USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. VI > Part 28
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"Time has justified the selection of the Panama route for the great Isthmian canal, and events have shown the wisdom of securing author- ity over the zone through which it is to be built. The work is now progressing with a rapidity far beyond expectation, and already the realization of the hopes of centuries has come within the vision of the near future.
"New Mexico and Arizona .- We favor the immediate admission of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona as separate States in the Union.
"Centenary of the Birth of Lincoln .- February 12, 1909, will be the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, an immortal spirit whose fame has brightened with the receding years and whose name stands among the first of those given to the world by the great republic. We recommend that this centennial anniversary be celebrated throughout the confines of the nation by all the people thereof, and especially by the public schools, as an exercise to stir the patriotism of the youth of the land.
"Democratic Incapacity for Government .- We call the attention of the American people to the fact that none of the great measures here advocated by the Republican party could be enacted, and none of the steps forward here proposed could be taken, under a Democratic administration or under one in which party responsibility is divided. The continuance of present policies, therefore, absolutely requires the continuance in power of that party which believes in them and which possesses the capacity to put them into operation.
BENJAMIN HARRISON
Benjamin Harrison, 23d president; born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833; lawyer; served in civil war; United States senator, 1881-87; elected president, 1888; defeated for reëlec- tion by Grover Cleveland, 1892; died at Indianapolis, Ind., March 13, 1901.
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"Fundamental Differences Between Democracy and Republican- ism .- Beyond all platform declarations there are fundamental differ- ences between the Republican party and its chief opponent which make the one worthy and the other unworthy of public trust.
"In history, the difference between Democracy and Republicanism is that the one stood for debased currency, the other for honest cur- rency; the one for free silver, the other for sound money; the one for free trade, the other for protection; the one for the contraction of American influence, the other for its expansion; the one has been forced to abandon every position taken on the great issues before the people, the other has held and vindicated all.
"In experience, the difference between Democracy and Republi- canism is that one means adversity, while the other means prosperity ; one means low wages, the other means high ; one means doubt and debt, the other means confidence and thrift.
"In principle, the difference between Democracy and Republican- ism is that one stands for vacillation and timidity in government, the other for strength and purpose; one stands for obstruction, the other for construction ; one promises, the other performs ; one finds fault, the other finds work.
"The present tendencies of the two parties are even more marked by inherent differences. The trend of Democracy is toward socialism, while the Republican party stands for a wise and regulated individu- alism. Socialism would destroy wealth, Republicanism would prevent its abuse. Socialism would give to each an equal right to take; Repub- licanism would give to each an equal right to earn. Socialism would offer an equality of possession which would soon leave no one anything to possess; Republicanism would give equality of opportunity which would assure to each his share of a constantly increasing sum of pos- sessions. In line with this tendency the Democratic party of to-day believes in government ownership, while the Republican party believes in government regulation. Ultimately Democracy would have the nation own the people, while Republicanism would have the people own the nation.
"Upon this platform of principles and purposes, reaffirming our adherence to every Republican doctrine proclaimed since the birth of
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the party, we go before the country asking the support not only of those who have acted with us heretofore, but of all our fellow-citizens who, regardless of past political differences, unite in the desire to main- tain the policies, perpetuate the blessings, and make secure the achieve- ments of a greater America."
A minority report on platform was presented to the convention by Henry Allen Cooper, member of the committee on resolutions from Wisconsin. This em- bodied resolutions in favor of 1. Physical valuation of the railways as the basis for determination of just and reasonable railway rates; 2. Recognition of the princi- ple that tariff duties should not be levied to such extent as to establish monopoly; 3. Maintenance, enforce- ment, and strengthening of the Sherman Anti-Trust law as applied to trusts and combinations to control production and prices, but exemption of labor organiza- tions from the operation of that law; 4. Election of United States Senators by direct popular vote; 5. Pub- licity of campaign contributions and expenditures ; 6. Interstate regulation of telegraph and telephone serv- ices and rates; 7. No ship subsidies, or other privileges to special interests at public expense; 8. Prohibition of the issuance of injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes ; 9. Enlargement of the President's cabinet by the appointment of a Secretary of Labor; 10. Exten- sion of the Eight-hour law to all employes engaged on government work; and 11. Enactment by Congress of a general Employers' Liability law.
The minority report was briefly debated on the floor of the convention. Albert J. Hopkins, of Illinois, the chairman of the committee on resolutions, said :
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"Everything that is Republican in any one of those planks is already adopted in the majority report. We [ the committee] rejected in those planks that have been offered by the gentleman from Wiscon- sin the doctrines of socialism embodied in them. The ques- tion for you to determine is whether you will stand by the report of the majority, or whether you will take the Socialist-Democratic utter- ances of Wisconsin."
