Political Record of 1901.

Party Platforms in 1901 on National Essues.

IN the nine States which held party conventions in 1901, local issues predominated in the platforms adopted. The following were the allusions made to national questions:

IOWA.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

Kansas City Platform Affirmed.-We, the Democrats of Iowa, in convention assembled, hereby reaffirm the principles of the Democratic national platform adopted at Kansas City July 5, 1900, and without surrendering our convictions or abating our loyalty to our national policies we believe this campaign to be particularly one that should be confined to State issues.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

Gold Standard and Insular Policy.-We would emphasize our indorsement of its (the Fiftysixth Congress) action in more firmly establishing our monetary system upon a gold basis, and in providing for civil government in Porto Rico and the Philippines and for the relinquishment of our authority in Cuba. The fact that our authority there is the result of a war waged not for our aggrandizement, but in the name of humanity, must forever govern and inspire our relations to them.

Negro Disfranchisement in the South.-We are earnestly opposed to all legislation,designed to accomplish the disfranchisement of citizens upon lines of race, color, or station of lite and condemn the measures adopted by the Democratic party in certain States to accomplish that end.

Trusts. We assert the sovereignty of the people over all corporations and aggregations of capital, and the right residing in the people to enforce such regulations, restrictions, or prohibitions upon corporate management as will protect the individual and society from abuse of the power which great combinations of capital wield. We favor such amendment of the Interstate Commerce act as will more fully carry out its prohibition of discriminations in rate-making, and any modification of the tariff schedules that may be required to prevent their affording shelter to monopoly.

The platform also expressed gratification over the re-election of President McKinley and indorsed a protective tariff, and such changes therein as from time to time become advisable through the progress of our industries and their changing relations to the commerce of the world." Reciprocity was indorsed as the natural complement of protection, and its development was urged as necessary to the realization of our highest commercial possibilities.

MARYLAND.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

White Supremacy.-The Democratic party represents more than 40,000 majority of the white people of Maryland. They in common with their brethren of other States into which large masses of colored voters have been injected into the body politic, recognize that the peace, good order, personal safety, and proper development of our material interests depend upon the control of the Commonwealth by its intelligent white residents. Without the aid of the 60,000 colored voters the Republican party in Maryland would be a hopeless minority. We therefore without hesitation proclaim that the success of the Democratic party will mean that, while we shall deal with perfect fairness in securing all the benefits of good government and full and free opportunities for education to all classes, such action must be taken as to prevent the control of the State Government from passing into the hands of those who have neither the ability nor the interest to manage public affairs wisely and well. Other planks in the platform reaffirmed the devotion of the local party to the principles enunciated by Thomas Jefferson; declared that the course of the Governor in calling a special session of the Legislature and the action of that body in passing laws to limit the exercise of the right of franchise to those who are able to read and write was patriotic in the extreme, and denounced the Federal authorities for frauds and irregularities in the late census.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The Negro Disfranchisement Law.-We appeal to all good citizens to unite in defeating the selfish political bosses in their conspiracy, begun with the extra session, to perpetuate themselves and their methods by one-sided elections, and to thwart the first purpose of that conspiracy by defeating the election to the United States Senate of the Democratic leader who dictated the defranchising election law to a servile Assembly. Their victory would again fashion upon our State the reign of corruption and violence overthrown in 1895, and enable them to intrench themselves for a generation behind a far worse disfranchising election law than the un-American law we are pledged to repeal. If we succeed we will defeat the election to the United States Senate of a man whose views on tariff and finance fluctuate with political exigencies, who is stable only in unvarying control of the Democratic party machine.

Other planks pledged the party's representatives in Congress to uphold the policy of President McKinley, and promised that the Republicans, if put in control of the Legislature, would immediately repeal the new election law limiting negro suffrage and re-enact the one in force before the recent special session of the Legislature.

