Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XIV.

THE OUTLOOK

"You do not have to guess what the Republican party will do. The whole world knows its purposes. It has embodied them in law and executed them in administration."-William McKinley.

This quotation from a speech made by President McKinley six years ago is a good text for a short chapter on the outlook. It suggests the scope of the outlook which should be for country rather than party. Four years ago, at the close of a Democratic administration, the outlook was as dark as any that had confronted the country for a quarter of a century. When the Democratic party went out of power in 1861 it left the country on the brink of civil war, which broke out within a month after the inauguration of President Lincoln and became the greatest war of history. When the Democratic party went out of power in 1897 it left the country on the brink of national and individual and general bankruptcy. The Republican party took firm hold of both these desperate situations. Through its patriotic administration of the government it saved the Union in the sixties, and it saved the business of the country in the nineties. McKinley said: "The Republican party never lowered the flag or the credit of the government, but has exalted both." In the last four years his administration has given new demonstration of the truth he uttered. The outlook for the whole country, North and South, East and West, was never brighter than now. The mills are all running, the farms are producing wealth, labor is employed, and the American market is expanding in every direction, to every country on the face of the globe. It is an outlook for even greater pros perity than we have, and that has never been surpassed. The outlook of the business man, the wage earner and the farmer includes the Orient and the Southern hemisphere. Its promise is brighter than at any other time in American history. It is the promise of new markets for the manufacturer and the farmer, steady work and increased wages for the wage earner, protection for American industries, increased credit for business enterprise, cheaper money for the borrower, better security for the lender, greater opportunity for every one, and a higher standing of

the nation among the great powers of the world. The United States has ceased to be a debtor nation and has become a creditor with England, Germany and Russia seeking American gold. If there was any truth in the accusations made in 1896 as to the existence of money sharks or money powers, these can no longer apply to any of the financiers of European capitals, since, if there be any beseeching for favors, the United States is now the besought, instead of the beseecher; if anybody is clutching it is the United States, and not the foreign money grabber; if any nation is at the mercy of any financial nation, it is some one or more of the nations of Europe, which is to some extent at our mercy, instead of the United States any longer being within the financial clutch and power of those who were, in 1896, denounced as the vultures who were preying upon this country.

It is not alone the financial resources of the United States which are commanding the attention both of the statesmen and the financiers of Europe, but the colossal power of which our trade resources, our industrial and commercial advantages are now giving us. This is made evident in an address recently delivered to one of the most important of the trade associations of Great Britain by an expert authority in iron and steel productions, Mr. H. J. Skelton.

Mr. Skelton says that manufacturers of Great Britain ought no longer to be in the dark about the peculiar advantages which the United States possess with respect to the iron and steel world's tradeas, for instance, iron can be produced in several districts of the United States, even at the higher rate of wages that prevail here, at considerably less than the average cost for production in Great Britain, and the only thing Mr. Skelton can offer to offset this advantage is what he asserts to be the greater facilities for shipment which Great Britain enjoys.

All men have not acknowledged that this outlook for the nation has been made possible by the Republican party and the Republican admin. istration. Some men will not acknowledge that there is prosperity all over this land. But, as has been pointed out in preceding chapters, the Democratic party ignored the old issue of protection to American industry in the platform made at Kansas City. It presented as its paramount issue the bogy of imperialism. It has failed to point out wherein there has been given room for imperialism. It has not taken issue with the Republican party on this question for the simple reason that the

Republican party has shown no tendency toward imperialism nor made any defense of imperialism. "No blow has been struck except for liberty and humanity, and none will be,” said President McKinley, in his speech to the committee that notified him of his renomination. In this pithy sentence he gave the record of the war in which the nation has been engaged and the best promise for the future. No Democrat of responsibility has said or can say that, should Mr. Bryan be elected President, he could or would change the policy of this government in the Philippines, because these islands now belong to the United States, and the political status of the inhabitants must be determined by Congress. Mr. Bryan as President would be compelled by his oath and in obedience to the Constitution, to hold and govern the islands, following in the footsteps of the present administration without evasion or change. To do otherwise would subject him to impeachment.

