USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. VI > Part 25
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"The declaration in 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 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 this continent 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.
"We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimida-
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[1900
tion and oppression at home. It means the strong arm, which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citi- zens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace- loving people a large standing army, an unnecessary burden of taxa- tion, and 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 establish- ment, a sure forerunner of compulsory military service and conscrip- tion. When the nation is in danger the volunteer soldier is his coun- try'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 and approved system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as un- American, un-Democratic, and un-Republican, and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.
"Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They de- stroy competition, control the price of raw material and of the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment of labor and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof, and deprive individual energy and small capital of their opportunity of betterment. They are the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and unless their insatiate greed is checked all wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the republic destroyed. The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the Republican party in its State and national platforms is conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are the legitimate product of Republican policies, that they are fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by the Republican ad- ministration in return for campaign subscriptions and political sup- port.
"We pledge the Democratic party to an unceasing warfare in nation, State, and city against private monopoly in every form. Existing laws against trusts must be enforced and more stringent
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1900]
ones must be enacted providing for publicity as to the affairs of cor- porations engaged in interstate commerce and requiring all corpora- tions to show, before doing business outside of the State of their origin, that they have no water in their stock and that they have not attempted, and are not attempting, to monopolize any branch of business or the production of any articles of merchandise; and the whole constitutional power of Congress over interstate commerce, the mails, and all modes of interstate communication shall be exer- cised by the enactment of comprehensive laws upon the subject of trusts. Tariff laws should be amended by putting the products of trusts upon the free list, to prevent monopoly under the plea of pro- tection. The failure of the present Republican administration, with an absolute control over all of the branches of the national govern- ment, to enact any legislation designed to prevent or even curtail the absorbing power of trusts and illegal combinations, or to enforce the Anti-Trust laws already on the statute-books, proves the insincerity of the high-sounding phrases of the Republican platform.
"Corporations should be protected in all their rights and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corpora- tions to interfere with the public affairs of the people or to control the sovereignty which creates them should be forbidden under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible.
"We condemn the Dingley Tariff law as a trust-breeding meas- ure, skillfully devised to give to the few favors which they do not deserve, and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear.
"We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the Interstate Com- merce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminations and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.
"We reaffirm and endorse the principles of the national Demo- cratic platform adopted at Chicago in 1896, and we reiterate the demand of that platform for an American financial system made by the American people for themselves, and which shall restore and maintain a bimetallic price level; and as part of such system the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and
ยท
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gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation.
"We denounce the Currency bill enacted at the last session of Congress as a step forward in the Republican policy which aims to discredit the sovereign right of the national government to issue all money, whether coin or paper, and to bestow upon National banks the power to issue and control the volume of paper money for their own benefit. A permanent National bank currency, secured by gov- ernment bonds, must have a permanent debt to rest upon, and, if the bank currency is to increase with population and business, the debt must also increase. The Republican currency scheme is, there- fore, a scheme for fastening upon the taxpayer a perpetual and grow- ing debt for the benefit of the banks. We are opposed to this pri- vate corporation paper circulated as money but without legal-tender qualities, and demand the retirement of National banknotes as fast as government paper or silver certificates can be substituted for them.
"We favor an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the peo- ple, and we favor direct legislation wherever practicable.
"We are opposed to government by injunction; we denounce the blacklist, and favor arbitration as a means of settling disputes be- tween corporations and their employes.
"In the interest of American labor and the upbuilding of the workingman, as the cornerstone of the prosperity of our country, we recommend that Congress create a Department of Labor in charge of a Secretary with a seat in the cabinet, believing that the elevation of the American laborer will bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to our country at home and to our commerce abroad.
"We are proud of the courage and fidelity of the American sol- diers and sailors in all our wars; we favor liberal pensions to them and their dependents; and we reiterate the position taken in the Chicago platform in 1896, that the fact of enlistment and service shall be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.
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1900]
"We favor the immediate construction, ownership, and control of the Nicaraguan canal by the United States, and we denounce the insincerity of the plank in the Republican national platform for an Isthmian canal in the face of the failure of the Republican majority to pass the bill pending in Congress.
"We condemn the Hay-Pauncefote treaty as a surrender of American rights and interests not to be tolerated by the American people.