Separate votes by roll-call were taken on Mr. Coop- er's resolutions Nos. 1, 4, and 5, with the following re- sults : No. 1-ayes 63, nays 917; No. 4-ayes 114, nays 866; No. 5-ayes 94, nays 880. The remaining resolu- tions were voted on as a whole and rejected by 28 ayes to 952 nays.
Democratic Party
Convention held in Denver, July 7-10, 1908. Tem- porary chairman, Theodore A. Bell, of California ; permanent chairman, Henry D. Clayton, of Alabama. On the first day of the convention, immediately after completion of the organization, resolutions on the death of Grover Cleveland, offered by I. J. Dunn, of Ne- braska, were adopted,1 and as a further mark of respect to the departed leader adjournment was taken until the following day.
The convention nominated William J. Bryan for
1A more extended and laudatory expression in honor of Mr. Cleveland had been prepared for submission to the convention by Alton B. Parker, but before he could present it Mr. Dunn had been recognized by the chair- man, and so the Dunn resolutions had priority. Mr. Parker thereupon rose and read his intended expression, but did not offer it as a substitute.
The incident has been referred to by some writers as evidencing a purpose on the part of Mr. Cleveland's old antagonists-if not of the Demo- cratic convention itself-to do him but scant honor. But the wording of the
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President, only one ballot being taken, which stood : Bryan, 8881/2 ; George Gray, of Delaware, 591/2; John A. Johnson, of Minnesota, 46.
John W. Kern, of Indiana, was nominated for Vice- President by acclamation.
Platform (unanimously adopted) :
"We, the representatives of the Democracy of the United States, in national convention assembled, reaffirm our belief in, and pledge our loyalty to, the principles of the party.
"We rejoice at the increasing signs of an awakening throughout the country. The various investigations have traced graft and political corruption to the representatives of predatory wealth, and laid bare the unscrupulous methods by which they have debauched elections and preyed upon a defenseless public through the subservient officials whom they have raised to place and power.
"The conscience of the nation is now aroused to free the govern- ment from the grip of those who have made it a business asset of the favor-seeking corporations. It must become again a people's govern- ment, and be administered in all its departments according to the Jeffersonian maxim, 'Equal rights to all ; special privileges to none.'
"Shall the people rule? is the overshadowing issue which manifests itself in all the questions now under discussion.
"Increase of Office-Holders .- Coincident with the enormous in- crease in expenditures is a like addition to the number of office-holders. During the past year 23,784 were added, costing $16,156,000, and in the past six years of Republican administration the total number of new offices created, aside from many commissions, has been 99,319,
Dunn resolutions gave no indication of such a design. The following tribute was paid in them to Mr. Cleveland:
"We, the delegates of the party in national convention assembled, rec- ognize in him one of the strongest and ablest characters known to the world's statesmanship, who possessed to an extraordinary degree the elements of leadership and by his able, conscientious, and forceful administration of public affairs reflected honor upon his country and upon his party."
See Official Report of the convention, pp. 31-35.
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entailing an additional expenditure of nearly $70,000,000, as against only 10,279 new offices created under the Cleveland and Mckinley administrations, which involved an expenditure of only $6,000,000. We denounce this great and growing increase in the number of office- holders as not only unnecessary and wasteful, but also as clearly indi- cating a deliberate purpose on the part of the administration to keep the Republican party in power at public expense by thus increasing the number of its retainers and dependents. Such procedure we declare to be no less dangerous and corrupt than the open purchase of votes at the polls.
"Economy in Administration .- The Republican Congress in the session just ended made appropriations amounting to $1,008,000,000, exceeding the total expenditures of the past fiscal year by $90,000,000 and leaving a deficit of more than $60,000,000 for the fiscal year just ended. We denounce the heedless waste of the people's money which has resulted in this appalling increase as a shameful violation of all prudent considerations of government and as no less than a crime against the millions of working men and women, from whose earnings the great proportion of these colossal sums must be extorted through excessive tariff exactions and other indirect methods. It is not surpris- ing that in the face of this shocking record the Republican platform contains no reference to economical administration or promise thereof in the future. We demand that a stop be put to this frightful extrava- gance, and insist upon the strictest economy in every department com- patible with frugal and efficient administration.
"Arbitrary Power-The Speaker .- The House of Representatives was designed by the fathers of the Constitution to be the popular branch of our government, responsive to the public will.
