E 760 .R81 ' - Copy 1 \?ri>'-^ Kepublicanism or Democracy? BY ELIHU ROOT Secretary of State Speech as Chairman of Republican State Convention at Saratoga, N. Y., September 14, 1908 Republicanism or Democracy? By ELIHU ROOT Secretary of State (20 iJy Transfer, 2G 0.. r :9)i> CONTENTS PAGE. High Record of Administration 5 Inspiration from the People 6 Resentment of Lawbreakers 7 Effectiveness of Government 8 Progress at Panama 8 Postal Service Improved 9 Thieves Restore Plunder lo Extensive Irrigation Work . . . .• lo Protection of Coal Lands 1 1 Value of Land Increased 12 Trade in World's Markets 13 Peace and Arbitration 13 Canada and China 14 Japanese Question Settled 14 Policy in Caribbean Sea 15 Consular Service Reorganized 16 Statistics of Prosperity 16 Practical Capacity to Govern 17 Taft the True Successor 17 The People Do Rule 18 Bryan's Charges Met 18 People Choose Senators 19 Question for the States 20 Management of the House 20 Legislative Rules Imperative . 21 "Tailors of Tooley Street" 21 Nation's New Employees . 22 Surplus in Treasury 22 Roosevelt's Renunciation 23 The Human Factor 24 Tariff for Revenue Only 24 When Business Ceased 25 Bank Deposits 25 Depositors Would Suffer 26 Bryan Unqualified 2y Bryan's Former Issues ' 28 Regulation of Railroads 28 Bryan not Jeffersonian ^ 29 Bryan Paternalistic 29 Are the Democrats Competent ? . . 30 How Democrats Hated their Leader 31 REPUBLICANISM OR DEMOCRACY? Gentlemen of the Convention: Just a decade has passed since we were assembled in this place engaged in the business of nominating Theodore Roosevelt for Governor of New York. We are now to nominate a successor to Charles E. Hughes as Governor; and we are to peiform that duty according to our wisdom, our loyalty to party and to country, hi such a way that the Empire State shall surely cast her electoral vote for the Republican candidate to succeed the same Theodore Roosevelt as President of the United States. May we not discern in the performance of that duty an oppor- tunity broader in its scope, more compelling in its obligation than the mere attainment of local success? May we not do our work here in such a way and in such a spirit that throughout all the country Republicans shall be inspired with courage and hope, and every doubtful voter shall be convinced by proof that in this great representative State, the home of the candidate for Vice-President, Republicans are sincere in their professions, loyal to their prin- ciples, unselfish in their patriotism, truly representative of the body of the people and worthy of the great traditions of the party of Lincoln? High Record of Administration. We have a record which forbids discouragement or doubt in the performance of our task. We can turn to the administra- tions, now drawing to a close, both in the State and in the nation, and with confidence ask every American voter to say whether they have not met all the great fundamental requisites of good govern- ment, whether they do not justify the behef that it is best for the country to keep in power the party which is responsible for them and is entitled to the credit of them. Have not these administra- tions within the State and within the nation been honest? Have they not been capable ? Have they not been efficient ? Have they not set before all the people of America examples of pure, high- minded and patriotic service in public office ?' Have they not raised the standard of public duty which the young men of America set for themselves? Have they not done us honor before the world? These are the true tests by which to determine whether it is wise to continue a political party in power. It is such tests as these that we all apply in our private affairs when we select a business agent, or a trustee, or a lawyer, or a teacher for our chil- dren. Common sense dictates their application in the selection of our agents and trustees for public business. All parties make promises before election agreeable to the ear and satisfying to the wishes of voters ; but will they keep the promises ? What is the evidence that they are made up of men who have the honest wall, the firnmess of character and the ability, without which such promises are worthless? Look to the record; see what parties have done in the past, and learn there which should be trusted for the future. Look not to petty, refined details, but to the broad question whether, taken as a whole, their wisdom, efficiency and honesty in the past give promise of wisdom, efficiency and honesty in the future. The answ^er to this question will be worth more as a guide to the voters at the coming election than all the discussion over fine spun theories and sanguine conjectures that can be crowded into a Presidential campaign. Inspiration from the People. There have been two special and notable characteristics in which these two administrations have been alike. One is that they have both gone directly to the people of the country, to the great body of the electors themselves, for their inspiration and their strength. Neither Governor nor President has relied upon that view of expediency in the conduct of public affairs which is to be gained by secret conferences in closed rooms. They have con- strued their representation of the people as being immediate and without intervening authority or interpreters. When they have formed opinions as to the lines of policy which it was wise to follow in the performance of their duties they have explained their opinions directly, through the press and through public speeches, to the people who elected them, and, having got back the people's answer, they have given due weight and effect to it, in accordance with the true principles of representative govern- ment. The second special resemblance is in a much more than or- dinary vigor and sternness in the enforcement of law, which have characterized both State and National administrations. Does the Constitution of the State say that no gambling shall be allowed in the State? Then it seems to the State administration a com- pulsory and inevitable conclusion to be forthwith acted upon with all the power of the State, that such allowance must be stopped at all hazards, no matter who is hurt or who is offended. Do the laws of the United States declare that there shall be no discrimina- tion in railroad rates between shippers great or small ? Then dis- criminations and rebates must be stopped by the whole aggres- sive force of the National Government, whatever the cost, how- ever great and powerful may be the offenders pursued, however injurious may be their enmity. The novelty of this strenuous law enforcement has not consisted in applying any new theories of governmental control or in the exercise of any new powers, but rather in breaking up the sleepy old methods of procedure, in securing practically adequate administrative statutes to give life to the old Constitutional and statutory declarations of general rules which were by themselves ineffective, and in putting force and momentum into the attack on established and customary evils. Resentment of Lawbreakers. When continuous and widespread violations of law have been profitable and many persons have a special pecuniary interest against any interference with them, they present a degree of resistance to law enforcement which' can be overcome only by an awakened public interest, and by a degree of apparent excite- ment which sometimes seems like undue violence, for force must be proportioned to resistance. It is impossible to burst open doors softly. An incident to this kind of vigorous law enforcement is the resentment and revengeful feeling of the people whose profits are interfered with. Of this feeling, awakened by Republican law enforcement, the Democratic party now gladly takes the benefit, and one of the serious questions of this campaign