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Immigration.

In the further interest of American workmen we favor a more effective restriction of the immigration of cheap labor from foreign lands, the extension of opportunities of education for working children, the raising of the age limit for child labor, the protection of free labor as against contract convict labor, and an effective system of labor insurance.

Our present dependence upon foreign shipping for nine-tenths of our foreign carrying is a great loss to the industry of this country. It is also a serious danger to our trade, for its sudden withdrawal in the event of European war would seriously cripple our expanding foreign commerce. The National defence and naval efficiency of this country, moreover, supply a compelling reason for legislation which will enable us to recover our former place among the trade carrying fleets of the world.

Shipping.

The Nation owes a debt of profound gratitude to the soldiers and sailors who have fought its battles, and it is the Government's duty to provide for the survivors and for the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in Pensions. the country's wars. The pension laws, founded in this just sentiment, should be liberal, and should be liberally administered, and preference should be given wherever practicable with respect to employment in the public service to soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. We commend the policy of the Republican party in maintaining the efficiency of the Civil Service. The Administration has acted wisely in its effort to secure for public service in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippine Civil Service. Islands only those whose fitness has been determined by training and experience. We believe that employment in the public service in these territories should be confined as far as practicable to their inhabitants. It was the plain purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to pre

Fifteenth

Amendment.

should be condemned.

vent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the elective franchise. Devices of State governments, whether by statutory or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are revolutionary and Public movements looking to a permanent improvement of the roads and highways of the country meet with our cordial approval, and we recommend this subject to the earnest consideration of the people and of the Legislatures Public Works. of the several States. We favor the extension of the rural free delivery service wnerever its extension may be justified. In further pursuance of the constant policy of the Republican party to provide free homes on the public domain, we recommend adequate National legislation to reclaim the arid lands of the United States, reserving control of the distribution of water for irrigation to the respective States and Territories.

We favor home rule for and the early admission to Statehood of the Territories of New-Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.

The Dingley act, amended to provide sufficient revenue for the conduct of the war, has so well performed its work that it has been possible to reduce the war debt in the sum of $40,000,000. So ample are the Government's reve War Taxes. nues and so great is the public confidence in the integrity of its obligations that its newly funded 2 per cent bonds sell at a premium. The country is now justified in expecting, and it will be the policy of the Republican party to bring about, a reduction of the war taxes.

We favor the construction, ownership, control and protection of an isthmian canal by the Government of the United States. New markets are necessary for the increasing surplus of our farm products. Every effort should be Isthmian Canal. made to open and obtain new markets, especially in the Orient, and the Administration is warmly to be commended for its successful effort to commit all trading and colonizing nations to the policy of the open door in China. In the interest of our expanding commerce we recommend that Congress create a department of commerce and industries in the charge of a secretary with a seat in the Cabinet.

The United States consular system should be reorganized under the supervision of this new department, upon such a basis of appointment and tenure as will render it still more serviceable to the Nation's increasing trade. Consuls. The American Government must protect the person and property of every citizen wherever they are wrongfully

violated or placed in peril. We congratulate the women of America upon their splendid record of public service in the volunteer aid association, and as nurses in camp and Women in War. hospital during the recent campaigns of our armies in the Eastern and Western Indies, and we appreciate their faith

ful co-operation in all works of education and industry. President McKinley has conducted the foreign affairs of the United States with distinguished credit to the American people. In releasing us from the vexatious conditions of a European alliance for the government of Samoa Foreign Affairs. his course is especially to be commended. By securing to our undivided control the most important island of the Samoan group and the best harbor in the Southern Pacific, every American interest has been safeguarded. We approve the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States. We commend the part taken by our Government in the Peace Con

