Arrangements with the news

papers.

The use of posters.

been done through the Bureau of Publication and Printing.
There have been prepared more than 275 pamphlets and leaflets,
besides scores of posters, sheets of cartoons, inscriptions and other
matter touching on various phases of the campaign issues. The
distribution of these documents was generally made through the
state central committees. About 20,000 express packages of docu-
ments were shipped, nearly 5000 freight packages, and probably
half a million packages by mail. These documents were printed
in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Fin-
nish, Dutch and Hebrew, as well as in English.

The duties of the editorial department of the Republican Liter-
ary Bureau at Chicago did not end with the preparation of the
many documents to which allusion has been made, but some notion
of the extent of those duties may be had when the fact is stated
that a preferred list of country newspapers, with an aggregate
weekly circulation of 1,650,000, received three and a half columns
of specially prepared matter every week; another list of country
newspapers, with an aggregate weekly circulation of about
1,000,000, received plate matter; three special classes of country
weekly and daily papers were supplied with statements aggre-
gating about 3,000,000 copies every week, and lastly, a special
class of country newspapers received "ready prints" — the entire
weekly circulation being about 4,000,000 copies. Hundreds of
other newspapers depended in a large measure for their political
matter during the campaign upon the Publication and Printing
Bureau and were circulated under the direction of this bureau.
It is a safe estimate that every week 5,000,000 families received
newspapers of various kinds containing political matter furnished
by this bureau, - probably three times the aggregate in volume
and influence of any newspaper work ever before conducted by a
national political committee.

The Republican Committee also made large use of political posters, probably 500 being circulated under the direction of the Publication and Printing Bureau. The most popular poster sent out from Chicago was the five-colored, single-sheet lithograph,

so widely circulated at the St. Louis convention, bearing a portrait of Mr. McKinley with the inscription underneath, "The Advance Agent of Prosperity." The number of copies of this poster circulated is said to have been almost beyond computation or comprehension. Another poster which had an immense run was in plain black and bore the title, "The Real Issue." It represented McKinley addressing a multitude of laborers in front of factories, declaring that it was better to open the mills of the United States than the mints, while Mr. Bryan, on the other side in front of the United States mint, was welcoming the people of all races with their silver bullion for free coinage. The great volumes of factory smoke and the throng of eager workmen on McKinley's side were in strong contrast with the group of foreigners dumping their silver in front of the Bryan mints.

The work of the congressional campaign committees has been The congressional far more important this year than ever before. The Republican committee's committee, under the chairmanship of the Hon. J. W. Babcock work. of Wisconsin, has been hard at work since early in June, and, like the National Committee at Chicago, it has broken its own record. The committee has printed 23 different documents. Of a single speech in Congress, that delivered by Representative McCleary of Minnesota in the House last February, in reply to his colleague, Representative Towne, the committee has issued 2,500,000 copies. Another popular money document issued by the committee was Representative Babcock's speech on the history of money and financial legislation in the United States. In the list of pamphlets sent out by the committee were speeches by Senator Sherman, Mr. Blaine, Representative Dingley, Speaker Reed and others. The committee did not restrict itself to the distribution of Congressional speeches, but chose such other ammunition as seemed adapted for the purpose in view. A pamphlet of forty pages was prepared, dealing with the silver question in a conversational way, and this, although one of the longest, proved to be one of the most popular demands sent out. The silver question was not treated wholly to the exclusion of the tariff in these

The tariff literature.

Campaign oratory.

Mr. Bryan's phenomenal record.

documents, but in the latter weeks of the campaign it was found that the demand for tariff literature gradually increased and a large proportion of the documents distributed from Washington dealt with that subject.

The distribution of Republican literature from New York City was placed in the hands of the American Protective Tariff League. Some twenty millions of documents were sent out from the headquarters in West Twenty-third Street, New York City, to points east and north of the Ohio River. Each Congressional district in the territory covered was assigned a pro rata quota of documents, and additional shipments were made from time to time as required. The League's own work of editing and printing material for campaign purposes was done in a most systematic and admirable manner.

Considering the remarkable expenditures for the dissemination of argument by means of the printed page, the poster, and the cartoon, it might have been supposed that in this campaign oratory would have had but a minor part. Then, too, the economic and statistical problems of a nation's currency have not usually lent themselves with grace to the fiery utterances of the political orator. But in this respect also the present year's campaigning has been exceptional. The oratorical powers of the opposing candidates had not a little to do with the winning of each nomination -in the one case directly, in the other just as truly if less conspicuously. Mr. Bryan set his own pace in his Chicago convention speech. Mr. McKinley was known at the start as one of the greatest campaign orators of his time. Neither of these men could be forced to obey the tradition which required silence of presidential candidates.

Mr. Bryan's speechmaking record has been the most wonderful one in the history of American presidential campaigns. Poor Horace Greeley's famous tour in 1872 and Mr. Blaine's extended journeyings in 1884 are made to seem insignificant in comparison. On the night before election, if present plans are carried out, Mr. Bryan will have made about four hundred reported speeches

in twenty-nine states. No previous candidate for the presidency ever attempted such a feat as this. Day after day this speechmaking has gone on- much of it from the rear platforms of railway trains, while the telegraph and the daily newspaper have carried the speaker's utterances everywhere. Here again must be considered the matchless service of the press, without which the orator's words could reach but a limited number.

But for Mr. McKinley too, this has been a speechmaking cam- Mr. McKinley paign. He has remained at his home in Canton, but auditors speaks at have come to him from far and near. There is a precision, a fixed home. adherence to schedule, in the arrangements for receiving and addressing delegates at Canton which is wholly lacking in the Bryan "steeple chasing" programme. Mr. McKinley's speeches have been prepared with care and fully reported by the press.

CHAPTER X

Powers
of the
President.

THE POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT

71. Constitutional Provisions

THE following brief clauses of the federal Constitution sum up the powers and duties of the chief magistrate:

1

1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.

He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of

1 The general executive power is also vested in the President; see above, p. 154.