is to be whether the people of the country are going to permit the Republican party to suffer for having enforced the law in the State and the nation, or whether they are going to back up law enforcement by their approval shown in their votes for the Re- publican candidates. Effectiveness of Government. In every department of the National Government since the decisive approval of Republican administration given in the great majorities four years ago there has been practical effectiveness of action which should be highly satisfactory to all the people of the country who really care about having the Government business well and creditably done. The financial panic of last autumn, which resulted, as so many panics have before, from reckless extravagance and wild speculation, was checked by the firm hand and clear understand- ing of national financial administration. Confidence was restored. The panic has passed away, revealing a substantial business soundness and widely dififused wealth throughout the country, unprecedented in our history and the result of a long period of wise and able Republican administration ; and the Republican Congress, against much Democratic opposition, has enacted a wise law to make such a panic as that impossible in the future. Our War Department has continued to be an agent for peace and for the spread of American ideals of ordered liberty. The Filipinos, already initiated by us in the practice of local self-gov- ernment in their Barrios and Provinces, have now been taught the first step towards national self-government by the successful inauguration of the Philippines Legislative Assembly. Cuba has been pacified. Her armies, on the verge of bloodshed, have been induced to lay down their arms, and, under the intervening gov- ernment and guidance of the United States, through perfectly peaceful and orderly elections, Cuba is about to embark in her second attempt at independent self-government. Progress at Panama. Under the medical officers of the army the Isthmus of Panama, where pestilence had ruled for centuries and work- men died like flies, has been made healthful and safe; yellow fever has been banished, malaria has been reduced, and the death rate among the thirty thousand employees engaged in the canal work has been reduced to the ordinary average level of our Ameri- can cities. Under the engineer officers of the army the work of excavation and construction is progressing with a rapidity never before known upon any work in the world, and the simple con- tinuance of the present conditions will Avithin the next seven years crown the work by the completion of the canal, to the imperish- able honor of America as a benefactor of civilization. What will happen if the American people change the administration with all the chances of incapacity, inexperience and doubtful experiment no one can forecast. The extraordinary voyage of our battleship fleet, circumnavi- gating South America, to the extreme northern boundary of our western coast, across the wide Pacific to far-off New Zealand and Australia, and so along its way around the world, has evoked much discussion as to both political and naval policy. In both of these the developments of the voyage have shown that the policy of the administration was sound and far-sighted. There is one other thing which the voyage has shown beyond peradventure: it is that there has been only sound and honest work under the Navy Department in construction, in equipment and in training. The unexampled test to which this fleet has been subjected abso- lutely excludes any possibility of graft or slackness or false pre- tence in naval administration. Postal Service Improved. The Post Office Department has increased its receipts from $82,665,462.73 in 1897 to $183,585,005.57 m 1907. It has in- creased the number of pieces handled from 5,781,002,143 in 1897 tp 12,255,666.367 in 1907. It has increased the Rural Free De- livery routes from 83 in 1897 to 37,728 in 1907, and 39,270 in 1908, serving sixteen million people, while it has decreased the number of post offices from 76,945 in 1901 to 62,659 i" 1907. The great in- crease in circulation of newspapers and magazines along the Rural Free Delivery routes, the bringing of up-to-date information about markets and improvements and current events to the farmer, the relief to the isolation of farm life, all testify to the wisdom of this beneficent Republican policy, which had its origin under Presi- dent McKinley and its great development under President Roose- velt. The Post Office Department has effected a saving of nearly five millions a year by reform in the weighing of railway mails. It has almost completed the list of parcels-post conventions with the other nations of the world. It has given security of tenure to good postmasters, has reduced the hours of labor and has in- creased the promptness and efficiency of the service. The Department of Justice has borne the burden of vast and complicated litigation necessary to the legal assault upon wide- spread and deeply intrenched abuses defended by wealth and in- fluence and power in many fields. By investigations and suits and prosecutions, it has substantially put an end to the almost universal practice of railroad rebates. It has halted and made it plain that if allowed to continue in the same way it will inevitably end the oppressive and unfair practices through which great combinations of capital have been acquiring monopolies and crushing weaker competitors. Thieves Restore Plunder. It has compelled the land thieves and timber thieves who h.ad fastened themselves upon the great Government domains in the West to give up their plunder. By prosecutions under the penal clauses of the postal laws it has put an end to lotteries in the United States, It has conducted an effective campaign against the practice of peonage, a thin disguise under which slavery was again reappearing in certain regions of the South. Under the wise policy of recent Republican legislation it has asserted the value of American citizenship by scrutinizing for the first time in our history the proceedings in the multitude of courts which have power to grant naturalization, and by prose- cuting the fraudulent practices imder which, unchecked, the lib- erality of the United States towards the immigrant had so often been abused. By active proceedings it has given new life to the eight-hour labor and contract labor provisions of the Federal statutes. It has enforced the ordinary laws and conducted the ordinary legal business of the Government faithfully and effect- ively. In the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture a new era has been inaugurated of protection, preservation and enlarge- ment of the natural wealth of the United States. Tlie reclama- tion of the arid lands of the West by irrigation was provided for by the act of the Republican Congress of the 17th of June, 1902, a fitting supplement to that other great Republican measure, the homestead law. Under that act more than 25,000,000 acres of desert lands are being rapidly converted into fruitful farms, with- out entailing the ultimate cost of a dollar to the national treasury. Extensive Irrigation Work. Twenty-five irrigation projects are under construction. On the 1st of January last 1881 miles of canals had been dug; 281 great dams and other large structures for the storage and utiliza- tion of water had been built; 42,447,000 cubic yards of earth and 10 rock had been excavated; 131^ miles of tunnels had been driven, and already, with practically all the projects still uncompleted, eight new towns have been established and over fourteen thou- sand of our people have made new homes on the reclaimed land. The forest policy of Republican administration under the Department of Agriculture has been far in advance of the general public