In

ference at The Hague. We assert our steadfast adherence to the policy announced in the Monroe Doctrine. The provisions of The Hague Convention were wisely regarded when President McKinley tendered his friendly offices in the interest of peace between Great Britain and the South African republics. While the American Government must continue the policy prescribed by Washington, affirmed by every succeeding President and imposed upon us by The Hague Treaty, of non-intervention in European controversies, the American people earnestly hope that a way may soon be found, honorable alike to both contending parties, to terminate the strife between them. accepting by the Treaty of Paris the just responsibility of our victories in the Spanish war the President and the Senate won the undoubted approval of the American people. No other course was possible than to destroy Spain's sovereignty throughout the West Indies and in the Philippine Islands. That course created our responsibility before the world, and with the unorganized population whom our intervention had freed from Spain, to provide for the maintenance of law and order, and for the establishment of good government and for the performance of international obligations. Our authority could not be less than our responsibility, and wherever sovereign rights were extended it became the high duty of the Government to maintain its authority, to put down armed insurrection and to confer the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all the rescued peoples. The largest measure of self-government consistent with their welfare and our duties shall be secured to them by law. To Cuba independence and selfgovernment were assured in the same voice by which war was declared, and to the letter this pledge will be performed. The Republican party upon its history, and upon this declaration of its principles and policies, confidently invokes the considerate and approving judgment of the American people.

SILVER REPUBLICAN.

At a convention held in Kansas City July 4 to 6 the Republicans who bolted the gold standard and favored the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 nominated William J. Bryan for President. There was a strong desire on the part of the convention to nominate Charles A. Towne, of Minnesota, for Vice-President, but after a stormy argument, and a determined effort on the part of the cooler minority to prevent hasty action, Mr. Towne himself personally pleaded against his own nomination. convention finally left the nomination to the National Committee of the Silver Republican party, which met and nominated Mr. Stevenson. The platform adopted follows:

The

which in itself is a repudiation of the

We, the Silver Republican party, in National Convention assembled, declare these as our principles, and invite the co-operation of all who agree therewith: We recognize that the principles set forth in the Declaration of American Independence are fundamental and everlastingly true in their application to governments among men. We believe the patriotic words of Washington's farewell address to be the words of soberness and wisdom, inspired by the spirit of right and truth. We treasure the words of Jefferson as priceless gems of American statesmanship. We hold in sacred remembrance the patriotism of Lincoln, who was the great interpreter of American history and the apostle of human rights and of industrial freedom, and we declare, as was declared by the convention that nominated the great Emancipator, that the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions. We declare our adherence to the principles of bimetallism as the right basis of a monetary system under our National Constitution, a principle that found place repeatedly in Republican platforms from the demonetization of silver in 1873 to the St. Louis Republican Convention of 1896. Since that Convention a Republican have passed and approved a currency bill Congress and a Republican President, at the dictation of the trusts and money power, doctrine of bimetallism advocated theretofore by the President and every great leader of his party. This currency law destroys the full money power of the silver dollar, provides for the payment of all Government obligations and the redemption of all forms of paper money in gold alone, retires the time-honored and patriotic greenback, constituting one-sixth of the money in circulation, and surrenders to banking corporations the sovereign function of issuing all paper money, thus enabling these corporations to control the prices of labor and property, and increasing the power of the banks to create panics and bring disaster upon business enterprises. The provision of this currency law making the bonded debt of the Nation payable in gold alone changes the contract between the Government and the bondholders to the advantage of the latter, and is in direct opposition to the declaration of the Matthews resolution passed by Congress in 1878, for which resolution the present Republican President, then a mem her of Congress, voted, as did also all leading Republicans, both in the House and Senate. We demand the repeal of this currency law, and declare that we shall not Cease our efforts until there has been established in its place a monetary system based upon the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold into money at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, by the independent action of the United States, under which system all money shall be issued by the Government, and all money coined and issued shall be a full legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, without exception. approve a graduated tax upon incomes; and if necessary to accomplish this, we favor an amendment to the Constitution. We believe that United States Senators should be elected by direct vote of the people, and we favor such amendment of the Constitution and such legislation as may be necessary to that end.

