Keynote Of The Campaign

KEYNOTE OF THE CAMPAIGN

Scorching Arraignment of the Bliss Administration

Extracts From Chairman Alfred Lucking's Address to the Democratic State Convention, July 30, 1902

Hon. Alfred Lucking, upon assuming the duties of temporary chairman of the Democratic State Convention, at Light Guard Armory, Detroit, July 30 1902, aroused the assembly to wild and continued cheers with his arrangement of the present administration. The crowd yelled its applause as every telling point was made, he said in part:

“We are met together to devise ways and means to redeem the state of Michigan from misrule and to prevent a great contemplated raid on her treasury. These things the democrats of Michigan cannot do alone. We are a minority in Michigan. We recognize, as citizens of Michigan, anxious for her welfare, that without wise, considerate, and tolerant action on our part, no hope exists for a redemption of ourselves and our fellow citizens, the republican masses, from the impending evils which all foresee. We are here to nominate a state ticket. If elected the officers can do nothing affecting national questions. They can neither further nor retard any project about which people divide as democrats and republicans. Let us then, as practical men loving our state, proud of her record, tender of her name, and interested in her government, consider the subjects which are practical, which pertain to her well-being—about which we can accomplish something. Let us then, forgetting, at least for the time being, past differences lay aside petty personal considerations and invite the cooperation of all citizens who desire what is best for our state. 

“We arraign Gov. Bliss and the last republican legislature for willfully trampling upon the great principles of home rule, for the purpose of building up a corrupt political machine. 

“We charge that the republican platform promises upon the subject of primary elections are made to be broken, as they have been in the past.

“Upon republican authority and testimony, we charge upon the part of Gov. Bliss a truckling subserviency to the Michigan Central railroad and its interests at this critical time when a firm and active opposition is demanded.

“We charge upon republican authority that the cause of equal taxation has been deliberately thwarted and nullified by the appointment of tax officials at the direction of and in interest of the railroads. 

“We charge the republican administration with gross extravagance and waste of people’s money. 

“We charge that instead of being free moral agents, acting for the best good of the people who elected them, they were and are but the humble slaves of the political oligarchy, headed by a United States senator and backed by large corporate interests. 

“We are against government by telephone, no matter who is at the other end of the line. 

“We believe that Michigan should be an independent state, and that her governor should be free. 

“We object to our state being owned, body and soul, by a United States senator and a railroad. 

“Local self-government—the right to each community to govern itself in all local matters—stands at the foundations of our institutions and is the basis of our liberties 

“If you believe in local self-government, then stamp out ripperism. Now is your opportunity. Even now, under a state law, any telephone company can enter the streets of any city of Michigan and put poles and wires in front of your doors. No individual and no city government can interfere and stop it. 

“Under the same doctrine, the state may grant franchises to railways in city streets, and it is believed by a large section of our people that if Gov. Bliss and the republican legislature be elected this fall, the street railway company of Detroit will be granted its long-coveted 30-year franchise in spite of all we can do. For years the people of Detroit have tried to get a law that all street railway franchises in Detroit should be submitted to a vote of the people of Detroit, but republican legislature after legislature has refused to grant this simple right, and today we are left open to the danger of having bartered away by legislature or council the right to use our public streets for 30 or 50 years longer; whereas, if we had a law leaving the matter to the people everybody would rest secure. 

“The caucus and convention system of nominating officers must go. It must give place to a simple, strong, well-regulated primary election law. The demand of the people for this reform has been growing fast ever since the carnival of crime and corruption of two years ago, when the office of governor was put up at auction, like the imperial crown in old Rome, to the highest bidder, by the republican convention. But why should our republican friends complain of the caucus and convention system if they are satisfied with Gov. Bliss? He is the legitimate product of the system. 

“The republican party organization will not give the people on effective primary law. The owner of the republican party in Michigan is opposed to the reform. Under the present system he has made Michigan a “rotten pocket borough” and carries it in his pocket. He is openly opposed to change, and no change will come from Gov. Bliss and a republican legislature against his wish. Two years ago this reform was promised to the people of Detroit if they would eject the republican ticket. These promises were made in great flaming advertisement over the names of the republican nominees. But when they got to Lansing, they deliberately broke their promises, and now they ask you to forget that. 