appreciation of its importance. Over 166,000,000 acres of public forest land have been placed under the administration of the Forest Service, and by strict and well organized supervision are preserved from spoliation and from fire, as great reservoirs of water supply for the interests of navigation, irrigation, power and domestic use. The forests are not only preserved, but they are used for grazing where they can be grazed without injury, and for cutting the ripe timber that can be cut without injury. The cost of supervision, protection and utilization has risen as the area set aside has increased from $350,000 in 1904 to $1,790,678.79 in 1907, but the receipts from the sale of timber and grazing have risen from $58,436.19 in 1904 to $1,571,059.44 in 1907, so that the service is already almost self-supporting. Protection of Coal Lands. Sixty-seven million acres of public lands underlaid by coal which under former practices would have been sold at a small min- imum price, and, too often, had been taken up by fraudulent entries as agricultural lands for the benefit of some corporation or syndi- cate, have been withdrawn from entry. Fifty million acres of the lands thus withdrawn have been examined and valued by the Geological Survey service and restored to public purchase as coal lands at a true and reasonable valuation. At fifteen hundred stations throughout the United States the flow of streams has been gauged and a knowledge of their flood and low stages and average discharge has been obtained through the Geological Sur- vey. Tliese investigations have shown where millions of wasted horse-power can be utilized, and at the same time destructive floods controlled and an equal flow of water preserved for the uses of navigation in the East and irrigation in the West. The grazing lands of the public domain had been greatly encroached upon by the great cattle owners, and during the past five years fences unlawfully enclosing public lands have been removed from 3,518,583 acres, and action has been taken to re- move such enclosures from an additional 3.763,186 acres. Dur- ing the past eight years over a million dollars have been collected by the Departments of the Interior and of Justice in penalties for II timber trespasses. For all sorts of offences aimed at the public domain during that period over three thousand indictments have been found; over 870 convictions have been had, and over 250 prison sentences have been imposed. Within the same period 7,874 fraudulent land entries have been cancelled, restoring to public entry over 2,259,840 acres. Government initiative and Government activity in the conservation of our national resources have awakened the whole country to a sense of the wastefulness which has depleted our wealth in the past and the necessity of economy in the future. Value of Land Increased. In the meantime, the Department of Agriculture is increas- ing the value of every acre of land by scientific researches and experiments and practical instruction, which are teaching our people to make their land more productive, and to combat the enemies of animal and plant life. Careful, well organized and systematic inspection and supervision under the meat-inspec- tion law and the pure-food law of 1906 have restored the credit of our meat products and are protecting our people from fraud- ulent and adulterated foods. The Department of Commerce and Labor has, for the first time, established immediate and practical co-operation between the Government and the organized commercial bodies of the country. It is sifting with greater efBciency than ever before, under the recent legislation of Congress, the crowds of im- migrants W'ho come to our ports, and excluding criminals, paupers, the diseased and contract laborers. It is bringing pub- licity into the workings of the great corporations. It is investi- gating the conditions surrounding woman and child labor in the United States. It is keeping the producers and merchants of the country constantly fully informed as to the markets and trade conditions of the entire world. All of these Departments are performing with integrity and efficiency the vast mass of ordinary duties of government de- volving upon them, those duties which are so inconspicuous and unnoticed but so important for the welfare of the country. Search where you may; in no private business, corporate or in- dividual, in this or any other country, can be found a higher standard of integrity, fidelity and competency than exists to-day in the Government of the United States in all its Departments. 12 Trade in World's Markets. Our country has not lived unto itself alone. It is at peace with all the world, but it is not the peace of isolation. We have grown so great that we are touching elbows with the people of every other country. Our vast trade seeks every market ; our millions of immigrants maintain ties of citizenship or relation- ship with every country; our travelers throng every foreign highway. We could not, if we would, escape from the respon- sibilities, the duties and the opportunities of active membership in the community of nations. On that great international field we must play our part whether we will or not. We must main- tain and enlarge our trade; we must protect our citizens, native and naturalized, in every right; we must establish and maintain a strength of potential defence which shall discourage predatory attacks that our wealth would otherwise invite; we must render justice to all countries and to their people, so that there shall be no just cause for assaults upon us; we must promote friendly intercourse and better knowledge between our people and all others, so that there shall be no quarrels born of misunderstand- ing. Beyond all this we must do our part according to the measure of our wealth and power, to promote the peace of the world, to encourage and to aid the weak, the unfortunate and the undeveloped peoples of mankind along the pathway of civilization, and to spread throughout the world the ordered liberty and justice which have been our heritage. Peace and Arbitration. In these things we have not failed. In the second great Peace Conference at The Hague, the American representatives bore their part of useful service with distinction, and contributed in full measure to the results of the Conference, which con- stitute one of the greatest advances ever made towards the reasonable and peaceable regulation of international conduct. Twelve treaties agreed upon at that Conference, all designed to reduce the probability or mitigate the horrors of war, have been approved by the Senate and ratified by the President. Following the Conference, the United States has put itself definitely upon the basis of the peaceful settlement of inter- national disputes by concluding general treaties of arbitration with England, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Den- mark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico and Japan. 