MASSACHUSETTS.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

Death of President McKinley.-We deeply lament the tragedy which has recently deprived the nation of its chosen ruler almost at the beginning of his second term of office. We join with all his countrymen in recognizing the distinguished public and private virtues of the late President McKinley, and the eminent place which he had won among American statesmen. There is no place for Anarchy in this country. Under our democratic institutions the hand which is raised against the President is in reality directed against popular sovereignty itself. Freedom of speech does not include the right to advocate assassination. President Roosevelt is now entitled to the good wishes of all patriotic citizens without prejudice to their right to criticise his acts or oppose his policies as future occasion may require.

The United States Senate.-The United States Senate, through the usurpation of the appointing power belonging to the President and the mastery which it has acquired over the House of Representatives, has grasped an improper share of the powers of government. Under the present methods of electing its members it has become the stronghold of monopoly and a dangerous political oligarchy, threatening to destroy the substance of democratic government. The direct election of United States

Senators by the people, for which public opinion has emphatically declared itself, and which is now only blocked by the obstruction of the Senate itself, offers the most effective remedy for present conditions. Until that can be established by constitutional amendment, we favor State legislation providing for the direct nomination by party voters of candidates for the United States Senate, with an official return of the results of such votes to the Legislature for its guidance.

Imperialism.-The present tendency toward imperialistic rule, manifested in various forms all over the world, most strikingly in the lamentable contest still being waged in South Africa, is a menace to popular government and to the liberties of mankind. We are not only absolutely opposed to colonial imperialism abroad, and to the commercialism reckless of everything but its own profit which supports it, but to every manifestation of the same reactionary and anti-democratic spirit at home. Legitimate trade expansion, so necessary to the future prosperity of this country, requires no such policy.

The Philippines. We demand that the efforts of our Government shall be directed toward preparing the people of the Philippine Islands for the largest measure of self-government, and for early independence under the protection of this country.

Freer Trade and Reciprocity.-We favor freer trade by means of reciprocity or otherwise. We heartily indorse the broad statesmanship of President McKinley's speech at Buffalo upon the necessity of closer and more liberal trade relations with other countries. The period of exclusiveness is past;' "let us make these words by their fulfilment his best epitaph. We strongly condemn the narrow and selfish action of the Republican Senate in stifling even the very limited reciprocity treaties recently negotiated, and we particularly deplore the obstructive attitude of our own Senators upon this question. Freer trade with Canada would be of immense benefit to the people of New England and must be included in any honest reciprocity treaty.

Cuba.-The people of Cuba, for whose welfare we have made ourselves trustees, are plainly entitled to the most favored commercial relations with this country.

Regulation of Trusts.-Whatever may be the economic basis of industrial combinations, the conservative citizen cannot but view with apprehension the financial and political powers now concentrated in their managers, and the tendency to establish a practical monopoly in important lines of production. Federal regulation of these great organizations is urgently needed. We believe that corporations engaged in commerce between the States should be subject to somewhat the same control which the Government now attempts to exercise over railroads, and that their accounts should be periodically audited and made public. Unfair competition, designed only to crush a rival, by temporary measures in order to establish monopoly should be prohibited.

The Tariff.-All tariff duties upon articles produced by trusts which stifle competition at home, or which favort he foreign at the expense of the American consumer, should be abolished. Minimum railroad freight rates should be based upon the carload lot, and the granting to trusts or other large shippers of any discount from such rates should be strictly prohibited. The greatness alike of our country and of our Commonwealth is due to those distinctive democratic ideas with which American popular government has hitherto been associated. In the face of the present tendency toward absolutism and arbitrary rule, we reaffirm the principles of our fathers. In the face of an unparalleled concentration of capital, we reaffirm the supremacy of the State. Offering the people reforms in government, in legislation, and in electoral methods in the direction of a larger and more efficient democracy, we submit the issue to their suffrages.