"The House of Representatives, as controlled in recent years by the Republican party, has ceased to be a deliberative and legislative body responsive to the will of a majority of its members, but has come under the absolute domination of the Speaker, who has entire control of its deliberations and powers of legislation.
"We have observed with amazement the popular branch of our Federal government helpless to obtain either the consideration or enactment of measures desired by a majority of its members.
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"Legislative control becomes a failure when one member in the person of the Speaker is more powerful than the entire body.
"We demand that the House of Representatives shall again become a deliberative body, controlled by a majority of the people's representa- tives, and not by the Speaker ; and we pledge ourselves to adopt such rules and regulations to govern the House of Representatives as will enable a majority of its members to direct its deliberations and control legislation.
"Misuse of Patronage .- We condemn as a violation of the spirit of our institutions the action of the present Chief-Executive in using the patronage of his high office to secure the nomination for the Presi- dency of one of his cabinet officers. A forced succession to the Presi- dency is scarcely less repugnant to public sentiment than is life tenure in that office. No good intention on the part of the Executive, and no virtue in the one selected, can justify the establishment of a dynasty. The right of the people freely to select their officials is inalienable and cannot be delegated.
"Publicity of Campaign Contributions .- We demand Federal leg- islation forever terminating the partnership which has existed between corporations of the country and the Republican party under the ex- pressed or implied agreement that in return for the contribution of great sums of money wherewith to purchase elections, they should be allowed to continue substantially unmolested in their efforts to encroach upon the rights of the people.
"Any reasonable doubt as to the existence of this relation has been forever dispelled by the sworn testimony of witnesses examined in the insurance investigation in New York, and the open admission of a single individual-unchallenged by the Republican national committee -that he himself, at the personal request of the Republican candidate for the Presidency, raised over a quarter of a million dollars to be used in a single State during the closing hours of the last campaign. In order that this practice shall be stopped for all time, we demand the passage of a statute punishing by imprisonment any officer of a corpo- ration who shall either contribute on behalf of or consent to the con- tribution by a corporation of any money or thing of value to be used
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in furthering the election of a President or Vice-President of the United States or of any member of the Congress thereof.
"We denounce the Republican party, having complete control of the Federal government, for their failure to pass the bill, introduced in the last Congress, to compel the publication of the names of con- tributors and the amounts contributed toward campaign funds, and point to the evidence of their insincerity when they sought by an abso- lutely irrelevant and impossible amendment to defeat the passage of the bill. As a further evidence of their intention to conduct their campaign in the coming contest with vast sums of money wrested from favor-seeking corporations, we call attention to the fact that the recent Republican national convention at Chicago refused, when the issue was presented to it, to declare against such practices.
"We pledge the Democratic party to the enactment of a law pro- hibiting any corporation from contributing to a campaign fund and any individual from contributing an amount above a reasonable maxi- mum, and providing for the publication before election of all such contributions.
"The Rights of the States .- Believing, with Jefferson, in 'the support of the State governments in all their rights as the most com- petent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bul- warks against anti-republican tendencies,' and in 'the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad,' we are opposed to the centralization implied in the suggestion, now frequently made, that the powers of the general government should be extended by judicial construction. There is no twilight zone between the nation and the State in which exploiting interests can take refuge from both; and it is as necessary that the Federal government shall exercise the powers delegated to it as it is that the State governments shall use the author- ity reserved to them; but we insist that Federal remedies for the regulation of interstate commerce and for the prevention of private monopoly shall be added to, not substituted for, State remedies.
"Tariff .- We welcome the belated promise of tariff reform now offered by the Republican party in tardy recognition of the righteous- ness of the Democratic position on this question; but the people can-
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not safely entrust the execution of this important work to a party which is so deeply obligated to the highly protected interests as is the Republican party. We call attention to the significant fact that the promised relief is postponed until after the coming election-an elec- tion to succeed in which the Republican party must have that same support from the beneficiaries of the high protective tariff as it has always heretofore received from them; and to the further fact that during years of uninterrupted power no action whatever has been taken by the Republican Congress to correct the admittedly existing tariff iniquities.
"We favor immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duties. Articles entering into competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reductions should be made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufactures as are sold abroad more cheaply than at home; and gradual reductions should be made in such other schedules as may be necessary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis.
"Existing duties have given to the manufacturers of paper a shelter behind which they have organized combinations to raise the price of pulp and of paper, thus imposing a tax upon the spread of knowledge. We demand the immediate repeal of the tariff on wood pulp, print paper, lumber, timber, and logs, and that these articles be placed upon the free list.