13 All of these have been confirmed hy the Senate, and many others are in course of negotiation. Threatened tariff wars between the United States and Ger- many, and the United States and France have been averted by commercial agreements under the power conferred upon tlic President in the third section of the Dinsjlev tariff act. Canada and China. The long unsettled questions with Canada have been car- ried far along the way towards a conclusion. Under one treaty already made, a commission is disposing of the last remaining questions of doubt and dispute along our three thousand miles of boundary. Under another treaty a commission is framing joint international regulations for the preservation of the food supply in the great lakes and other boundary waters. Under a third treaty we have agreed upon the submission to The Hague Tribu- nal of the century old controversies relating to the Newfound- land fisheries, while, pending this arbitration, from year to year our fishermen are protected in their rights by a friendly modus Vivendi. In China the boycott against American goods, caused by Chinese exclusion, has been abandoned, and China is herself giving valuable aid towards preventing the emigration of her coolies to America. Under authority of Congress we are about remitting all the punitive part of the indemnity stipulated for after the Boxer rebellion, and the Chinese Government is, of its own motion, formulating a plan to apply the remitted part of the indemnity to the sending of Chinese students annually to be educated in the United State§, Japanese Question Settled. All the wild outcries of the sensational press at home and abroad have failed to destroy the good understanding between the Governments of Japan and of the United States. The dif^fi- culties which arose in San Francisco have been disposed of. The two Governments are actively co-operating with perfect mutual understanding for the prevention of Japanese labor immigration into the United States. Our treaty of arbitration ratified during the past summer was followed by a treaty for the mutual pro- tection of trade marks, copyrights and patents in China. On the U special invitation of Japan we are making preparations to par- ticipate on a scale which we have never before attempted in her great international exposition which is to mark the fiftieth anni- versary of the accession of her Emperor; and, upon the special invitation of Japan, our fieet is about to visit the harbor of Tokyo, where it w\\\ be received with a hospitality not marred by a single discordant note. Our course in the Pan-American Conference at Rio de Janeiro in 1906, and the friendly intercourse which has followed have dispelled the suspicion and distrust with which we were once regarded by the people of Latin America, and, with the single exception of the irresponsible and abnormal Dictator of Venezuela, genuine friendship and good will bridge the gulf of race and language between ourselves and every people of the Western Hemisphere. Policy in Caribbean Sea. "Regarding the countries about the Caribbean sea, whose nearness to the Panama canal route makes their fortunes of special interest to us, we have developed and followed a definite course of policy which may be described by saying "We do not wish to take possession of any of those countries ourselves ; we are not willing to have any other foreign nation take posession of them ; and to prevent the necessity of the one or the possibility of the other, we do wish to help then go\ ern themselves in peace and order and prosperity." That is the key to our treatment of Cuba. Under that policy we have made a treaty with Santo Domingo under which the presence of a single American civil officer, as Receiver of Cus- toms, with the moral power of the United States behind him to demonstrate the hopelessness of any attempt at revolution, has substituted uninterrupted peace for continuous turmoil and blood- shed, has more than doubled the Government revenues, has brought about an adjustment of the debt and a restoration of sol- vency, and has established a revival of industry and of commerce. Under the same policy we have been collaborating with Mexico, once an enemy and now a close and valued friend, to mitigate the conditions of revolution and war among the Central American States; and a Peace Conference during the past winter, under the guidance of the two greater countries, has resulted in a series of treaties and the establishment of an International Central American Court for the settlement of differences — substantial 15 advances along the slow and difficult jDathway to established order. Consular Service Reorganized. In the meantime, the reorganization of our consular service and the practice of promotion for merit in the diplomatic service has increased the efficiency and usefulness of all our representa- tives abroad. We contributed substantially towards maintaining the peace of Europe in the Conference at Algeciras, and the greatest war of modern times was ended when Japan and Russia were brought together under the congenial influence of Ameri- can conciliation in the treaty of Portsmouth. The prosperity and well-being of our people as a whole cor- responds to the efficiency of the Government, which justly repre- sents them. Never anywhere m the long history of mankind's struggles for better conditions have there been among so many millions of people so great a diffusion of wealth, such universal comfort of living, such ready rewards for industry and enterprise, such milimited opportunities for education and individual ad- vancement and such independence and dignity of manhood as in our country now. Statistics of Prosperity. We are all familiar with the amazing statistics that mark our prosperity. Our foreign trade last year amounted to $3,315,272,- 503. The balance of trade in our favor last year was $446,429,653, and in the last four years it has amounted to $1,825,520,202. The value of our farm products last year was $3,958,000,000. Accord- ing to the last census there were 5,739,657 separate farms, and the live stock upon those farms is valued at $4,331,230,000. The value of our manufactured products in 1905 amounted to $16,- 866.703,985. Our bank deposits of all kinds last year amounted to $13,077,330,466. There were last year in the United States 8,588,811 savings bank depositors, with an aggregate deposit of $3,495,410,087. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, there were instructed in the schools of the United States 18,434,- 847 scholars, and of these 210,333 were students in universities, colleges and professional and technical schools. Churches and hospitals and libraries abound. Associations for mutual aid and for public benefit number their members and their revenues by millions. Our people are keenly alive to the public interest and competent for the discussion of public questions. Expression of opinion is free as the air we breathe. Respect for law is general; 16 disregard of it is the rare exception. At no time and in no country has mere wealth secured for its possessor less public con- sideration or have the high qualities of personal manhood availed so much for honor and opportunity. Practical Capacity to Govern. Government did not make these conditions, but they would have been impossible without wise and good government, and wise and good government is necessary to their continuance. Let us all put our shoulders to the wheel of reform. Let us press along in the path of progress, constantly improving conditions and leaving no class or condition of men who do not share in the im.provement; but let us not forget that true reform proceeds, not by overturning or destroying in order to substitute the con- jectural future of sanguine theory, but always by building steadily and surely on the safe foundations of all that is good in the present. Wisdom, skill, experience in the operations of Govern- ment, practical capacity combined with honest purpose are neces- sary to make true reform effective. Without these, declarations and pubHc speeches, however eloquent, and proposals, however -attractive, are mere words and will never be realized. The sub- stantial question for the voters tO' answer in November is, how shall we secure a continuance of the good government under which we have attained to all our blessings; how select public agents who' will maintain the peace and order and prosperity we now have; and at the same time press forward and make prac- tically effective the reforms which this Republican Administration has inaugurated, and upon the value and beneficence of which all parties are agreed. Taft the True Successor. Plainly the true successor to this