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fruitless? The choice lies between this Democratic policy of retreat and the Republican policy, which would hold the islands and give them freedom and prosperity, and enlarge those great opportunities for ourselves and for posterity.

The Democratic attitude toward the Philippines rests wholly upon the proposition that the American people have neither the capacity nor the honesty to deal rightly with these islands. They assume that we shall fail. They fall down and worship a Chinese half-breed, whose name they had never heard three years ago, and they slander and cry down and doubt the honor of American soldiers and sailors, of Admirals and Generals, and puplic men who have gone in and out before us during an entire lifetime. We are true to our own. We have no distrust of the honor, the humanity, the capacity of the American people. To feel or do otherwise is to doubt ourselves, our government, and our civilization. We take issue with the Democrats who would cast off the Philippines, and we declare that the American people can be trusted to deal wisely and generously with these distant islands and will lift them up to a higher prosperity, a broader freedom, and a nobler civilization than they have ever known. We have not failed elsewhere. We shall not fail here.

These are the questions we present to the American people in regard to the Philippines. Do they want such a humiliating change there as Democratic victory would bring? Do they want an even more radical change at home? Suppose the candidate of the Democrats, the Populists, the foes of expansion, the dissatisfied, and the envious should come into power, what kind of an administration would he give us? What would his Cabinet be? Think what an electric spark of confidence would run through every business interest in the country when such a Cabinet was announced as we can readily imagine he would make. More important still, we ask the American people whether they will put in the White House the hero of uncounted platforms, the prodigal spendthrift of words, the champion of free silver, the opponent of expansion, the assailant of the Courts; or whether they will retain in the Presidency the Union soldier, the leader of the House of Representatives, the trained statesman who bas borne the heavy burdens of the last four years, the champion of protection and sound money, the fearless supporter of law and order whenever the flag floats?

WILL YOU RISK A CHANGE

But there is one question which we will put to the American people in this campaign which includes and outweighs all others. We will say to them: You were in the depths of adversity under the last Democratic Administration: you are on the heights of prosperity to-day. Will that prosperity continue if you make a change in your President and in the party which administers your government? How long will your good times last if you turn out the Repub

licans and give political power to those who cry nothing but "Woe! Woe!" -the lovers of calamity and foes of prosperity, who hold success in business to be a crime and regard thrift as a misdemeanor? If the Democrats should win, do you think business would improve? Do you think that prices would remain steady, that wages would rise and employment increase when that result of the election was known? Business confidence rests largely upon sentiment. Do you think that sentiment would be a hopeful one the day after Bryan's election? Business confidence is a delicate plant. Do you think it would flourish with the Democratic party? Do you not know that if Bryan were elected, the day after the news was flashed over the country wages would go down, prices would decline, and that the great argosy of American business now forging ahead over calm waters, with fair breezes and with swelling canvas, would begin to take in sail and seek shelter and anchorage of the nearest harbor? Do you not know from recent and bitter experience what that arrest of movement, that fear of the future means? It means the contraction of business, the reduction of employment, the increase of the unemployed, lower wages, hard times, distress, unhappiness. We do not say that we have panaceas for every human ill. We do not claim that any policy we or any one else can offer will drive from the world sorrow and suffering and poverty, but we say that so far as government and legislation can secure the prosperity and well-being of the American people our administration and our policies will do it. We point to the adversity of the Cleveland years lying dark behind us. It has been replaced by the prosperity of the McKinley years. Let them make whatever explanation they will, the facts are with us.

It is on these facts that we shall ask for the support of the American people. What we have done is known, and about what we intend to do there is neither secrecy nor deception. What we promise we will perform. Our old policies are here, alive, successful and full of vigor. Our new policies have been begun, and for them we ask support. When the clouds of impending civil war hung dark over the country in 1861 we took up the great task then laid upon us and never flinched until we had carried it through to victory. Now at the dawn of a new century, with new policies and new opportunities opening before us in the bright sunshine of prosperity, we again ask the American people to entrust us with their future. We have profound faith in the people. We do not distrust their capacity of meeting the new responsibilities, even as they met the old, and we shall await with confidence, under the leadership of William McKinley, the verdict of November.

CHAPTER XXI.

Republican Platform Adopted
At Philadelphia, June 20, 1900

A Declaration of Republican Party Principles-War Taxes,
Expansion, Trusts, Government of New Possessions,
and Other Vital Questions Stated

HE following is a brief synopsis of the Republican Platform, which is given in full below.

ΤΗ

The party endorses President McKinley's Administration; asserts its allegiance to the gold standard and its steadfast opposition to the free coinage of silver; it condemns conspiracies and combinations to restrict business; re-affirms its policy of protection and reciprocity; declares for more effective restriction of immigration of cheap labor; and upholds Civil Service reform.