"A grave crisis confronts our state at this time. The Michigan Central Railroad Co. is about to begin suit against the state for damages, on account of the repeal of the special charter by the legislature of 1900. Under the law, suit must be begun by Dec. 31, 1902. The railway has taken more than two years in which to prepare its evidence, and compile its estimates of damages. It claims that $27,000,000, according to the best information we can obtain, and the suit is to be pressed with all the power, prestige, and resources of that great corporation. A judgment for $25,000,000 means a large mortgage on every home in Michigan. The interest alone would be $1,250,000 a year, adding one-third to our taxes each year, and if we desire to pay off the principal of the judgment within a generation, it would double our taxes next year. The situation is grave and the danger impending. Michigan must have a powerful defense in powerful hands, under a commanding leader. A weak or perfunctory defense means bonds and mortgages, and increased taxation on every home in Michigan for from 30 to 50 years to come: The people of Michigan are now called upon to say whether the Michigan Central Railroad Co. shall have control of both sides of the case.  

"If it is true, as written by Justus S. Stearns over his own signature that "Gov. Bliss is controlled by the Michigan Central Railroad Co upon all matters essential to its interests," is it wise for the people of Michigan to commit their side of this great legal controversy to the superintending care and charge of Gov. Bliss? But let me be fair to Gov. Bliss. What does he say about this proposed raid upon the treasury? When it was charged that he would act in the interests of the railway in the matter of said claims, he made answer publicly and said substantially, "there is nothing I can do but leave it to the courts." In all candor we submit to the people of Michigan, we do want a man who takes this position for governor at this time. The governor must be a controlling spirit in defending the state. He must see that our defense is fully and perfectly prepared; that Michigan is represented by the best experts nonvalues and the best legal talent that can be procured and he must take an active hand in defending us.

"We are not foolish enough to claim that the millennium will dawn with the election, this fall, of a democratic administration, but we proudly call attention to the work of the last democratic administration in 1891. It enacted the Australian ballot system after the previous republican legislature had voted it down by a large majority. This grand work, which revolutionized old and corrupt systems, shines out like a beacon light over the black waste of broken legislative promises of the last 10 years. That administration also gave us the franchise fee tax by which every corporation must pay the state for the privilege of doing business in Michigan, which is a steady source of revenue to the state. That administration expended of the people's money, for the year 1891, only $1,433,000, as against $3,183,000 last year, while the population only increased from 2,093,000 to 2,420,000. Thus taxes increased 120 per cent and population but 15 per cent. Taxes increased more than seven times as fast as the population. Thinking republican taxpayers, is it not the height of folly to continue in power the last administration with such a record? Why endorse them and invite them to continue in their course?"

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Hon. Charles L. Rarden, a well known attorney at Greenville, and a stalwart republican, has issued an open letter giving his reasons for opposing the election of Gov. Bliss, from which the following is taken:

"Largely, opposition to bliss will be found among farmers and laboring men who have ever been the most loyal supporters of the Republican party and its principles, but not office-seekers or politicians for revenue only.

"If you would ascertain the magnitude of the Republican revolt against bliss, listen to the talk of people on railroad trains, in hotel lobbies, on the streets and at every cross-road and it will seem as if everybody is for Durand. Nor is the cause for this obscure, The great mass of the Republican voters of this state will not be used to further the schemes of dishonest manipulators and they will go to the polls and vote against bliss, for they can no longer be tricked into the support of a man who is so weak that he does not even know when he is being used by dishonest schemers.

"The Republican party was organized by and made up of 'bolters' and within its ranks was comprehended the noblest and best of this land of ours. Actuated by the noblest impulses and purest motives it has written the most illumined pages in our nation's history and to-day 50,000 Republicans of Michigan, proud of the achievements of their party and jealous of its honor and purity, will vote against Bliss to prevent its prostitution and dishonor by those who are trying to traffic in its prestige."

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When we stop trusting God and begin to lean on our own understanding trouble comes. Fire and sword are but slow engines of destruction in comparison with the babbler.--Steele.