great duty is Secretary Taft. His wide experience and long years of successful service under heavy responsibility as jurist, legislator, administrator, his intimate acquaintance with the public affairs of our country, internal and external, prove his wisdom, his skill and his capacity. The confidence and sympathy and intimate association with which he has stood by and aided President Roosevelt in even>^ stage of the policies which, by the common consent of both parties, now lie before us to be continued and developed in practical effective- ness, indicate him as the best possible man to continue those 17 policies. The character that we know so well, with its courage, firmness, and energy, its unselfishness, modesty, frankness and honor assures us of his honest purpose, and his eminent fitness for the greatest of offices. The Democratic party announces as the issue of this cam- paign upon which they ask the voters of the country to take the powers of administration and legislation away from the party that has thus proved its competency, and to embark upon the experiment of Democratic control — as "the overshadowing issue'' the question "Shall tlie people rule?" The People Do Rule. Do not the people rule? This is a representative govern- ment. It surely is not proposed to do away with representation and have eighty-five millions of people make and execute their laws directly, without the intervention of legislative and executive agents. Are not the laws being made and executed by the agents v/liom the people have selected for that purpose? I find that by the lawful returns of the last Presidential election Theodore Roosevelt received 2,541,296 more votes for the Presidency than Alton B. Parker. Has he not a good title to the ofifice? Are not the people ruling through him, their chosen Executive, so far as his, part of the Government is concerned? Has not every Con- gressional District been represented in Congress by the man whom a majority of its voters selected? Is not every State re- presented in the Senate by Senators chosen by its own Legisla- ture, selected by the people of the State for the performance of that very duty? But Mr. Bryan gives specifications. He says there are three reasons why the people do not rule. Bryan's Charges Met. First, because there is corrupt use of money at elections. Does he mean to say that the two millions and a half of votes which constitute Mr. Roosevelt's majority were bought; that to such a frightful extent the American electorate is venal? Does he produce any evidence of such a charge? Not the slightest. Does he produce any facts tending to sustain even a suspicion of the justice of such a charge? None whatever. For one, I deny its truth, and I assert that American elections are fair and honest 18 elections, and that the Government in Washington has been wielding- the powers vested in it under the Constitution by the clear and unquestionable will of the people of the United States. Campaign funds were raised and used in the last election by both parties, as they ought to have been raised and used. Mr. Bryan's managers are appealing for contributions of campaign funds to- day. The universal and intelligent discussion of great questions of public policy by the American people during a Presidential campaign is the most useful and the most hope-inspiring school of government in the world. It is that which makes the people ever more competent to govern justly and wisely. No money expended to promote that great exercise of governing intelligence is ill spent; and to furnish eighty-five million people with material for discussion, to reach them with infortnation and arguments and refutation of argument, and appeals, through public speech and through the mails and private canvass, requires organization, the labor of thousands of men and the expenditure of great sums. The repetition of small expenses among a great multitude of people spread over a vast territory mounts up with a rapidity clifificult to realize. The postage on a single letter mailed to each of the fourteen million voters of the country amounts to $280,000. To such proper and useful purposes and to such purposes only was the Republican campaign fund of the last election devoted. People Choose Senators. The second reason why Mr. Bryan says the people do not rule is that we have not direct election of Senators, and he holds the Republican party responsible for not having procured an amendment to the Constitution of the United States tO' provide for that. There is no more necessity for an amendment to the Constitution providing for the direct election of Senators than there is for an amendment to the Constitution providing for the direct election of President. If the people of any State wish any particular man to be chosen as Senator they have only to instruct their Legislature, as the people of a considerable num- ber of States make it their practice to do now, and no Legis- lature will ever for a moment think of disobeying the instruc- tions any more than Presidential electors violate their obliga- tions. The proposed amendment is simply to enable the people of each State to escape from the performance of the duty of electing a Legislature that can be trusted. Are we prepared to abandon the performance of that dutv? Are we to assume that our State Legislatures must necessarily and for all time be 19 unfit to represent the people of the State? If so, what becomes of the government of the State? Is that with all its multitude of important duties to be left unfit? Question for the States. If any State Legislature cannot now be trusted, the true reform would seem to be in the direction of selecting the Legis- lature. Speaking for myself alone, I believe that the selection of Legislative candidates by direct primaries would be a ma- terial improvement, and would greatly increase the sense of im- mediate responsibility to their constituents on the part of the members of the State Legislature. In such primaries the voters could instruct their candidates if they saw fit, and as they saw fit, regarding the selection of Senators. But that is a question the people of each State can settle for themselves without any amendment of the Constitution, and however they settle it, they rule in the way they prefer to rule. If any Legislature under the Constitution does not choose a Senator who properly represents the people of the State, it is because the people of the State have failed in their duty in the selection of their Legis- lature. Let them perform their duty under the Constitution as it is, rather than clamor for an amendment to the Constitution to enable them to escape that duty. In the long run, to secure good government we must ultimately come down to the faith- ful performance of duty by the people of the country at the polls, and no expedient or change of form will take the place of that performance. Management of the House. The third reason why the people do not rule, says Mr. Bryan, is to be found in the rviles of the House of Represent- atives. The Denver Convention declared in its platform that it observed with amazement the popular branch of our Federal Government helpless to obtain either the consideration or enact- ment of measures desired by a majority of its members." Who makes the rules of the House of Representatives? Why, a majority of its members, and a majority can change them as it will. Manifestly, there must be rules to control the conduct of the business of the House, or no business could be done. Over thirty thousand bills were introduced in the last session of Con- gress, and there are 386 members. If one-tenth of the mem- 20 bers had attempted to speak five minutes each on one-tenth of the bills that were introduced, working eight hours a day for the average Legislative session and permitting the transaction of no