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wonderful development that this country has ever known in the same period of time.

It demanded not only that the support of the Government should be largely from duties upon imports, but also that these duties should be so imposed as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country. It took up the cause of labor and demanded a policy of national exchanges which secured to the working man liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanic and manufacturer an equate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the Nation commercial prosperity and independence. It also protested against the sale or alienation of public land except to actual settlers, and demanded the passage by Congress of a complete and satisfactory homestead measure. It insisted that river and harbor improvements of a national character were required for the accommodation and security of commerce, and were authorized by the Constitution. It demanded that a railroad to the Pacific Ocean should be built for the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Government should render immediate and efficient aid in its construction.

In that platform the Republican party mapped out a stupendous programme, changing the whole character of legislation, and in fact nationalizing the Government for the first time in history. It was a new party without experience in national affairs, and its platform was regarded as one of mere theories, but that party has carried out to the letter every principle laid down in that platform on which Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.

The Republican party found labor in the North wandering in rags upon the public streets, and in the South receiving its wages in lashings upon the naked back and in chains.

It has lifted all labor to prosperity and independence, and increased the wages of the laboring man by protecting the product of his labor from competition abroad.

It found a bank note currency so incoherent and worthless that everybody was in despair. The money was so bad that the people named it after the color of their dogs, and the only reason that all business was not done with bogus money was that most of the bank notes in use were so worthless that there was nothing to be made by counterfeiting them.

This has been changed, until to-day the United States has all its money as good as gold and equal to the best money in the world. In fact, American money is at a premium now in nearly every country in the world.

It has, through wise and liberal homestead laws, changed the

Great Plains of the West from the herding ground of the buffalo into the greatest food-producing section of the world.

It has built up ten great States in that section of the country which was when it succeeded to power regarded as a wild and profitless country given over to the Indian and buffalo.

It has built trans-continental railroads from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and it has improved the rivers and harbors of the whole country in the interest of commerce.

The Republican party has done these things to glorify the nation and to unite the people into a harmonious and compact union with common interest.

Republican legislation.-The following are some of the acts of legislation and administration 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, 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 ensures 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 principle of reciprocity, by which we reduce the duties on certain imports from countries that offer corresponding advantages to our exports and thus extend our foreign markets.

20. The admission of the States of Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

21. The Anti-Trust Act. (This was drawn by Senators Sherman and Edmunds, and introduced by the former. In the House its passage was secured by William McKinley against an attempt to have it side-tracked 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.)

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. On logical lines with the, policy of protection, the acquisition of the Philippines. That is to say, having built up our industries to a point where their output was in excess of our consumption, we secured a grand depot and distributing point to command in great part the markets of the 600,000,000 inhabitants of Asia..

There must be no scuttle policy.-President McKinley to Notification Committee July 12, 1900.

PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY,

RESTORATION OF GOOD TIMES UNDER REPUBLICAN POLICIES AND LEGISLATION.

The protective tariff under which prosperity has been restored was inaugurated by the Republican party in 1861, after seventy years of almost continuous low tariff; while since 1861 there has been an unbroken period of protective tariff, with the exception of the period 1894-1897. It may not be improper, therefore, at this time to compare present conditions with those existing in 1860. Since that year the population has grown from 31,443,321 to 76,303,387 in 1900, an increase of 143 per cent. In 1860 the national wealth was, according to official statistics, $16,159,616,000, or $514 for each individual, and in 1900 it was $94,300,000,000, or $1,235 for each individual. The money in circulation in 1860 was $435,407,252, and in 1900 it was $2,655,150,998, the per capita circulation being, in 1860, $13.85, and in 1900, $26.93, and at the present time $28.40. The deposits in savings banks in 1860 amounted to $149,277,504; in 1900, to $2,449,547,885. The number of depositors in savings banks in 1860 was 693,870, and in 1900, 6,107,183.

Individual deposits in the national banks, brought into existence under Republican legislation in 1863, had reached $500,000,000 in 1865, and were, in 1900, $2,623,997,522. The imports of merchandise in 1860 were $353,616,119, and in 1900, $849,941,184, an increase of 143 per cent; the exports in 1860 were $333,576,057, and in 1900. $1,394,483,082, an increase of 318 per cent. The imports per capita in 1860 were $11.24, and in 1900, $10.88; the exports per capita in 1860 were $10.61, and in 1900, $17.96.

The growth in domestic manufactures is suggested by the fact that the importations of raw silk have grown from 583,589 pounds in 1870 to 13,043,714 pounds in 1900; of india rubber, from 9,624,098 pounds in 1870 to 49,377,138 pounds in 1900, and the domestic cotton consumed by American mills, from 979,000 bales in 1860 to 3,644,000 bales in 1900. The railways in operation have been extended from 30,626 miles in 1860 to 194,321 miles in 1900; the receipts of the Post-Office Department, from $8,518,067 in 1860 to $102,354,579 in 1900; the number of post-offices have increased from 28,498 in 1860 to 76,688 in 1900, and the salaries paid in public schools, from $37,832,566 in 1870 to $136,031,838 in 1900.

Protection Supersedes Free Trade. The inauguration of Presi

dent McKinley was quickly followed by the substitution of a protective tariff for the Democratic principles of free trade, under which the country had experienced unexampled suffering, and by the enactment of legislation firmly establishing the gold standard as the basis of the currency of the nation. The changes which have followed in the condition of the business of the country and of all classes of our citizens not only fully justify that action but have proved the most remarkable in the history of this country. Business Activity Under Protection.-From a condition of the greatest business depression, lack of employment and suffering among those dependent upon our industries, the country quickly passed to a state of the greatest business activity, in which employment was given to all who might desire it, and at wages higher than ever before. With this came an unexampled demand for the products of the farm, the forests, and the mines, and a development of the manufacturing and other industries heretofore unknown. The home markets for manufactures were fully supplied and the surplus products of the workshops were sent into the markets of the world, until now the exportation of manufactures constantly exceeds the importation of manufactures, a condition never known in the history of the country prior to 1897. Meantime the manufacturers' demand for the raw materials not produced in the United States has so increased that manufacturers' materials now form about one-half of the total importations of the country.

Value of Products Increased.-The demand of the busy and well-paid workman for the products of the farm has so stimulated production that the value of farm products has doubled, while the product of the mines has also greatly increased, With the surplus which these enlarged operations in the field and mine and factory have furnished, our domestic exports have come to exceed those of any other country of the world, and the United States has permanently placed herself at the head of the world's list of great exporting nations. The balance of trade in our favor has become the greatest known, not only in the history of the United States, but in the history of nations. The excess of exports over imports in the 108 years, from 1790 to March 4, 1897-from the under the Constitution to the inauguration of William McKinley-was $383,028,497, while the excess of the five years from March 4, 1897, to March 4, 1902, was $2,707,993, 194, or more than seven times as much in this five-year period as in the entire 108 years preceding. The excess of exports over imports in each year since 1897 has been greater than that of the entire 108 years prior

first

year

to 1897.

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