the tariff lobby from cover and obliged it to substitute solid
argument for private influence.
This extraordinary recital must sound like a platform, a list of
sanguine promises; but it is not. It is a record of promises made four
years ago and now actually redeemed in constructive legislation.
These things must profoundly disturb the thoughts and confound the plans
of those who have made themselves believe that the Democratic Party
neither understood nor was ready to assist the business of the country
in the great enterprises which it is its evident and inevitable destiny
to undertake and carry through. The breaking up of the lobby must
especially disconcert them: for it was through the lobby that they
sought and were sure they had found the heart of things. The game of
privilege can be played successfully by no other means.
This record must equally astonish those who feared that the Democratic
Party had not opened its heart to comprehend the demands of social
justice. We have in four years come very near to carrying out the
platform of the Progressive Party as well as our own; for we also are
progressives.
Pages:
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286