"We denounce the failure of the Republican party to carry out its pledges to grant statehood to the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and we promise the people of those Territo- ries immediate statehood, and home rule during their condition as Territories; and we favor home rule and a Territorial form of gov- ernment for Alaska and Porto Rico.
"We favor an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of the west, storing the waters for the purpose of irrigation, and the holding of such lands for actual settlers.
"We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion law, and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic races.
"Jefferson said: 'Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.' We approve this whole- some doctrine and earnestly protest against the Republican depart- ure which has involved us in so-called world politics, including the diplomacy of Europe and the intrigue and land-grabbing of Asia, and we especially condemn the ill-concealed Republican alliance with England, which must mean discrimination against other friendly nations and which has already stifled the nation's voice while liberty is being strangled in Africa.
"Believing in the principles of self-government and rejecting, as did our forefathers, the claim of monarchy, we view with indignation the purpose of England to overwhelm with force the South African republics. Speaking, as we believe, for the entire American nation, except its Republican office-holders, and for all the free men every- where, we extend our sympathies to the heroic burghers in their unequal struggle to maintain their liberty and independence.
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"We denounce the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Con- gresses, which have kept taxes high and which threaten the perpetua- tion of the oppressive war levies. We oppose the accumulation of a surplus to be squandered in such barefaced frauds upon the taxpay- ers as the Shipping Subsidy bill, which, under the false pretense of fostering American shipbuilding, would put unearned millions into the pockets of favorite contributors to the Republican campaign fund. We favor the reduction and speedy repeal of the war taxes, and a return to the time-honored Democratic policy of strict economy in governmental expenditures.
"Believing that our most cherished institutions are in great peril, that the very existence of our constitutional republic is at stake, and that the decision now to be rendered will determine whether or not our children are to enjoy those blessed privileges of free govern- ment which have made the United States great, prosperous, and hon- ored, we earnestly ask for the foregoing declaration of principles the hearty support of the liberty-loving American people, regardless of previous party affiliations."
Other Parties
People's Party .- Convention held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, May 9-10, 1900. For President, Wil- liam J. Bryan. The convention nominated for Vice- President Charles A. Towne, of Minnesota, who in the summer withdrew in the interest of complete fusion with the Democratic party. Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic candidate for Vice-President, was there- upon nominated by the national committee of the Peo- ple's party.
People's Party, "Middle-of-the-Road" Bolters .- Convention held in Cincinnati, May 9-10, 1900. For President, Wharton Barker, of Pennsylvania; for Vice- President, Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota.
CHESTER A. ARTHUR
Chester A. Arthur, 21st president; born at Fairfield, Vt., October 5, 1830; lawyer; teacher; engineer and chief of staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan; appointed by President Grant collector of the port of New York, 1871; removed for political reasons, July 11, 1878; elected vice president, 1880; became president September 20, 1881, upon the death of President Gar- field; died in New York City, November 18, 1886.
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[1900
15; Michigan, 14; Minnesota, 9; Nebraska, 8; New Hampshire, 4; New Jersey, 10; New York, 36; North Dakota, 3; Ohio, 23; Oregon, 4; Pennsylvania, 32; Rhode Island, 4; South Dakota, 4; Utah, 3; Vermont, 4; Washington, 4; West Virginia, 6; Wisconsin, 12; Wyoming, 3. Total, 292. Elected.
William J. Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson, Democrats :- Ala- bama, 11; Arkansas, 8; Colorado, 4; Florida, 4; Georgia, 13; Idaho, 3; Kentucky, 13; Louisiana, 8; Mississippi, 9; Missouri, 17; Mon- tana, 3; Nevada, 3; North Carolina, 11; South Carolina, 9; Ten- nessee, 12; Texas, 15; Virginia, 12. Total, 155.
Popular vote :
Mckinley, 7,219,530; Bryan, 6,358,071; Woolley, 209,166; Debs, 94,768; Barker, 50,232; Malloney, 32,751; Ellis, not collated.
1904 Republican Party
Convention held in Chicago, June 21-23, 1904. Temporary chairman, Elihu Root, of New York; per- manent chairman, Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois.
President Roosevelt was unanimously renominated.
Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, was nominated unanimously for Vice-President.
Platform :
"Fifty years ago the Republican party came into existence dedi- cated, among other purposes, to the great task of arresting the exten- sion of human slavery. In 1860 it elected its first President. Dur- ing twenty-four of the forty-four years which have elapsed since the election of Lincoln the Republican party has held complete control of the government. For eighteen more of the forty-four years it has held partial control through the possession of one or two branches of the government, while the Democratic party during the same period has had complete control for only two years. This long tenure of power by the Republican party is not due to chance. It is a demonstration that the Republican party has commanded the confi- dence of the American people for nearly two generations to a degree never equaled in our history, and has displayed a high capacity for rule and government which has been made even more conspicuous by the incapacity and infirmity of purpose shown by its opponents.
"The Republican party entered upon its present period of com- plete supremacy in 1897. We have every right to congratulate our- selves upon the work since then accomplished, for it has added luster
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even to the traditions of the party which carried the government through the storms of civil war.
"We then found the country, after four years of Democratic rule, in evil plight, oppressed with misfortune and doubtful of the future. Public credit had been lowered, the revenues were declining, the debt was growing, the administration's attitude toward Spain was feeble and mortifying, the standard of value was threatened and uncertain, labor was unemployed, business was sunk in the depression which had succeeded the panic of 1893, hope was faint, and confidence was gone.
"We met these unhappy conditions vigorously, effectively, and at once. We replaced a Democratic tariff law based on free trade principles and garnished with sectional protection by a consistent protective tariff; and industry, freed from oppression and stimulated by the encouragement of wise laws, has expanded to a degree never before known, has conquered new markets, and has created a volume of exports which has surpassed imagination. Under the Dingley tariff labor has been fully employed, wages have risen, and all indus- tries have revived and prospered.
"We firmly established the gold standard, which was then men- aced with destruction. Confidence returned to business, and with confidence. an unexampled prosperity.
"For deficient revenues, supplemented by improvident issues of bonds, we gave the country an income which produced a large sur- plus and which enabled us only four years after the Spanish War had closed to remove over one hundred millions of annual war taxes, reduce the public debt, and lower the interest charges of the gov- ernment. -
"The public credit, which had been so lowered that in time of peace a Democratic administration made large loans at extravagant rates of interest in order to pay current expenditures, rose under Republican administration to its highest point and enabled us to borrow at 2 per cent. even in time of war.
"We refused to palter longer with the miseries of Cuba. We fought a quick and victorious war with Spain. We set Cuba free, governed the island for three years, and then gave it to the Cuban
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1904]
people with order restored, with ample revenues, with education and public health established, free from debt, and connected with the United States by wise provisions for our mutual interests.
"We have organized the government of Porto Rico, and its people now enjoy peace, freedom, order, and prosperity.
"In the Philippines we have suppressed insurrection, established order, and given to life and property a security never known there before. We have organized civil government, made it effective and strong in administration, and have conferred upon the people of those islands the largest civil liberty they have ever enjoyed.
"By our possession of the Philippines we were enabled to take prompt and effective action in the relief of the legations at Peking and a decisive part in preventing the partition and preserving the integrity of China.
"The possession of a route for an Isthmian canal, so long the dream of American statesmanship, is now an accomplished fact. The great work of connecting the Pacific and Atlantic by a canal is at last begun, and it is due to the Republican party.
"We have passed laws which will bring the arid lands of the United States within the area of cultivation.
"We have reorganized the army and put it in the highest state of efficiency.
"We have passed laws for the improvement and support of the militia.
"We have pushed forward the building of the navy-the defense and protection of our honor and our interests.
"Our administration of the great departments of the government has been honest and efficient, and wherever wrong-doing has been discovered the Republican administration has not hesitated to probe the evil and bring the offenders to justice without regard to party or political ties.
"Laws enacted by the Republican party which the Democratic party failed to enforce and which were intended for the protection of the public against the unjust discrimination or the illegal encroach- ment of vast aggregations of capital, have been fearlessly enforced by a Republican President, and new laws insuring reasonable publicity
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as to the operations of great corporations, and providing additional remedies for the prevention of discrimination in freight rates, have been passed by a Republican Congress.