Declares that there can be no discrimination on account of race or color; stands for good roads; rural free delivery; free homes; reclamation of arid lands; favors statehood for New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma; promises reduction of war taxes; declares for an Isthmian Canal and an open door in China; women are congratulated on the work in camp and hospital; re-affirms the Monroe Doctrine and approves the tender of good offices to end the war in South Africa; promises restoration of order and establishment of self-government in the Philippines and independence to Cuba.

THE PLATFORM.

The Republicans of the United States, through their chosen representatives met in National Convention, looking back upon an unsurpassed record of achievement and looking forward into a great field of duty and opportunity, and appealing to the judgment of their countrymen, make these declarations:

The expectation in which the American people, turning from the Democratic party, intrusted power four years ago to a Republican Chief Magistrate

and a Republican Congress has been met and satisfied. When the people then assembled at the polls, after a term of Democratic legislation and administration, business was dead, industry paralyzed and the National credit disastrously impaired. The country's capital was hidden away, and its labor distressed and unemployed. The Democrats had no other plan with which to improve the ruinous conditions which they had themselves produced than to coin silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republican party, denouncing this plan as sure to produce conditions even worse than those from which relief was sought, promised to restore prosperity by means of two legislative measures-a protective tariff and a law making gold the standard of value.

PROMISES MADE AND KEPT

The people by great majorities issued to the Republican party a commission to enact these laws. This commission has been executed, and the Republican promise is redeemed. Prosperity more general and more abundant than we have ever known has followed these enactments. There is no longer controvery as to the value of any government obligation. Every American dollar is a gold dollar, or its assured equivalent, and American credit stands higher than that of any nation. Capital is fully employed, and labor everywhere is profitably occupied. No single fact can more strikingly tell the story of what Republican government means to the country than this-that while during the whole period of one hundred and seven years, from 1790 to 1897, there was an excess of exports over imports of only $383,028,497, there has been in the short three years of the present Republican Administration an excess of exports over imports in the enormous sum of $1,483,537,094.

And while the American people, sustained by this Republican legislation, have been achieving these splendid triumphs in their business and commerce, they have conducted, and in victory concluded, a war for liberty and human rights. No thought of national aggrandizement tarnished the high purpose with which American standards were unfurled. It was a war unsought and patiently resisted, but when it came the American government was ready. Its fleets were cleared for action. Its armies were in the field, and the quick and signal triumph of its forces on land and sea bore equal tribute to the courage of American soldiers and sailors, and to the skill and foresight of Republican statesmanship. To ten millions of the human race there was given “a new birth of freedom," and to the American people a new and noble responsibility.

THE ADMINISTRATION ENDORSED

We endorse the administration of William McKinley. Its acts have been established in wisdom and in patriotism, and at home and abroad it has distinctly elevate and extended the influence of the American nation. Walking

untried paths and facing unforeseen responsibilities, President McKinley has been, in every situation, the true American patriot and the upright statesman, clear in vision, strong in judgment, firm in action, always inspiring and deserving the confidence of his countrymen.

In asking the American people to endorse this Republican record and to renew their commission to the Republican Party, we remind them of the fact that the menace to their prosperity has always resided in Democratic principles, and no less in the general incapacity of the Democratic Party to conduct public affairs. The prime essential of business prosperity is public confidence in the good sense of the government and in its ability to deal intelligently with each new problem of administration and legislation. That confidence the Democratic Party has never earned. It is hopelessly inadequate, and the country's prosperity when Democratic success at the polls is announced halts and ceases in mere anticipation of Democratic blunders and failures.

THE GOLD STANDARD APPROVED

We renew our allegiance to the principle of the gold standard, and declare our confidence in the wisdom of the legislation of the Fifty-sixth Congress, by which the parity of all our money and the stability of our currency upon a gold basis have been secured. We recognize that interest rates are potent factors in production and business activity, and for the purpose of further equalizing and of further lowering the rates of interest we favor such monetary legislation as will enable the varying needs of the season and of all sections to be promptly met, in order that trade may be evenly sustained, labor steadily employed and commerce enlarged. The volume of money in circulation was never so great per capita as it is to-day. We declare our steadfast opposition to the free and unlimited coinage of silver. No measure to that end could be considered which was without the support of the leading commercial countries of the world. However firmly Republican legislation may seem to have secured the country against the peril of base and discredited currency, the election of a Democratic President could not fail to impair the country's credit and to bring once more into question the intention of the American people to maintain upon the gold standard the parity of their money circulation. The Democratic party must be convinced that the American people will never tolerate the Chicago platform.

RENEWED DECLARATION FOR PROTECTION

We recognize the necessity and propriety of the honest co-operation of capital to meet new business conditions, and especially to extend our rapidly increasing foreign trade, but we condemn all conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, to create monopolies, to limit production or control prices, and favor such legislation as will effectively restrain and prevent

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