We

We favor the maintenance and

the in public service, appointments

a

to be made according to fitness, competitively ascertained, and public servants to be retained in office only so long as shall be compatible with the efficiency of the service. Combinations, trusts and monopolies, contrived and created for the purpose of controlling the prices and quantity of articles supplied to the public, are unjust, oppressive and unlawful. Not only do these unlawful conspiracies fix the prices of commodities, but they invade every branch of State and National government with their polluting influences, and control the actions of their employes and dependents, politically, until such control imperils society and the liberty of the citizen. We demand the most stringent laws for their suppression and the most severe punishment of their promoters and maintainers and the energetic enforcement of such laws by the courts. We believe the Monroe Doctrine to be sound in principle and wise National policy, and we demand a firm adherence thereto. We condemn those acts of the Administration inconsistent with it, and which have tended to make us parties to the interests, and to involve us in the controversies of European nations, and especially the recognition by pending treaty of the right of England to be considered in the construction of an interoceanic canal. We are in favor of the speedy construction of the Nicaragua Canal, to be built, owned and defended by the Government of the United States. We observe with anxiety, and regard with disapproval, the increasing ownership of American lands by aliens; and their growing control over our internal transportation, natural resources and public utilities. We demand legislation to protect our public domain, our natural resources, our franchises and our internal commerce; and to keep them free from, and to maintain their independence of, all foreign monopolies, institutions and influences; and we declare our opposition to the leasing of the public lands of the United States, whereby corporations and syndicates shall be able to secure control thercof, and thus monopolize the public domain, the heritage of the people. We approve of the principle of direct legislation, and favor the application of the same to nominations. In view of their great sacrifices made, and patriotic services rendered, we are in favor of liberal pensions to deserving soldiers and sailors, their widows, orphans and other dependents. We believe that enlistment and service should be accepted as conclusive proof that the soldier was free from disease and disability at the time of his enlistment. We condemn the present administration of the pension laws. We tender to the patriotic people of the South African republics our sympathy, and express our admiration for them in their heroic struggle to preserve their political freedom and maintain their national existence. We declare the destruction of these republics and the subjugation of their people to be a crime against civilization. We believe this sympathy should have been voiced by the American Congress, as was done in the case of the French, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Armenians and the Cubans, and as the traditions of this country would have dictated. We declare the Porto Rican tariff law to be not only a serious but a dangerous departure from the principles of our form of government. We believe in the republican form of government; and we are opposed to monarchy, and to the whole theory of imperialistic control. We believe in self-government, a government by the consent of the governed; and are unalterably opposed to a government based upon force. It is incontrovertible that the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago cannot be made citizens of the United States without endangering our civilization. We are therefore in favor of applying to the Philippines the principle we are solemnly and publicly pledged to observe in the case of Cuba. We demand that our Nation's promise to Cuba shall be fulfilled in every particular. There being no longer any necessity for collecting war taxes, we demand relief from the taxes levied to carry on the war with Spain. We favor the immediate admission into the Union of States of the Territories of Arizona, NewMexico and Oklahoma. We believe the National Government should lend encouragement and assistance toward the reclamation of the arid lands of the United States; and to that end, we are in favor of a comprehensive survey thereof, and an immediate ascertainment of the water supply available for such reclamation, and we believe it to be the duty of the general Government to provide for the construction of storage reservoirs and irrigation works so that the water supply of the arid region may be utilized to the greatest possible extent in the interest of the people, while preserving all rights of the States. Transportation is a public necessity, and the means and methods of it are matters of public concern. Transportation companies exercise an unwarranted power over industries, business and commerce, and should be made to serve the public interests without making unreasonable charges or unjust discriminations. We observe with satisfaction the growing sentiment among the people in favor of the public ownership and operation of public utilities. We are in favor of expanding our commerce in the interest of American labor and for the benefit of all our people by every honest and peaceful means. We are opposed to the importation of Asiatic laborers in competition with American labor; and favor a more rigid enforcement of the laws relating thereto. Our creed and our history justify the nations of the earth in expecting that, wherever the American flag is unfurled in authority, there human liberty and political freedom shall be found. We protest against the adoption of any policy that will change, in the thought of the world, the meaning of our flag. We insist that it shall never float over any ship or wave at the head of any column directed against the political independence of any people of any race or in any clime. The Silver Republican party of the United States, in the foregoing principles, seeks to perpetuate the spirit, and to adhere to the teachings of Abraham Lincoln.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF REPUBLICAN CLUBS.