other business, they would have been speaking still, and the term of office of the entire Congress would expire before one-fourth of the one-tenth could be heard. Plainly, there must be rules to limit oratory to provide for the selection of the measures which shall come up for discussion, and to provide for the transaction Qi the real business of kgislatign. Legislative Rules Imperative. All legislative bodies have to adopt such rules, and the larger the body the more necessary are the rules and the more stringent they have to be. It is an invariable incident to the transaction of all legislative business that from time to time members wdio are not allowed to talk as long and as often as they please to the exclusion of others and who cannot have the measures they are particularly interested in acted upon in preference to other measures, rise up and cry out against the rules, as the Demo- crats are crying out against them now. The real trouble is that the Democrats in the House of Representatives are a minority and cannot have their own way because they are a minority. The real Democratic grievance is, not that the majority does not rule, but that it does rule. The rules at present in force in the House of Representatives, are those adopted under Speaker Reed when the Democratic members of the House had stopped all public business by refusing to answer to their names and in- sisting that unless thev answered, although personally present, they could not be counted as making up a quorum. The amaze- ment with which the Democratic party observes that those rules are still in force must be greatly increased by the knowledge of the fact that the same rules were continued and enforced by the Democratic House under the Democratic Speaker, Mr. Crisp, when they succeeded to the Republican House over which Mr. Reed presided. "Tailors of Tooley Street." Consideration of the paramount issue now proposed by the Democracy, "Shall the people rule?" forces the conclusion that the draftsmen of the Democratic platform are to be acquitted of the ofifence of insulting the intelligence of the American people by a piece of cheap buncombe, only because they have fallen into the confusion which beset the three tailors of Tooley Street, 21 who began their proclamation, "We, the People of England," and that they think the people do not rule because they do not themselves rule. The Democratic platform assails the Republican National Administration for the increase in the number of office holder? and the great expenditures of the Government, which the plat- form characterizes as extravagant. It demands that the Na- tional Government should do a great variety of things which can be done only through the employment of numerous agents and the expenditure of great sums of money, but it declares the employ- ment of the agents and the expenditure of the money to be un- justifiable and extravagant. It gives specifically the number of office holders added and the number of million of dollars ex- pended, but is silent as to the work that has been accomplished. Nation's New Employees. In the numbers so given by the Democratic platform are included the carriers who deliver the mails upon the thirty-nine thousand rural free delivery routes. Would the Democratic party discharge them from office and stop the rural free delivery? If not, is it honest for their platform to invite the condemnation of the people for the addition of these thirty-nine thousand letter car- riers without disclosing what they are for? The increase of expense which they declare to be extravagant includes the cost of the Panama Canal. Would they stop work on the canal? If not, is it honest to include that cost in the figures of added expense which they call extravagance, and not disclose the purpose for which the expense was added? The employment of agents and the expenditure of money made necessary in the prosecution of trusts, the regulation of railroads, the prevention of rebates, the restoration of public lands, the conservation of natural resources, the regulation of immigration and of naturalization, the improve- ment of agriculture, the upbuilding of the navy, the extension of our foreign trade, all the vast activities of the National Govern- ment along thc^very lines that the Democratic party is insisting upon, are included in these figures which the Democratic platform charges as extravagance, without one word to indicate what is the fact, that full and necessary service was rendered by every additional officer and full value received for every dollar. Surplus in Treasury. The expenditures of the present Republican Administration fiave been well within the means of the country, and there re- 22 mains to it in the Treasury a surplus of revenues collected dur- ing this Administration over and above the expenditures. Every additional office holder employed and every dollar of increase of expenditure have been authorized by the direct representatives of the people of the United States in Congress as being wise expenditure in the public interest. Every dollar has been hon- estly expended in accordance with that authority, and in charging extravagance by a mere statement of the amount expended and the number of officers employed, without any reference to what was accomplished, the Democratic party must stand convicted of an attempt to mislead the people of the United States by the mere force of large figures. The Democratic platform charges also that the action of the present Chief Executive in using the patronage of his high office to secure the nomination of Mr. Taft to the Presidency is "a vio- lation of the spirit of our institutions." Is there a man of full age in the United States who does not know that the power which Mr. Roosevelt brought to the support of ]\Ir. Taft's can- didacy was not patronage, but his extraordinary and phenomenal popularity and leadership among the masses of the people of the country, a popularity of which Mr. Bryan is now attempting to secure the benefit by declaring himself Mr. Roosevelt's natural successor ? Roosevelt's Renunciation. Is there one who does not know that if Mr. Roosevelt had desired to perpetuate his power, he could have been nominated by raising his finger, and that his advocacy of Mr. Taft's nom- ination was because it was necessary for him to secure the nom- ination of some one in order to prevent his own nomination? Is there one who does not believe in his heart of hearts that the selection of Mr. Taft by Mr, Roosevelt as his candidate for the Presidency at the very moment when he himself was thrusting aside the Presidency, was with the honest purpose to secure the best possible administrator of the great policies that were dear to his heart? Is it to a dishonest purpose that Mr. Bryan claims to be the heir, and is it possible to ascribe a desire to perpetuate personal power to the man who held the highest power in his grasp and rejected it? It is but a short time since these same voices of detraction were charging the President with the purpose of usurping su- preme and perpetual authority for himself. Yet he has proved himself capable of a renunciation of power exceptional in history, and has contributed to our system of government a precedent 23 which forever sets a Umit upon the continuance of the Presiden- tial office. It is but a short time since these same voices were heard declaring that the President's character was so rashly belligerent that his Presidency would involve the country in certain war. Yet he has proved to be the greatest peacemaker of the generation. The Human Factor. Mr. Bryan charges that the Republican party is responsible for the abuses of corporate wealth. As well might he charge that the man who plants cotton is responsible for the boll weevil, or that the man who plants fruit trees is responsible for the