Shipping Subsidies.-We denounce the shipping subsidy bill proposed by the Republican party in the Fifty-sixth Congress as a raid on the public treasury in the interest of a few shipbuilders and shipowners. While in common with all the American people we deplore the decline of the American merchant marine, we do not think its rehabilitation lies in the granting of exorbitant shipping subsidies to favored steamship corporations now earning large dividends. We urge among other things the admission into this country, free of duty, of all articles entering into the construction and repair of ships. Inasmuch as we are exporting for use by shipbuilders in other countries pig iron, steel billets, and steel plates, we fail to see the justice or wisdom of further continuing the duties upon these products.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The Late President.-First, let us pause to mingle our tears with those of all parties who share in the great national bereavement that has befallen the American people, and who join with us in sending Mrs. McKinley the deepest sympathy in this the hour of her great sorrow. At the newmade grave of our dead President, William McKinley, we declare our abiding faith in the great principles of Republicanism of which our immortal leader was the true and worthy example. To our living President, Theodore Roosevelt, the stanch defender of American Republicanism, we pledge our loyal and unfaltering support. The Republican party enters the twentieth century in the van of progress and civilization.

The Republican Policy.-A party cannot stand still; when it ceases to move forward it moves backward. A party cannot expect to live upon what it has done; it must keep doing or pass into decay. The Republican party has grown with the nation, and in its administration of the Government it has met every crisis with ability, firmness, and patriotism. To-day it pledges itself anew to the maintenance of its exalted ideals and its patriotic principles. Prosperity that does not reach all the people is not true prosperity. We denounce all laws that confer special privileges upon the few. We favor such laws as open the widest opportunities to all.

The Protective Tariff.-One of the cardinal principles of the Republican party has been the protection of American labor by a protective tariff. When a protective tariff fails to maintain a high rate of wages, then there is no longer any use for it, and this will be when wages have fallen below those in foreign countries. That they are maintained far above the level of the first European nations is sufficient reason why the protective policy should not be abandoned. Reciprocity of trade with foreign countries is not inconsistent with an adequate measure of protection to American industries. We declare in favor of wise discriminating and business-like executive and legislative reciprocity and urge action to that end.

Sound Money.-The Republican party of Massachusetts has always been foremost in the advocacy of sound money. It reaffirms its declaration in favor of our monetary laws. To this end we pledge our support to all sound measures which give certainty and permanence to the gold standard, and to provide a paper currency of such flexibility, sufficiency, and safety as will meet the changing needs of the season, reduce the charge for the use of credit, increase the employment of labor, and promote the effective competition of our producers and manufacturers with their rivals abroad.

The Nicaragua Canal.-We favor the immediate construction of an Isthmian canal that shall be built, owned, operated, and protected by the United States Government.

Aid to Shipbuilding.-We favor government aid in building up our merchant marine on a just and equitable basis toward all American citizens.

Labor Legislation.-We favor an amendment to the Constitution of the United States that shall give Congress the power to regulate the hours of labor.

Disfranchisement of the Negro.-We condemn all attempts that are being made in some of our States to disfranchise the negro voter as un-American and in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution, and urge that the provision of this amendment be enforced by Congressional action.

Lynching.-Lynching and the unlawful taking of life must be stopped. How can we hope to exterminate Anarchy if such lawlessness be permitted or tolerated within our borders?

The Franchise.-The Republican party solemnly pledges itself to secure such legislation as shall guarantee to every citizen of the United States the fullest protection for his franchise, for his liberty,

and life.

Protection of the Person of the President.-The President's life is sacred to the people and essential to the stability of the Government and should be guarded from unnecessary peril. We favor such laws as shall visit an adequate and severe penalty upor any person or persons who shall murder, assault, or threaten the life of the President or Vice-President.

NEBRASKA.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

Kansas City Platform Reaffirmed.-We declare our unfaltering allegiance to and belief in the principles of the Democratic party as enunciated by our great leaders from Jefferson to Bryan, and as explicitly set forth in the platform adopted by the national convention of the party at Kansas City in 1900.

The Assassination of the President.-The assassination of our President has filled the hearts of the people of this nation with profound sorrow, and we deplore and denounce the cruel and inhuman act by which his illustrious career has been terminated. The Democracy of Nebraska express for Mrs. McKinley their heartfelt sympathy in her great bereavement.