In St. Paul, Minn., on July 18, the twelfth National convention of the National League of Republican Clubs was held. The Committee on Credentials reported delegations present from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indian Territory, Iowa,

Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New-Jersey, New-York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and the College League, with 1,440 votes. The election of officers resulted as follows: President, Isaac Miller Hamilton, Illinois; vice-presidentat-large, Luther_Mott, Oswego, N. Y.; secretary, D. H. Stine, Kentucky; treasurer, J. B. Wiggins, Pennsylvania. The Committee on Resolutions presented the following report, which was unanimously adopted: Upon the happy and prosperous condition of the entire country the league congratulates the people of the United States. Allegiance is pledged anew to the principles of the Republican party, which, ably and brayelv carried into execution by the National Administration, have made these conditions possible. Every action of President McKinley is approved, the Philadelphia platform is indorsed, and it is declared that the Republican party stands to-day, as ever, for positive policies, for a protective tariff, for sound money, for the control and regulation of combinations of capital that have a legitimate purpose and the destruction of those that have an illegitimate purpose; for the retention of every inch of territory that comes to us by honorable treaty and international law, for the development of the marvellous commercial possibilities of the Orient, for the restoration of our merchant marine, and, finally, it stands for the progress of the United States and the uplifting of mankind throughout the world. As representatives of the younger element of the Republican party we have a peculiar pride in the nomination for the Vice-Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, whom we regard as a lofty and inspiring type of the American statesman and soldier. The incapacity of the Democratic party brought poverty to the door of labor, distrust to the hope of capital and despair to the homes of the poor. Its activity is a threat to the material prosperity of the country, and its triumph will be an individual and public disaster. To prevent this we invoke sobriety of judgment and vigor of action in the coming campaign. The Republican party has ever been a builder. Its every platform has rung with the spirit of progress and hope. Democracy has ever been a destroyer. Its every platform has groaned with the spirit of pessimism and opposition. The American people will never believe that the builder has become the destroyer and the destroyer the builder. We deplore the conditions now existing in China, and we assure the American people that a Republican Administration will protect all our interests, demanding full indemnity for the past and security for the future. As firmly as we believe in America and her institutions we believe the party that will guide and maintain us in the great future is the party of Abraham Lincoln, supported by Ulysses S. Grant and exalted by William McKinley.

DEMOCRATIC.

The Democratic National Convention met at Kansas City, Mo., on July 4. The chief incident previous to the meeting of the Convention was the exclusion of exSenator David B. Hill, of New-York, from the Resolutions Committee. Through the efforts of Richard Croker the New-York delegation on July 3 chose Augustus Van Vyck, of Brooklyn, as their representative on the Resolutions Committee by a vote of 36 to 28 for Hill, eight members of the delegation not voting. The first day of the Convention-July 4-was devoted to routine and preliminary work. Governor Thomas of Colorado, the temporary chairman, and James D. Richardson, the permanent chairnan, made speeches. On July 5 William J. Bryan was unanimously nominated for resident, W. D. Oldham, of Nebraska, making the chief nominating speech. On this lay the platform, containing a specific declaration for the free coinage of silver at he ratio of 16 to 1, but proclaiming "imperialism" as "the paramount issue," dopted. The choice for Vice-President seemed to lie between Charles A. Towne and Adlai E. Stevenson. On July 6-the third day's session of the Convention-Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for Vice-President on the first ballot. Towne, and Hill gainst his own protest made from the platform, received votes for the nomination, but Itevenson won it with many votes to spare. The nominations for both President and Vice-President were practically unanimous, there being no contest to speak of on the loor of the Convention. The Convention adjourned sine die on July 6, after nomiating Stevenson.

The Platform.

On July 5 the Convention adopted the following platform:

was

We, the representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, assembled 1 National Convention on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of In

Declaration of
Principles.

dependence, do reaffirm our faith in that immortal proclamation of the inalienable rights of man, and our allegiance to the Constitution framed in harmony therewith by the fathers of the Republic. We hold with the United States upreme Court that the Declaration of Independence is the spirit of our Government, f which the Constitution is the form and letter. We declare again that all governents instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the govrned; that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny; nd that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the ag and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress, deriving their existence nd their powers from the Constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond it, or in iolation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half emire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and evitably to despotism at home.

