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tories unbuilt. For nearly a generation, under the Republican Party, with ebb and flow, but a more or less constant swelling of the tide of progress, our nation grew in power and wealth, and our people expanded materially, til! suddenly in 1893 the Republican Party was displaced by a Democratic President, Senate and House of Representatives. The change lasted but four years, yet by what industrial and financial havoc was it accompanied, what distress, and ruin came with the anticipation and realization of the work of that Fifty-third Congress! The people were quick to see their mistake, and at the first opportunity restored the Republican Party to full power, and no party change has been made since during a period of ten years.

During these ten years we have made such wonderful progress and have attained to such substantial prosperity as to make us the envy of the whole civilized world, and our shores the Mecca of annual millions eager to share our opportunities and blessings. Year after year during this last Republican decade we have gone on breaking all previous records. We have passed other nations, at first singly, and then other nations combined. We have welcomed all who have come, absorbed them, and yet to-day we have a dearth of laborers and are unable to produce enough to meet the demands of our people for the necessaries and luxuries of life. It is a situation unparalleled in the annals of nations. Our volume of employment, our rewards of labor, our enjoyments of life were never before equaled, and, best of all, there is no sign of abatement or signal of retreat. There is prospect of still greater and grander results and only the rankest pessimist can see a cloud on our national material horizon.

Republicans have a right to claim that our financial, commercial and industrial advancement is due to the laws enacted and executed by their party leaders. The party came into power when the Government and the people were practically bankrupt and without credit. A disrupted Union was restored, the vast expenses of war provided, specie payments resumed, a protective tariff amended from time to time and the development of the country continued till the Democratic check came in 1893.

Since 1897, when William McKinley was inaugurated and the Fifty-fifth Congress began its work, the Gold Standard has been adopted, the Dingley Law enacted and the culmination of beneficial Republican legislation has come with the present Congress and its splendid work of legislating for the people and their best interests.

Two years ago, in July, 1904, the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Republican Party was celebrated at Jackson, Mich. On June 21st, at Chicago, had been held the thirteenth national convention of the party, at which were nominated Roosevelt and Fairbanks, and where was adopted the last national platform of the party, which will be found on other pages.

On June 17th to 20th of this year, 1906, the National Republican League in its biennial convention, held at Philadelphia, celebrated the Golden Jubilee or fiftieth anniversary of the Republican Party as a national organization. This Golden Jubilee was held in Musical Fund Hall, where fifty years before was held the first National Convention of the party, at which time were nominated for its candidates for President and Vice-President, Tremont and Dayton, and its first platform adopted. Although,

"a spirited campaign, the party was not successful in elects candidates, it polled a popular vote of 1,341,264, and its

candidates received an electoral vote of 114. As early as 1855 the Republican Party had a large representation in the House of Representatives, and so strong had it become in the Thirtyfourth Congress, which met December, 1855, that N. P. Banks, Jr., of Massachusetts, was elected Speaker. In the Thirty-sixth Congress, which met December 5, 1859, there was a large Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and William Pennington of New Jersey was elected Speaker. In 1860, the Republican Party, with Abraham Lincoln as its standard-bearer, was victorious, and when inaugurated on March 4, 1861, owing to withdrawals of Southern members in both Senate and House of Representatives, the Republican Party was in full control of the government. For only two years since that time has the Democratic Party been in full control of the Government, and its only measure of any importance was the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894, which caused such widespread business disaster and general distress, this being repealed and succeeded by the Dingley Law of 1897, which has since been in operation. The great progress, therefore, which we have made since the close of the Civil War has been under the legislation and administration of the Republican Party. Not only has it been under the Republican Party, but largely it has been due to its measures. Elsewhere will be found more in detail some of the laws enacted by the party and under which our great progress and prosperity has been brought about.

It is not necessary to repeat in detail the history of the party's laws or its achievements. We may, however, briefly allude to the most important phases of this nearly half century of work: the abolition of slavery, the restoration of the Union, the resumption of specie payment, the extension of our mail service, the adoption of the gold standard and always, since the Morrill Tariff of 1861, the protection of our labor and industries. We have increased in wealth, under the Republican Party, from $7,000,000,000 to more than $100,000,000,000. We have increased our railway mileage from 30,000 to 220,000 miles. Our farm property has increased in value from $8,000,000,000 to over $25,000,000,000, and the annual value of our farm products from $1,000,000,000 to $7,000,000,000.