Mr. Bryan and his party have raised one issue and one alone which directly antagonizes the Republican party. That is the old issue of 1896 -the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. In that issue the Republican party is unalterably opposed to the Democratic party because it threatens the glorious outlook now presented to the American people. This issue is another attack upon the credit and the stability of the nation's money. The sentiment of the country has not changed in the last four years. Mr. Bryan found it as difficult to commit his party to this issue at Kansas City as he did at Chicago in 1896. The East does not want free silver, nor does the West nor the South. Mr. Bryan compelled his party to make free silver the issue again by the threat that he, their only candidate for President, would not stand on a platform in which it was not the central and vitalizing plank

The election of 1896 was most stubbornly contested and brought out the largest popular vote ever recorded. McKinley carried 23 States and received 7,104,779 votes. Bryan carried 22 States and received 6,502,925 votes. The plurality of McKinley over Bryan was 631,854 and McKinley's majority over all was 498,430. The Gold Democrat vote was against Bryan and in sympathy with the Republicans. Added to McKinley's vote it made the protest against free silver 765,278 greater than its support. There has not since the days of the Civil war been such an emphatic protest against any party issue as was that of 1896. The Republicans in that contest lost two States that had been strong supporters of the party-Kansas and Nebraska. They also lost Colorado, Idaho,

Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. These States have 45 electoral votes, which could be claimed as lost to the Republicans by reason of the silver issue. But the party regained New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, California and Wisconsin, which gave their electoral votes to Cleveland in 1892, thereby recovering 111 electoral votes, and also gained from the Democrats Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia, adding 29 electoral votes, which had always been Democratic. While the Democrats gained 45 electoral votes in 1896 the Republicans gained 140. This was on the money question. The same question is to be voted on this year, because that is one issue on which the parties each have positive and explicit declarations as to a policy to be carried out in legislative and administrative action. Political prophecy is uncertain and not profitable. But, conceding the intelligence of the voters of this country and their stability in support of political issues until they are settled and fixed in government policy, it is difficult to see how the Democrats can hope to elect Mr. Bryan and persuade the American people to reverse the action of four years ago.

Will New York change its nearly 300,000 majority against free silver this year because Mr. Croker is supporting Mr. Bryan? Will Illinois change its majority of 150,000 against silver, or New Jersey its majority of 88,000, or Indiana its 20,000 majority? This must be done to elect Bryan over McKinley. The prophet who predicts such a change places a low estimate on the stability of the American voter. The Democrats hope to win back West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky. To do this they must overcome a Republican majority of 32,000 in Maryland, 12,000 in West Virginia, 3,400 in Delaware and a majority of 5,500 against Bryan, as measured by the Republican and Gold Democrat vote, in Kentucky. Should they regain these four States, they would recover 29 electoral votes. But in Kentucky they are committed to Goebelism, which represents the worst danger in American politics. Maryland and West Virginia are still opposed to free silver.

The Republicans have a better prospect for regaining Kansas and Nebraska, Washington and Wyoming and South Dakota with their 27 electoral votes, than have the Democrats for carrying West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware with their 29 electoral votes. The battle ground will be in the West, for Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan on the one side, and Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Ken

tucky on the other. The Democrats will try to change the majorities of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin by denouncing imperialism, which is a myth. The Republicans will attempt to regain Kansas and Nebraska and the Dakotas by appealing to the cause of National and State prosperity as represented by changed conditions since the McKinley administration began, and farm mortgages began to decrease.

The only danger of defeat for the Republicans is indifference and failure to assume their responsibility as voters who decide issues and control the government. The Republican who is satisfied with the prosperous condition of the country and indifferent to its continuance is the man who can decide the coming election adversely to his party. If he is multiplied by a million he can elect Mr. Bryan. It is not conceivable that there are 1,000,000 voters who supported McKinley in 1896 so indifferent to the cause of honest money, protection to American industry and general prosperity, as to take no part in the contest this year.

The first gun of the campaign was fired in Oregon in June. The State election there indicated that sound money is stronger with the people of the Far West than ever before, and in one of the States that came to us by expansion there is no fear of what is called imperialism. The Republicans had a majority of 2,000 in 1896 and a majority of 10,000 in June, 1900. This was in the face of the most abusive campaign against the present administration, when Democrats were denouncing imperialism in Porto Rico and the Philippines and finding fault with every administration policy. But the voters of Oregon had their eyes turned to the West, to the Philippines and China as their future markets, and they saw only the American flag in the one representing what it has represented to every foot of territory over which it ever floated, and the "open door" for American commerce and American enterprise in the other, to show that this administration is dedicated to the American people and that "the Republican party is neither an apology nor a reminiscence," but an active, practical organization which accomplishes what it preaches and enforces what it teaches. Oregon more than quadrupled its Republican majority. Without indulging in rainbow dreams, the example of Oregon suggests a hopeful outlook for the Republican party in this campaign, and for the country in the continuance of the McKinley administration, the prosperity it has brought and the patriotic and progressive policy which it represents.

« PreviousContinue »