Daily Press

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 1906.

A MAN AND HIS PLATFORM.

One of the most interesting State campaigns of the year is that to be waged for the governorship of Pennsylvania. There has been a fusion of the Democratic party and of the new Lincoln Republicans in an effort to overthrow the gang which has for a long time dominated affairs in the Keystone State. The fusion candidate is Lewis Emery, Jr. of Bradford. In accepting the nomination, he said:

"I trust I am neither a demagogue nor an anarchist. I have never truckled to power in order to curry favor nor pandered to the vicious in order to gain votes, but, for more than a quarter of a century, I have labored to establish a reign of law. I have fought for popular rights, honest government and equality of opportunity under the law. That is all I now seek: that is all you ask: that is all the people demand. More than that no one shall get, less than that no one shall have, if the people place me in the governor's office and there is any authority under the law by which the chief executive can act.

No one, whether corporation, firm or individual, will have cause to fear so long as the law is obeyed: but I pledge my word and my sacred honor that, if elected, I will make the laws of this commonwealth respected by enforcing them impartially--alike against great and small, against powerful corporation as against obscure transgressor, but not one whit more vigorously against the one than against the other. The square deal means exact and equal justice for all. That is the platform upon which I stand, and with it I shall fall, if the people of Pennsylvania declare against it."

Upon such a platform it should not be a difficult matter for the fusion candidate to secure the undivided support of those who are opposed to the present ring. Another thing which may be of service to Mr. Emery in these days of reform and when corporation baiting seems to be the order of the day, is the fact that he was one of the original opponents of the rebate evil. It is recalled by his friends that he probably was the first man in the United States to move against discrimination in railroad rates. This was in 1873, but the first interstate commerce law, which grew from his work, was not passed by Congress until 1885.

In 1872 Mr. Emery was a member of the Oil Producers' Association, made up of a group of oil operators of northwestern Pennsylvania, banded together to resist the growing power of the Standard Oil. It is stated that if the leaders in this association had cared collectively or individually to enter into the operations of the Standard, as it was current rumor at the time they were invited to, every one of them could now count their fortune in millions. Like the others, Mr. Emery resisted the temptation of gold and persisted in the fight.

It was Mr. Emery who suggested to his associates that they fight in Congress the unjust discriminations which they had discovered the railroads were granting the Standard Oil. The Hibbard bill was the outcome of Emery's efforts. Defeat met this bill but Mr. Emery kept fighting for it. It was introduced successively as the Hopkins bill, the Watson bill and the Reagan bills. Under this latter name it was made the basis for the interstate commerce law.

With such a record it is more than probable that Mr. Emery will give the leaders of the G. O. P. some thing to think about before election day. Those are bad times for the ringsters, anyway, and when the opponents of corruption as it is manifested in State and municipal affairs select such men as Emery for their leaders, the outlook for the gang is not promising.