Anarchism.-While we believe now, as in the past, that the United States should continue to be an asylum for the oppressed of all European nations who come here with the honest purpose of becoming citizens and to share in the blessings of a government based on the consent of the governed. yet we demand more stringent immigration laws, so devised and executed as to exclude Anarchists of all countries from entering American territory, and we demand such legislation, both State and national, as will suppress Anarchy in this country.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The Republican National Policy. We commend to the considerate judgment of the people the policies, purposes, and achievements of the National Administration; the re-establishment of prosperity by a return to the policy of protection to American industry; the repeal of laws which paralyzed industry and the enactment of legislation which opened the mills to the labor of America and created an ever-increasing market for our bounteous crops; the steadfast adherence to a financial policy which has re-established and augmented national, municipal, and individual credit at home and abroad, and reduced the rate of interest to the lowest point in our history.

NEW JERSEY.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

The platform was confined to State issues, except that the death of President McKinley was deplored.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The platform quoted from the last speech of President McKinley at Buffalo, approving of the policies which he then set forth. The only further allusions to national subjects were contained in the following paragraphs:

Anarchism. The blow which ended the life of our beloved President was cruel, inhuman, and lawless. It was aimed not at the gentle and lovable McKinley, but at the Republic and the majesty of law which guarantee liberty of person and safety of property. Any doctrine which justifies or encourages assassination is utterly hostile to civilization and the welfare of mankind, and must be no longer tolerated in this country, and we demand and insist that laws, State and national, be enacted for the effective suppression of such teachings.

President Roosevelt.-The pledge of President Roosevelt that he will continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley has our unqualified approval, and entitles him to our loyal support. The wisdom, patriotism, and courage shown by him in every public capacity in which he has served command the universal confidence of his countrymen.

Labor.-The Republican party since its organization has been the friend of labor. Its industrial policies have brought American labor and its compensation to the highest standard ever attained in the world. It pledges itself to maintain the rights and liberties of the working people and protect them from any encroachment thereon.

OHIO.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

Democratic Policy.-The Democrats of Ohio reaffirm their belief in an equality of taxation and other public burdens; their advocacy of the equal rights of all the people, with special privileges to none; their hostility to the monopolization of industry, with its tendency on the one hand to crush out individual enterprise and on the other to promote a socialistic spirit among the people as the only refuge from oppression, and their faith in that theory and practice of constitutional government which brought the nation into existence and have preserved it to the present generation.

Opposition to Centralization. The reserved rights of the States and people to be upheld. Centralization which would destroy them to be condemned. A strict construction of the Constitution. The greatest individual liberty consistent with public order and welfare.

Tariff Reform.-Tariff reform never more urgently demanded than now, when the production of the country so far exceeds its power of consumption that foreign markets are a prime condition of its continued prosperity, and when the existence and abuses of trusts have been brought about by the policy of protection of favored industries. The abolition of the so-called protective system and the substitution in its place of the traditional Democratic policy of a tariff for revenue, so levied as not to burden one industry for the benefit of another.

Trusts and Monopo'ies. The enactment and rigorous enforcement of measures which shali prevent all monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade and commerce-the matter of first im

portance being to prevent the use of the Government as an instrumentality for the creation and increase of wealth of the few, while preserving intact the right of private property and the fullest measure of individual liberty of contract and assuring to every man the just reward of superior industry and skill. We demand the suppression of all trusts and a return to industrial freedom. As a means to that end all trust products should be placed on the free list and the Government should exercise a more rigid supervision of transportation lines, and abolish, in fact, all discrimination

in rates.

Merchant Marine. -Our merchant marine to be restored to its former greatness and made the ally of the people against monopoly by the repeal of antiquated and restricted navigation laws. But no subsidies for favored shipowners.

Imperialism.-The powers granted the Federal Government were not meant to be used to conquer or hold in subjection the people of other countries. Their use for such purposes not only belies our declaration of the rights of men, but also unbalances our system by increasing the centralization of power at Washington to the ultimate overthrow of home rule.