During this period, while the Republican Party has been in power, the value of our manufactures has increased from less than $2,000,000,000 to $18,000,000,000. Our total exports have increased from $333,000,000 to nearly $2,000,000,000. In 1860, we produced about 800,000 tons of pig iron, while in 1905 the amount was 22,000,000 tons. We produced no steel whatever in 1860, while in 1905 the amount exceeded 20,000,000 tons. In 1860, the amount of cotton consumed by our mills was less than 1,000,000 bales, while in 1905 the amount was over 4,500,000 bales. Our total bank clearings in 1860 were less than $20,000,000,000, while at present they exceed $150,000,000,000. The 693,000 depositors in our savings banks in 1860 had deposits of less than $150,000,000, while in 1905 the 7,700,000 depositors had deposits of over $3,000,000,000. In 1860, our post-office receipts amounted to $8,500,000, and had increased in 1905 to $152,800,000. Four thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight patents were issued in 1860, while in 1905 the number had increased to 30,399. In 1860, the amount of liabilities of failures was $80,000,000, while in 1905, with more than ten times the amount of business carried on, the amount of liabilities amounted to only $102,000,000, Such comparisons could

be continued indefinitely, and will be found more in detail in a table presented elsewhere, but before leaving the subject one comparison should be made and particularly emphasized as to the progress made during the reign of the Republican Party since 1860.

Because of the various financial and tariff measures of that party which have brought about competition in manufactures, we have built up a home market in this country of such mag. nitude that for several years we have given full employment to labor at wages about double those paid when the Republican Party came into power. In some cases these wages are treble and quadruple what they were in 1860. In other cases, perhaps only 25 per cent. and 50 per cent. more; but in the aggregate and average they are fully double, and with these high wages we find that the prices of most manufactured articles have been reduced fully 50 per cent., or have been made twice as durable and ser viceable as in 1860. This full employment and these high wages have given us a standard of living among our people not equaled elsewhere the world over. Our citizenship has been exalted far beyond that of the average of any other nation. Our consumption of not only the necessaries but comforts and luxuries of life is far in excess of that found anywhere else, with the result that American manhood and American homes are so far in advance of those found elsewhere throughout the world that we are the envy of all civilization, and more than a million foreigners seek our shores annually to share in our great opportunities and advantages.

It is not claimed for the Republican Party that all the beneficent results of the past forty-five years are due wholly to its wisdom and judgment in legislation and administration, and yet, with all our vast resources and our splendid natural advantages, we could not have arrived at our present state or made the progress we have without artificial assistance. The sunshine and rain which contribute to our harvests also contribute to the harvests abroad. The same ore and coal that are found in our mines, and the forests which abound throughout our country, are found to a greater or less degree abroad; but it has been the principle of Protection to American labor and American industry which has given us our great home market, which has giver. profitable prices as the result of industry on the farm and in the factory, and which has made our progress more wonderful, not only than has ever before been known in all history, but has enabled us, year after year and decade after decade, to make great advances upon all our own previous records. Some of the principal acts of legislation of the Republican Party follow, and they can be supplemented by hundreds of less important acts which have contributed to the welfare of the nation and of the people. In the ensuing campaign, however, voters will be more apt to consider the recent acts of the party rather than those of preceding decades. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves largely to the deeds of the present Congress, and shall give as fully as possible both completed and pending legislation so that all may understand fully and precisely what has been done and is liable to be done if the Republican Party is continued in power in all branches of the Government. For two years longer Theodore Roosevelt will be President, and will have with him a Republican majority in the United States Senate. He should also have a Republican majority in the House of Representatives

for the remainder of his term to carry out such recommendations as will, in his judgment, be for the best good of all the people. It is believed that an examination of the record of the Republican Party through its whole history, and particularly during the past few years, will prove that it is entitled to the continued confidence of the people and result in a majority in the Sixtieth Congress.

REPUBLICAN LEGISLATION.

The following are some of the principal acts of legislation by the Republican Party:

1. The Homestead Law, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by Abraham Lincoln.

2. The acts for the issuance of legal tenders and national bank notes, which gave the people a currency of equal and stable value in all parts of the country.

3. The system of internal revenue taxation, by which approximately one-half of the ordinary expenses of the Government have been visited upon malt and spirituous liquors, tobacco and cigars. 4. The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.

5. The fourteenth amendment, which created citizenship of the United States as distinguished from citizenship of the several States, and provided that no State should abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

6. The fifteenth amendment, which established equality of suffrage.

7. The Civil Rights Act, which extended to all persons the equal protection of the laws.

8. All existing laws for the payment of pensions to veterans of the Civil War and their surviving relatives.

9. The liberal legislation respecting mineral lands, which built up the mining industry, added enormously to the wealth of the country in the precious and semi-precious metals, and made it possible to resume specie payments.

