HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

supervision and strict regulation of the transportation and of the great corporations of the country. It has put its creed into its deeds, and all really effective laws regulating the railroads and the great industrial corporations are the work of Republican Congresses and Presidents. For this policy of regulation and supervision the Democrats, in a stumbling and piecemeal way, are within the sphere of private enterprise and in direct competition with its own citizens, a policy which is sure to result in waste, great expense to the taxpayer, and in an inferior product.

"The Republican party firmly believes that all who violate the laws in regulation of business should be individually punished. But prosecution is very different from persecution, and business success, no matter how honestly attained, is apparently regarded by the Democratic party as in itself a crime. Such doctrines and beliefs choke enterprise and stifle prosperity. The Republican party believes in encouraging American business, as it believes in and will seek to advance all American interests.

"Rural Credits.-We favor an effective system of rural credits as opposed to the ineffective law proposed by the present Democratic administration.

"Rural Free Delivery.-We favor the extension of the rural freedelivery system and condemn the Democratic administration for curtailing and crippling it.

"Merchant Marine.-In view of the policies adopted by all the maritime nations to encourage their shipping interests, and in order to enable us to compete with them for the ocean-carrying trade, we favor the payment to ships engaged in the foreign trade of liberal compensation for services actually rendered in carrying the mails, and such further legislation as will build up an adequate American merchant marine and give us ships which may be requisitioned by the government in time of national emergency.

"We are utterly opposed to the government ownership of vessels as proposed by the Democratic party, because government-owned ships, while effectively preventing the development of the American merchant marine by private capital, will be entirely unable to pro

Warren G. Harding, 29th president; born at Corsica, Ohio, November 2, 1865; publisher; member Ohio state senate, 19001904; lieutenant governor of Ohio, 1904-06; defeated for governor, 1910; United States senator, 1915-21; elected president, November 2, 1920.

vide for the vast volume of American freights and will leave us more helpless than ever in the hard grip of foreign syndicates.

"Transportation.-Interstate and intrastate transportation have become so interwoven that the attempt to apply two, and often several, sets of laws to its regulation has produced conflicts of authority, embarrassment in operation, and inconvenience and expense to the public.

"The entire transportation system of the country has become essentially national. We therefore favor such action by legislation or, if necessary, through an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as will result in placing it under complete Federal control.

"Economy and a National Budget.-The increasing cost of the national government and the need for the greatest economy of its resources in order to meet the growing demands of the people for government service call for the severest condemnation of the wasteful appropriations of this Democratic administration, of its shameless raids on the treasury, and of its opposition to and rejection of President Taft's oft-repeated proposals and earnest efforts to secure economy and efficiency through the establishment of a simple businesslike budget system, to which we pledge our support and which we hold to be necessary to effect any real reform in the administration of national finances.

"Conservation. We believe in a careful husbandry of all the natural resources of the nation-a husbandry which means development without waste, use without abuse.

"Civil Service Reform.-The Civil Service law has always been sustained by the Republican party, and we renew our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable. The Democratic party has created since March 4, 1913, thirty thousand offices outside of the Civil Service law at an annual cost of forty-four million dollars to the taxpayers of the country.

"We condemn the gross abuse and the misuse of the law by the present Democratic administration, and pledge ourselves to a reorganization of this service along lines of efficiency and economy.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

"Territorial Officials.-Reaffirming the attitude long maintained by the Republican party, we hold that officials appointed to administer the government of any Territory should be bona fide residents of the Territory in which their duties are to be performed.

"Labor Laws.-We pledge the Republican party to the faithful enforcement of all Federal laws passed for the protection of labor. We favor vocational education; the enactment and rigid enforcement of a Federal Child Labor law; the enactment of a generous and comprehensive Workmen's Compensation law, within the commerce power of Congress; and an Accident Compensation law covering all government employes. We favor the collection and collation, under the direction of the Department of Labor, of complete data relating to industrial hazards for the information of Congress, to the end that such legislation may be adopted as may be calculated to secure the safety, conservation, and protection of labor from the dangers incident to industry and transportation.

"Suffrage.-The Republican party, reaffirming its faith in government of the people, by the people, for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the adult people of the country favors the extension of the suffrage to women, but recognizes the right of each State to settle this question for itself.

"Conclusion. Such are our principles, such are our 'purposes and policies.' We close as we began. The times are dangerous, and the future is fraught with perils. The great issues of the day have been confused by words and phrases. The American spirit, which made the country and saved the Union, has been forgotten by those charged with the responsibility of power. We appeal to all Americans, whether naturalized or native-born, to prove to the world that we are Americans in thought and in deed, with one loyalty, one hope, one aspiration. We call on all Americans to be true to the spirit of America, to the great traditions of their common country, and, above all things, to keep the faith."

The member of the committee on resolutions from Wisconsin offered a substitute platform expressive of the familiar La Follette ideas, inclusive of disfavor