National Expansion.-The Democratic party has never favored and now opposes any extension of the national boundaries not meant to carry speedily to all inhabitants full equal rights with ourselves. If these are unfitted by location, race, or character to be formed into self-governing territories and then incorporated into the Union of States in accordance with the historic policy of the Republic, they should be permitted to work out their own destiny. Only territorial expansion demanded by the national welfare and the national safety to be at any time favored-the objection which should have prevented certain of our recent accessions being that they imperil the national safety without promoting the national welfare; that they devolve upon us enormous responsibilities we have no call to assume; that they are certain to be an immense and unremunerative drain upon our resources; that they tend to embroil us with European powers; that they weaken our claim to supremacy on the American continent, at the same time that they lessen our ability to make the claim good; and that they furnish a dangerous opportunity and temptation for the disregard of the self-evident truth of universal application that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Sympathy with the Boers.-The obvious sympathy of the National Administration with the British Government in its efforts to destroy the South African republics, and the policy which has made the ports of the United States a basis of supply for the British army, without which the war could not be successfully carried on, are condemned by the Democracy of Ohio.

The Monroe Doctrine.-The maintenance of the Monroe doctrine as heretofore interpreted and asserted by the National Government.

An Adequate Navy. A navy commensurate with the international importance of the United States and its primacy in the Western Hemisphere, and adequate to the protection of the lives and property of American citizens the world over.

The Civil Service. The faithful observance and wider application of civil service principles, especially as regards our diplomatic and consular representatives.

Election of Senators by the People.-A constitutional amendment requiring the election of United States Senators by the direct vote of the people. Hereafter, until this is passed, whenever a Senator is to be elected, it shall be the duty of the State Committee to give notice in its call that the nomination of a Senator will be made at the State convention.

Labor.-No question of the right of labor to combine for the assertion of its rights and the protection of its interests. The burdens of the unjust and discriminating laws for which the Republican party is responsible fall chiefly on those who till the soil or labor at other forms of production. Although these constitute a large majority of our citizens, they have never sent lobbyists to the halls of Federal or State Legislatures, nor founded monopolies, nor demanded special privileges. They have patiently endured the operation of these laws which keep from them and give to others their just share of the national wealth. The Democratic party pledges its efforts to relieve them of the burdens which class legislation has laid on them.

The Republican Party.-That the Republican party has always upheld class interests and is justly chargeable with hostility in both belief and practice to the above principles is common knowledge. It cannot be trusted to deal with evils of its own creation. The arrogant assumption by that party of all credit for everything and the threats of those who speak for it and its favored interests, already too powerful to create artificial conditions of stringency and distress, unless the policies they advocate are supported at the polls, deserve the condemnation of a people who are just and propose to remain free.

Republican Official Corruption.-One great danger which now threatens our free institutions is the widespread corruption which menaces the destruction of public virtue. Vast sums of money are corruptly employed in popular elections; official defalcations are so frequent as scarcely to excite attention, and political bosses rule and rob the people; all of which is a direct result of Republican policies and legislation. We demand that all official misconduct and corruption be vigorously punished, that public virtue be upheld and the want of it denounced.

Democratic Pledges.-Inspired by the examples of the long line of its statesmen, who have applied these principles from the days of Thomas Jefferson to the present time, the Democratic party pledges itself anew to their support and earnestly appeals to all patriotic men, without regard to party names or past differences, to unite with it on terms of perfect equality in the struggle to rescue our Government from the grasp of selfishness and corruption and restore it to its former fairness, purity, and simplicity.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The platform reaffirmed the Philadelphia national platform of 1900.

It indorsed the gold standard specifically.

It favored the strengthening of the navy and the restoration of the merchant marine.
It demanded the speedy construction of an American ship canal across the isthmus.
It denounced lynching.

It declared that the Nation's pledge to Cuba was being faithfully kept, insuring freedom and independence to her people, who, it was added, are to-day enjoying more prosperity than ever before. The Cubans were congratulated upon wise and conservative action in favor of stable government. Porto Rico was stated to be flourishing beyond all former experiences; Hawaii's entrance into full territorial relations with the United States Government had been marked by the most marvellous progress known in the history of those islands. In the Philippines a wicked insurrection had been suppressed,'' and ''civil government, contemplating the largest practicable degree of home rule, had succeeded military control. Personal freedom, with an equality of rights heretofore to them unknown, is secured to every inhabitant."