San Jose scale. Until the millennium has brought the eradication of human selfishness and greed, social abuses will come according to the shifting conditions of the times. Adversity and prosperity, wealth and poverty have each their own kinds of abuse. Con- stant vigilance and constant activity to meet and put an end to abuses as they arise is the task of government and of good citi- zenship; but the work is never finished. The Republican party has produced the conditions which have made our great pros- perity possible, and it is dealing with the evils which have been incident to that prosperity with vigor and effectiveness. Upon the course to be pursued regarding these evils, upon the attitude and action of the Government towards trusts, railroads and all the great corporations, there is no substantial issue between the two parties. There are two substantial proposals made by the Democratic party as to the policy which they will follow if they are brought into power. Tariff for Revenue Only. One is that they wjUjwipe oulthe_:BIQte£tive_ta rifiF and su b- stitute a tariff for revenue only. I shall not discuss that propo- Siticjn, but it ought not to be forgotten. The eleven years which have passed since the Dingley tariff was enacted have brought about many changes in the conditions to which the tariff law is applied. Many of these changes have resulted from the very prosperity which the protection afforded by the tariff has pro- duced. In the nature of things, such changes must occur and from time to time every tariff must be revised and adapted to the new conditions. As the period of revision, however, is always one of uncertainty and a consequent injury to business, revisions ought not to be made too often or upon slight grounds. The 24 Republican party has not considered that sufficient grounds for thus disturbing business have existed heretofore. It now con- siders that sufficient grounds do now exist and it has pledged itself immediately after the 4th of March next to devote an extra- ordinary session of Congress to making such a revision in ac- cordance with the true principles of protection. One c f the ques- tions that must be determined by the coming election is whether we shall have such a revision, or whether we shall have the prin- ciple of protection abandoned and a new tariff enacted in accor- dance with the principles of free trade, and containing only such duties as are necessary to raise revenue for the support of the Government without any protective purpose. When Business Ceased. The last time the Democratic party was in power It attempted such a change of policy and the result was the Wilson-Gorman tariff of 1893. The very threat of such a proceeding at that time stopped business, closed the mills, threw millions of men out of employment, and was accompanied by universal business depres- sion and disaster. Are we ready to repeat that experience now, as we surely shall if we put the Democratic party in power? The other proposition of the Democratic platform is to re- quire all national banks to guarantee the payment of deposits by all other national banks. This is another patent financial nostrum, advertised to catch the fancy of the multi<^ude ; and it should be suppressed under the pure food law untix it is correctly labelled "a. measure to compel legitimate business to bear the risks of speculation." It might well be called a measure to destroy the national banking system, for who will wish to invest his money in a business where it is not merely subject to the risks assumed by the men whom he and his associates select to manage it, but is subject also to be called upon for the payment of "an unlimited amount of debts of an indefinite number of persons over whom and whose obligations he and his associates have no control what- ever? Bank Deposits A bank deposit is a very simple business transaction. The depositor in effect loans his money to the bank, which borrows it upon a promise to repay it on the lender's order, with or without a stipulated interest. Banks seldom fail to pay the debts thus contracted. Although the deposits are ordinarily many 25 times the capital, losses are exceedingly small. The principal reason why this is so is that bankers are ordinarily men who have established a good reputation in the community for honesty and business sense. People ordinarily will not risk their money by lending it to men who have not these claims to confidence. Under the law any one who can furnish $25,000 can start a bank, but in practice, as a rule, no one can start a bank who cannot also furnish a character which leads the community to trust him and deposit their money with him. If, however, the sound and honest banks of the country guarantee the debts of every bank, a well-earned reputation for honesty and business judgment will no longer be necessary as a part of the banker's capital. It will no longer be necessary for the community to consider whether a banker is honest or not. Any scalawag can start a bank and obtain deposits on the credit of all the banks of the country. Any one who wishes to use funds in speculative enterprises can start a bank, invite deposits and thus borrow money on the credit of the entire banking capital of the United States. With such op- portunities, who can doubt that the standard of character of the bankers of the country would deteriorate and the use of banking funds for speculative enterprises would increase and that the losses which the honest bankers would be required to make good would increase correspondingly. Depositors Would Suffer. This burden will fail not merely upon the stockholders of the banks, but upon the depositors also. Much banking capital v/ould inevitably be driven out of the business and such as re- mained would have to make good its losses by reducing the rate of interest to its depositors and increasing the rate of interest upon loans. The profits of the banking business, like those of Ihe merchant, the manufacturer and the farmer, depend upon good management. The attempt to make all the profits of good management bear all the losses of bad management is a step in the_ socialistic process which would level all d^istinctions between thrift, enterprise and sound judgment on the one hand, and recklessness, incapacity and failure on the other. Except for campaign purposes there is no occasion for any such scheme. The business men of the country need no guar- antee of bank deposits. They know with w^hom they are dealing when they select a bank for' deposits, and their intelligence and knowledge of afifairs are amply sufificient for their own protection in making the selection. The wage earners of the country, the multitude of people of small savings, not familiar with business, so far as they live in places where there are savings banks, have practically perfect safety for their deposits, and over eight and a half million of them are enjoying that safety now with a good rate of interest. For them, if they prefer it, and for all who live in places which arc not accessible to savings banks, the Repub- lican party proposes that the Government shall furnish absolute security through a postal savings bank, so that the wage earner can deposit his savings at the nearest post office and have the guarantee of the Government that it shall be returned; but that guarantee will be accompanied by the possession and control of the money itself, so that neither the depositor nor the Government can lose. This simple supplement to the banking and savings bank system meets every requirement, and, unlike the Democratic proposal, it has been proved safe and practicable by the expe- rience of many countries, and it violates no principle of sound finance or of common sense. Bryan Unqualified. What evidence of Democratic fitness to be entrusted with power is to be found in