10. The resumption of specie payments.

11. The reduction of postage, the money-order system, the establishment of the Railway Mail Service, free delivery, Rural free delivery, and other improvements that make the Post-Office Establishment of the United States the most efficient agency of that character that can be found on the globe.

12. The Life-Saving Service.

13. The artificial propagation and distribution of fish.

14. The distribution of seeds and other measures of vast importance in the promotion of agriculture.

15. The endowment of public schools, agricultural colleges, etc., by grants of land from the public domain.

16. The Administrative Customs Act, which insures justice and equality in the collection of duties.

17. The International Copyright Law, which respects the rights of authors in the product of their brains, but at the same time protects our publishing industry by requiring that books shall be printed in this country to entitle them to copyright.

18. The establishment of the Circuit Court of Appeals, to relieve the Supreme Court and no longer require litigants to suffer a delay of three or four years in securing a decision on appeal. 19. The admission of the States of Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada,

Colorado, North and South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, and provision for Statehood in Oklahoma.

20. The Anti-Trust Act. (This was drawn by Senators Sher man and Edmunds, and introduced by the former. In the House its passage was secured by William McKinley against an attempt to have it sidetracked in behalf of a bill for the free coinage of silver, which received the vote of every Democratic member with one exception. So it may be said that the law was placed upon the statute books over the united opposition of the Democratic Party as represented in the House.)

21. The National Bankruptcy Acts of 1867 and 1898, which re lieved many thousands of unfortunate men from their burdens of debt and restored them to commercial or industrial activity.

22. The establishment of the Gold Standard, which placed our monetary system on a stable basis and in harmony with the great nations of the world.

23. Every schedule of duties on imports adopted within the past fifty years, in which the policy of protection to American labor has been distinctly recognized and efficiently applied, has been the product of a Republican Congress.

THE PARTY WHICH HAS MET EVERY CRISIS.

From Leslie's Weekly, June 14, 1906.

In every crisis which has presented itself during the half-century of its existence the Republican party has risen promptly and grandly to the demands of the occasion. Now that radicalism and socialism in various shapes are making a powerful appeal for popular support, a résumé of the Republican Party's achievements in protecting vested interests of all sorts against demagogic assaults is timely.

When the greenback inflationists of a third of a century ago demanded that all government and private debts be paid in depreciated currency, except in the cases in which specie was expressly named in the contract, the Republican Party, by an act passed against the solid opposition of the Democracy, and signed by President Grant on January 14, 1875, brought all the country's currency up to the gold line. And the party has held the currency up to that level ever since, despite the assaults which have been made by radicalism in various guises, supported by the Democratic Party. The resumption act of 1875, by warding off greenback inflation, saved billions of dollars to the property and business interests of the country.

Populism in 1890-92, by its renewal of the war in favor of unlimited national currency and its demand for the issue of notes against the deposit of agricultural products, attempted to resuscitate the greenbackism of two decades earlier, plus the addition of a few new fads and follies. The Republican Party ultimately overthrew populism.

The war against property, business, and financial sanity was renewed in another form in 1896, when the Chicago convention, in July, with its fifty-cent silver-dollar propaganda, assailed the Republican demand at the St. Louis convention in June for a gold dollar worth 100 cents. Again the Republican Party was triumphant. By the Republican victory at the polls in 1896, by the Republican gold-standard act of March 14, 1900, and by the Republican triumph in the election in November of that year, the 100-cent dollar was written in the statutes so firmly and so decisively that Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate in 1904, declared that Republican legislation had protected business and property against further danger from the currency dilutionists.

Radicalism took a peculiarly menacing shape in the attacks made on the property-owners and the business interests by the greenbackers, the populists, and the silverites. The success of the silverite crusade of 1896 would have cut the $100,000,000,000 of property of the country down to $50,000,000,000. From this policy of wholesale robbery the people were saved by the Republican Party.

A new and particularly dangerous sort of radicalism presents itself to-day in the Government ownership of the great private and corporate interests which is being urged by elements that are reasonably sure to be powerful enough to control the Democratic party as firmly in 1908 as the silverite fifty-cent-doliar champions swayed that party in 1896 and 1900. Against this policy of confiscation the Republicans will do battle. The Republican party headed off slavery extension into the Territories, preserved the Union, abolished slavery, put the eleven Confederate States safely back in their old places among the Commonwealths, protected property against assault by greenback, populist, and silver inflationists, made the United States the wealthiest country on the globe, and marked up United States credit higher than that of any other nation on the world's bourses.

For protection against spoliation by radical and socialistic fanatics and demagogues in 1966 and 1908, the business and property interests of he United States will once more have to rely on the Republican Party.

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