"In this record of achievement during the past eight years may be read the pledges which the Republican party has fulfilled. We promise to continue these policies, and we declare our constant adher- ence to the following principles :
"Protection, which guards and develops our industries, is a cardi- nal policy of the Republican party. The measure of protection should always at least equal the difference in the cost of production at home and abroad. We insist upon the maintenance of the princi- ple of protection, and therefore rates of duty should be readjusted only when conditions have so changed that the public interest demands their alteration, but this work cannot safely be committed to any other hands than those of the Republican party. To entrust it to the Democratic party is to invite disaster. Whether, as in 1892, the Democratic party declares the protective tariff unconstitutional, or whether it demands tariff reform or tariff revision, its real object is always the destruction of the protective system. However specious the name, the purpose is ever the same. A Democratic tariff has always been followed by business adversity, a Republican tariff by business prosperity. To a Republican Congress and a Republican President this great question can be safely entrusted. When the only free trade country among the great nations agitates a return to protection, the chief protective country should not falter in main- taining it.
"We have extended widely our foreign markets, and we believe in the adoption of all practicable methods for their further extension, including commercial reciprocity wherever reciprocal arrangements can be effected consistent with the principles of protection and with- out injury to American agriculture, American labor, or any Ameri- can industry.
"We believe it to be the duty of the Republican party to uphold the gold standard and the integrity and value of our national cur- rency. The maintenance of the gold standard, established by the Republican party, cannot safely be committed to the Democratic
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1904]
party, which resisted its adoption and has never given any proof since that time of belief in it or fidelity to it.
"While every other industry has prospered under the fostering aid of Republican legislation, American shipping engaged in foreign trade in competition with the low cost of construction, low wages, and heavy subsidies of foreign governments, has not for many years received from the government of the United States adequate encour- agement of any kind. We therefore favor legislation which will encourage and build up the American merchant marine, and we cor- dially approve the legislation of the last Congress which created the Merchant Marine commission to investigate and report upon this subject.
"A navy powerful enough to defend the United States against any attack, to uphold the Monroe doctrine, and watch over our com- merce, is essential to the safety and the welfare of the American people. To maintain such a navy is the fixed policy of the Republi- can party.
"We cordially approve the attitude of President Roosevelt and Congress in regard to the exclusion of Chinese labor, and promise a continuance of the Republican policy in that direction.
"The Civil Service law was placed on the statute-books by the Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our former declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced.
"We are always mindful of the country's debt to the soldiers and sailors of the United States, and we believe in making ample provi- sion for them and in the liberal administration of the Pension laws.
"We favor the peaceful settlement of international differences by arbitration.
"We commend the vigorous efforts made by the administration to protect American citizens in foreign lands, and pledge ourselves to insist upon the just and equal protection of all our citizens abroad. It is the unquestioned duty of the government to procure for all our citizens, without distinction, the rights of travel and sojourn in friendly countries, and we declare ourselves in favor of all proper efforts tending to that end.
"Our great interests and our growing commerce in the Orient
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[1904
render the condition of China of high importance to the United States. We cordially commend the policy pursued in that direction by the administrations of President Mckinley and President Roose- velt.
"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been unconstitutionally limited, and if such is the case we demand that representation in Congress and in the Electoral Colleges shall be pro- portionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United States.
"Combinations of capital and of labor are the results of the economic movement of the age, but neither must be permitted to infringe upon the rights and interests of the people. Such combi- nations, when lawfully formed for lawful purposes, are alike entitled to the protection of the laws, but both are subject to the laws and neither can be permitted to break them.
"The great statesman and patriotic American, William Mckinley, who was reelected by the Republican party to the Presidency four years ago, was assassinated just at the threshold of his second term. The entire nation mourned his untimely death and did that justice to his great qualities of mind and character which history will con- firm and repeat.
"The American people were fortunate in his successor, to whom they turned with a trust and confidence which have been fully justi- fied. President Roosevelt brought to the great responsibilities thus sadly forced upon him a clear head, a brave heart, an earnest patriot- ism, and high ideals of public duty and public service. True to the principles of the Republican party and to the policies which that party had declared, he has also shown himself ready for every emer- gency and has met new and vital questions with ability and with success.
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