A TRUE REPUBLICAN PLAT FORM
A True Republican Platform William! Kent's Announcement as Candidate for Congress ''CERTAIN of my fellow citizens have continuously urged that I go before the Republican primaries as a candidate...
...Laws should be passed concerning the public domain that cannot be misconstrued by agents of greedy persons or corporations, whether these agents be in or out of public employment...
...If my ideas seem independent or radical and if, by chanct, I may be listed as a prospective 'insurgent' I shall accept the epithet as a high compliment and shall hope that it may be my privilege to bear some little aid to those who, while serving the nation, are incidentally tending to dignify and save the Re-publican party...
...Perhaps they feel that the views I hold concerning national affairs are the views they wish to express through their representative at Washington...
...This is not a district that would ask its representative to betray the nation for a chance at the 'pork barrel.' "Corporations are granted corporate privileges that they may serve the general welfare...
...The Aldrich-Payne tariff law is, in my opinion, a violation of sound economics and the Republican platform...
...If to run the government, or to attempt to run it, is a part of their 'business,' it is time that such 'business' should be disturbed...
...Kent's Announcement as Candidate for Congress ''CERTAIN of my fellow citizens have continuously urged that I go before the Republican primaries as a candidate for Congress from the Second California District...
...With increasing power they requlrt more and more control...
...No tariff bill should emanate from the counsels of its beneficiaries, but should be the product of a board of disinterested experts granted fullest powers and facilities...
...I do not believe that present artificial conditions permit a fair sharing of our country's opportunities...
...It is beyond question that the strength of the Republican party grew out of the ideals of human service held by the founders and by Abraham Lincoln...
...It is monstrous to suppose that, escaping moral responsibility, they should partake of the freeman's political rights...
...Log rolling' is the most insidious form of corruption...
...I have consented, and here state some of the opinions which will go toward the making of my platform...
...Such portion of the party as has entered into the service of special privilege is false to the party's traditions and has no right to assume the name...
...If elected, I shall not vote for Joseph Cannon for Speaker or for any man who holds his views of parliamentary organization or national policy...
...All our experience would prove that the law is not rigid but flexible, and that the interpretation of the law depends upon the animus of the interpreter...
...The burden is distributed in such a way as to increase the gap between wealth and need...
...As the obvious intent of and only excuse for the law is to 'promote the general welfare,' I cannot indorse the policy of stretching it to promote private interests against the general welfare...
...What just and proper special service could be rendered the district, with this proviso, I should be diligent in seeking to perform...
...It would seem obvious that Congress, as a self-respecting body, should provide its own rules and methods of procedure, and should be free from domination by the Speaker...
...I believe that th« Roosevelt-Pinchot policies of conservation of our national resources against waste and greed are the most necessary, insistent and immediate policies for our nation to enforce by legislation and administrative action...
...If elected, I should consider that I held a commission from my district to do my best for the whole nation...
...When that domination is exercised against the public interest it becomes doubly intolerable...
Vol. 2 • August 1910 • No. 31