"Trusts .- A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. We therefore favor the vigorous enforcement of the criminal law . against guilty trust magnates and officials, and demand the enactment of such additional legislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private monopoly to exist in the United States. Among the addi- tional remedies we specify three: First, a law preventing a duplication of directors among competing corporations; Second, a license system which will, without abridging the right of each State to create corpo- rations, or its right to regulate as it will foreign corporations doing business within its limits, make it necessary for a manufacturing or trading corporation engaged in interstate commerce to take out a Federal license before it shall be permitted to control as much as
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twenty-five per cent. of the product in which it deals, the license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such corporation of more than fifty per cent. of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States; and Third, a law com- pelling such licensed corporations to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the country on the same terms, after making due allowance for cost of transportation.
"Railroad Regulation .- We assert the right of Congress to exercise complete control over interstate commerce and the right of each State to exercise like control over commerce within its borders.
"We demand such enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce commission as may be necessary to enable it to compel rail- roads to perform their duties as common carriers and prevent discrimi- nation and extortion.
"We favor the efficient supervision and rate regulation of railroads engaged in interstate commerce. To this end we recommend the valu- ation of railroads by the Interstate Commerce commission, such valua- tion to take into consideration the physical value of the property, the original cost of production, and all elements of value that will render the valuation fair and just.
"We favor such legislation as will prohibit the railroads from engaging in business which brings them into competition with their shippers ; also legislation which will assure such reduction in transpor- tation rates as conditions will permit, care being taken to avoid reduc- tion that would compel a reduction of wages, prevent adequate service, or do injustice to legitimate investments.
"We heartily approve the laws prohibiting the pass and the rebate, and we favor any further necessary legislation to restrain, correct, and prevent such abuses.
"We favor such legislation as will increase the power of the Inter- state Commerce commission, giving to it the initiative with reference to rates and transportation charges put into effect by the railroad com- panies, and permitting the Interstate Commerce commission, on its own initiative, to declare a rate illegal and as being more than should be charged for such service. The present law relating thereto is inadequate by reason of the fact that the Interstate Commerce com-
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mission is without power to fix or investigate a rate until complaint has been made to it by the shipper.
"We further declare in favor of a law providing that all agree- ments of traffic or other associations of railway agents affecting inter- state rates, service, or classification shall be unlawful unless filed with and approved by the Interstate Commerce commission.
"We favor the enactment of a law giving to the Interstate Com- merce commission the power to inspect proposed railroad tariff rates or schedules before they shall take effect, and, if they be found to be unreasonable, to initiate an adjustment thereof.
"Banking .- The panic of 1907, coming without any legitimate excuse, when the Republican party had for a decade been in complete control of the Federal government, furnished additional proof that it is either unwilling or incompetent to protect the interests of the gen- eral public. It has so linked the country to Wall Street that the sins of the speculators are visited upon the whole people. While refusing to rescue the wealth producers from spoliation at the hands of the stock gamblers and speculators in farm products, it has deposited treasury funds, without interest and without competition, in favorite banks. It has used an emergency for which it is largely responsible to force through Congress a bill changing the basis of bank currency and inviting market manipulation, and has failed to give to the fifteen million depositors of the country protection in their savings.
"We believe that in so far as the needs of commerce require an emergency currency, such currency should be issued and controlled by the Federal government and loaned on adequate security to National and State banks. We pledge ourselves to legislation under which the National banks shall be required to establish a guarantee fund for the prompt payment of the depositors of any insolvent National bank, under an equitable system which shall be available to all State banking institutions wishing to use it.
"We favor a postal savings bank if the guaranteed bank cannot be secured, and that it be constituted so as to keep the deposited money in the communities where it is established. But we condemn the policy of the Republican party in providing postal savings banks under a plan of conduct by which they will aggregate the deposits of the
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rural communities and redeposit the same while under government charge in the banks of Wall Street, thus depleting the circulating medium of the producing regions and unjustly favoring the speculative markets.
"Income Tax .- We favor an income tax as part of our revenue system, and we urge the submission of a constitutional amendment specifically authorizing Congress to levy and collect a tax upon indi- vidual and corporate incomes, to the end that wealth may bear its proportionate share of the burdens of the Federal government.
"Labor and Injunctions .- The courts of justice are the bulwark of our liberties, and we yield to none in our purpose to maintain their dignity. Our party has given to the bench a long line of distinguished Judges, who have added to the respect and confidence in which this department must be jealously maintained. We resent the attempt of the Republican party to raise a false issue respecting the judiciary. It is an unjust reflection upon a great body of our citizens to assume that they lack respect for the courts.
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