ference at The Hague.

In

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. The convention finally left the nomination to the National Committee of the Silver Republican party, which met and nominated Mr. Stevenson. The platform adopted follows: 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 Congress and a Republican President, at the dictation of the trusts and money power, have passed and approved a currency bill which in itself is a repudiation of the 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 member 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. We 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 favor the maintenance and the extension wherever practicable of the merit system 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. 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.

We

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 Wyck, 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 chairman, made speeches. On July 5 William J. Bryan was unanimously nominated for President, W. D. Oldham, of Nebraska, making the chief nominating speech. On this day the platform, containing a specific declaration for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, but proclaiming "imperialism" as "the paramount issue," was adopted. 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 against his own protest made from the platform, received votes for the nomination, but Stevenson 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 floor of the Convention. The Convention adjourned sine die on July 6, after nominating Stevenson. The Platform.

On July 5 the Convention adopted the following platform:

We, the representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, assembled in 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 Supreme Court that the Declaration of Independence is the spirit of our Government, of which the Constitution is the form and letter. We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny; and that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress, deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond it, or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.

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

Porto Rican Law
Denounced.

acted by a Republican 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

Pledge to the

Cubans.

sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over the island of 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.

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 The Philippine 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.

no

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 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 our 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 The Monroe

Issue.

Doctrine.

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 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.

We oppose militarism.

Opposition to
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

and approved system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as un-American, undemocratic and unrepublican and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.

Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They destroy competition, control the price of raw material and of the finished product, thus robbing both pro

Trusts and Monopolies.

ducer 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 for 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 Administration in return for campaign subscriptions and political support. 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 ones must be enacted providing for publicity as to the affairs of corporations engaged in interstate commerce and requiring all corporations 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 exercised 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 protection The failure of the present Republican Administration, with an absolute control over all the branches of the National Government, 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 corporations 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 measure skilfully 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 Commerce law as will enable the Commission to protect individuals and communities from discrimination and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.

American Financial

We reaffirm and indorse the principles of the National Democratic 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, 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 legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent

System.

and gold at the present 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

Currency Law
Denounced.

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 Government 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, therefore, a scheme for fastening upon the taxpayers a perpetual and growing debt for the benefit of the banks. We are opposed to this private corporation paper circulated as money, but without legal tender qualities, and demand the retirement of National bank notes 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 people, 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 between 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.

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 soldiers 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.

We favor the immediate construction, ownership and control of the Nicaraguan