more valuable currency, it advocates for the protection of labor a financial system that will make one dollar as good as another. The Republican Party, in carrying the country through the War of Rebellion, issued the greenback and sold a large amount of coin bonds. When the war was over, in spite of an enormous debt and the distrust of European financiers, the Republican Party gained the confidence of the world by paying honestly what the nation had borrowed. It soon had all its issues on a par with gold. In fact, at times its paper currency has commanded a premium over gold, and its bonds have been sought for all over the world at very low rate of interest.

The Republican Party is therefore committed to so use and protect the various kinds of currency it stamps with the nation's honor that each and all shall be what it claims to be, thus protecting all classes from a debased currency on the one hand, and from the power of European bankers on the other.

It is unalterably opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, as well as to any scheme which threatens to debase or depreciate the National currency.

It favors the largest use of silver as currency under such regulations as will maintain its parity with gold while this remains the standard of the United States and of the civilized world. It has urged and will continue to advocate a bimetallic International Conference, for the purpose of an agreement by which a universal ratio for silver and gold will be determined. Until this can be brought about, for the safety of this country's industries gold must be the standard for the measure of values, while silver must be given its proper place as a circulating medium, and coined as freely as it can be absorbed in business transactions without disturbing the financial standard.

THE FUTURE.

The Republican Party is the child of the American people. It grew out of their needs. It has served them faithfully through the inspiration that comes from a true and lofty conception of the necessities of National growth. In all the past the nation has been prosperous while it was governed by Republican prin

ciples, and has suffered whenever it consented to try the Democratic theories in tariff and finance. Experience and facts speak louder than theory and sophistical arguments. This experience has written the story of our Nation's growth in factories, counting-houses, fields, and countless happy homes. It tells of the reunited nation, of the restoration of credit, of the honest payment of the National debt, of the establishment of diversified industries, and of wonderful growth.

The Republican Party has proved itself to be the people's friend, able, honest, progressive, the party of good wages, good work, good money, good markets, and good homes.

is history, the result of protection and sound money.

All this

But we are confronted with a new and a greater danger to our prosperity than any in the past-a danger to the prosperity of the working-men, which, unless wisely met, will seriously injure the entire Nation.

The China-Japan War has opened up great countries for manufacturing enterprises. In China and Japan labor costs but a few cents a day. A great variety of manufactories are already being established there. They will be steadily pouring into this country all kinds of manufactured articles made so cheaply as to be sold here far below our cost of manufacture. The Pacific Coast sees this now. Soon we shall all realize it. The principle of protection of American labor must be maintained and extended, or our working-men will find their wages reduced, and in many cases cut off entirely, through the ruin brought by this competition.

A protection that protects labor has, in spite of theory, made this country prosperous. Such protection as will in the future. give American markets to American products, and place sufficient tariff on foreign pauper-made articles to keep them from destroying our own sales, is more essential than ever to the well-being of the laborer in every branch of industry. To this protection the Republican Party stands pledged by its record. To this protection the workman must look for his future prosperity. Under this protection, wisely regulated, the Nation will enter a new period of development and progress.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896.

The people cannot be fooled always. As the time for a presidential election approached, "it was in the air" that the people were tired of waiting longer for the fulfilment of the promises made by the Democrats during the campaign of 1892.

The business depression which followed the election of Cleveland had constantly increased during his administration. Prices declined, mills closed, failures increased, mortgages were unpaid, farmers suffered, wages were lower, business was almost dead, money feared to seek investment, the unemployed cried in vain for work at any wages; our national and our foreign policy caused distrust at home and abroad; and from the pockets of the poor and the vaults of the United States Treasury there was alike the cry of poverty.

The shrewdest Democratic leaders saw, in 1896, that defeat was inevitable in the coming election unless some new issue could be sprung on the people. Their party had had control of the government, and they could not therefore claim that Republican principles and policies had caused the hard times.

A large number of leading Democrats gradually drew away from the Democratic administration, and began to seek a new issue as the shibboleth in the coming campaign. When the Democratic Convention met in Chicago there was a fierce contest between the two wings of the party for control. A new Moses, William J. Bryan of Nebraska, suddenly mounted the platform, and by an ingenious declamation gained the nomination for the Presidency, and wrote SILVER as the party platform, leaving A TARIFF FOR REVENUE ONLY as scarcely a secondary issue.

This was their forlorn hope. Their tariff (the Wilson Bill) had proved a failure. The attention of the people must be drawn from the tariff and fixed upon something that could again be bolstered up with promises of great resulting benefits to the people. If the voters did not find out before election the foolishness of these promises the Democrats might retain power

for another four years. To give greater respectability to the ticket, and in the hope of getting campaign funds, a rich old banker, Arthur Sewall, of Maine, was given the second place. The honest followers of Democracy were disgusted at the results of the convention, and turned to the Republican party as the nation's only hope.

They were not disappointed. Before the Republican Convention met at St. Louis, Mo., the people had selected William McKinley of Ohio as the Republican nominee for President, and the convention ratified the people's choice. Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey was given the second place. The platform spoke as fully and as frankly as ever in behalf of the Vital Principles and Policies of the Party. The workman must be protected by a proper tariff. The Treasury must be full. Deficiency must be turned into surplus. The poor man's money must be as good as any the world over. Our foreign policy must be dignified, firm, and in accordance with our past history. Prosperity must be restored to the people.

The Democrats had skilfully made their platform and nominated the leading candidate to catch the votes of the Populists; and Mr. Bryan coquetted with the Populist leaders until they indorsed him for President. They refused, however, to accept Sewall for Vice-President, and nominated Thomas Watson of Georgia for that place, with Bryan as presidential nominee. The people were not deceived. The great common sense of the nation responded to the call of the Republican party. William McKinley was elected President, and a feeling of confidence and hope spread through the nation and even extended to Europe. Cheap money, cheap labor, and free trade were buried. under the mass of votes cast for the Republican candidates.

On the accession of President McKinley, an extra session of Congress was called to take action on the tariff as the first step to prosperity. In spite of the Democrats and Populists in Congress, who tried to introduce at this extra session many measures that tended further to disturb business, the Republican leaders kept the party promises, and adjourned after passing a carefully considered tariff bill known as the Dingley Bill. This bill was in strict accordance with the tariff principles of the party as