Believing in these fundamental principles, we denounce the Porto Rican law, en

acted by a Republican Porto Rican Law Denounced.

Congress against the protest and opposition of the Democratic minority, as a bold and open violation of the Nation's organic law and a flagrant breach of National good faith. It imposes upon the people of Porto Rico a government without their consent, and taxation without representation. It dishonors the American people by repudiating a solemn pledge made in their behalf by the commanding general of our Army, which the Porto Ricans welcomed to a peaceful and unresisted occupation of their land. It dooms to poverty and distress a people whose helplessness appeals with peculiar force to our justice and magnanimity. In this, the first act of its imperialistic programme, the Republican party seeks to commit the United States to a colonial policy inconsistent with republican institutions and condemned by the Supreme Court in numerous decisions.

We demand the prompt and honest fulfilment of our pledge to the Cuban people and the world, that the United States has no disposition nor intention to exercise of

Pledge to the

Cubans.

sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over the island Cuba, except for its pacification. The war ended nearly two years ago, profound peace reigns over all the island, and still the Administration keeps the government of the island from its people, while Republican carpetbag officials plunder its revenues and exploit the colonial theory to the disgrace of the American people.

The Philippine

Question.

It

We condemn and denounce the Philippine policy of the present Administration. has embroiled the Republic in an unnecessary war, sacrificed the lives of many of its noblest sons, and placed the United States, previously known and applauded throughout the world as the champion of freedom, in the false and un-American position of crushing with military force the efforts of our former allies to achieve liberty and self-government. The Filipinos cannot be citizens without endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjects without imperilling our form of government; and as we are not willing to surrender our civilization, or to convert the Republic into an empire, we favor an immediate declaration of the Nation's purpose to give to the Filipinos, first, a stable form of government; second, independence; and third, protection from outside interference such as has been given for nearly a century to the republics of Central and South America. The greedy commercialism which dictated the Philippine policy of the Republican Administration attempts to justify it with the plea that it will pay, but even this sordid and unworthy plea fails when brought to the test of facts. The war of "criminal aggression" against the Filipinos, entailing an annual expense of many millions, has already cost more than any possible profit that could accrue from the entire Philippine trade for years to come. Furthermore, when trade is extended at the expense of liberty the price is always too high. We are not opposed to territorial expansion, when it takes in desirable territory which can be erected into States in the Union, and whose people are willing and fit

Territorial
Expansion.

Issue.

to become American citizens. We favor trade expansion by every peaceful and legitimate means. But we are unalterably opposed to the seizing or purchasing of distant islands to be governed outside the Constitution and whose people can never become citizens. We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but believe that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example. The importance of other questions now pending before the American people is in nowise diminished and the Democratic party takes no The Paramount backward step from its position on them; but the burning issue of imperialism, growing out of the Spanish war, involving the very existence of the Republic and the destruction of cur free institutions, we regard as the paramount issue of the campaign. The declaration of the Republican platform adopted at the Philadelphia Convention, held in June, 1900, that the Republican party "steadfastly adheres to the policy announced in the Monroe Doctrine, is manifestly insincere The Monroe and deceptive. This profession is contradicted by the avowed policy of that party, in opposition to the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, to acquire and hold sovereignty over large areas of territory and large numbers of people in the Eastern Hemisphere. We insist on the strict maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine in all its integrity, both in letter and in spirit, as necessary to prevent the extension of European authority on these continents and as essential to our supremacy in American affairs. At the same time we declare that no American people shall ever be held by force in unwilling subjection to European authority.

Doctrine.

Opposition to
Militarism.

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army, an unnecessary burden of taxation, and would be a constant menace to their liberties. A small standing army and a well disciplined State militia are amply sufficient in time of peace. This Republic has no place for a vast military establishment, a sure forerunner of compulsory military service and conscription. When the Nation is in danger the volunteer soldier is his country's best defender. The National Guard of the United States should ever be cherished in the patriotic hearts of a free people. Such organizations are ever an element of strength and safety. For the first time in our history and coeval with the Philippine conquest has there been a wholesale departure from our time honored

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