the record of its candidate for the Presi- dency? It is with profound satisfaction that we recognize the purity and uprightness of Mr. Bryan's character, and we cannot withhold our admiration from the skill and attractiveness of his oratory; but when a candidate for high office can furnish no evi- dence of fitness derived from the actual performance of official duty, and relies entirely upon what he proposes to do in the future, we must test, so far as we can, the soundness of his judg- iment by the substance of his proposals, hot by his manner of presenting them. It was skillful of Mr. Bryan to say that he is bound by the omissions of the Democratic platform as well as by what it con- tains; but who dictated the omissions as well as the platform? Can an omission of to-day wipe out public utterances of the past and remove them from memory as a basis for judgment upon the public man? The same eloquent voice which now with so much confidence is telling us how the Government ought to be con- ducted was heard in Mr. Bryan's candidacy of 1896 urging upon the American people as a panacea for all evils and an absolute necessity for our prosperity the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. Was he right then? Was 27 his judgment sound then? Would it have been wise for the people of the country to elect him President then in order to carry out the policy to which he was then devoted? Bryan's Former Issues. With the same confidence during his second candidacy he was heard to declare that the paramount issue before the Amer- ican people was that of Imperialism. Where is that issue now? However tired some Americans may be of the burden of the Philippines what must be our estimate of the political wisdom and sense of proportion for which in the year 1900 the so-called question of Imperialism filled the horizon and obscured the sky as the one paramount issue before the American people. On the 30th of August, 1906, Mr. Bryan announced upon his return from Europe, as the result of deliberate reflection, that Government ownership of railroads was the cure-all demanded by the public interest. "I have reached the conclusion," he declared, "that there will be no permanent relief on the railroad question from the discrimination between individuals and be- tween places, and from extortionate rates until the railroads are the propertv of the Government and are operated by the Government in the interest of the people." That declaration he has repeated many times in substance, Regulation of Railroads. The Republican party believes in the regulation of railroads. It believes that their managers ought to be made and can be made to obey the law. It believes that by an enforcement of the law, not spasmodic and sensational, but steady, firm and per- sistent, excessive and discriminating rates can be stopped; and it is now and has been for a considerable period engaged in such enforcement with marked efficiency and success. It pro- poses for the Presidency a candidate who declares his purpose to continue and complete that enforcement of the law and whose competency to do so with success has been proved. Mr. Bryan does not believe in the regulation of railroads. He does not believe it practicable. He regards it as bound to fail, although he is willing to criticise the Republican party for not accom- plishing that vast and complicated task all at once. It is natural to observe that if the people of the country 28 desire railroads to be regulated, and the laws regarding them to be enforced, it would be wise to entrust that regulation to Mr. Taft, who believes in regulation and has faith in the wisdom and effectiveness of the law, rather than in the hands of one who believes that all effort to regulate must prove futile. Bryan not Jeffersonian. The chief importance of this subject, however, rests in the light it throws upon the candidate's qualification for the Presiden- tial office. It is an essential characteristic of our system of government that it aims to afford individual opportunity for enterprise rather than to exercise paternal control. Americans have all felt from the earliest times that undue extension of governmental power threatened liberty and tended to dull the initiative which has made us great as a nation. It has been only upon the nost long continued consideration and with many doubts that we have yielded step by step to the enlargement of governmental regulation made necessary by the increasing com- plications of modern life and business. The apostle of the doc- trine that the functions of government should be confined within the narrowest possible limits was Thomas Jefferson, who e dis- ciple Mr. Bryan to-day professes to be. Under his inspiration the true Democratic party continually resisted the extension of governmental functions. It opposed the use of Government moneys for internal improvements. It opposed the building of the Pacific railroads. It opposed the National Bank act. It denied the right of the National Government to impose a pro- tective tariff. It has steadfastly maintained the broadest con- struction of State rights, and the narrowest construction of national rights. Bryan Paternalistic. Yet Mr. Bryan, while inscribing the name of Thomas Jeffer- son upon his standard, seriously proposes that the Federal Govern- ment shall not merely regulate the operations of railroads which are engaged in interstate commerce, but shall acquire and own and operate itself all the great railroads of the country. Con- sider for a moment the situation which would exist in the State of New York with the Federal Government owning and Federal officers in Washington controlling with all the rights of owner- ship the New York & New Haven, the New York Central, the West Shore, the Ontario & Western, the Delaware & Hudson, 29 the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, the Lehigh Val- ley, the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania railroads. Con- sider the situation in Illinois with the Government controlling all the railroads that concentrate in Chicago, in Missouri the railroads that center in St. Louis. Add to that Mr. Bryan's proposal that no great interstate business shall be transacted — and all great business is interstate business — without the permission of the Federal Government evi- denced by a license ; and you cannot fail to realize that he is pre- pared to see the State dwarfed into insignificance and the farmer, the miner, the manufacturer, the merchant, all individual enter- prise, not merely subject to Government restraint against wrong doing, but dependent upon the Government, and upon a cen- tralized Government at Washington for their very existence. That is not reform ; it is revolution. It is reversion to the ideas of paternal government from which America had happily escaped with her system of free individual opportunity and enterprise, and to the ideas out of which South America has been bravely struggling for a generation. And this is to be done in the name of Thomas Jefferson ! Are the Democrats Competent? Now Mr. Bryan proposes that under supervision of the Na- tional Government everybody shall provide for the payment of everybody else's debts by his bank deposit guaranty scheme. Is it prudent to place in his hands the great power of the Presidency; and above all is it wise to give to him, rather than to Mr. Taft, the experienced judge, the filling of the -four vacan- cies in the Supreme Court of the United States which may be expected during the next Administration? What is furnished by the record of the Democratic party at large to show that it is competent to maintain the prosperity we have, and execute the promises of reform it tenders? No proof whatever of that is offered. All the evidence we have is the other w^y. _ The majority of us have not yet forgotten the second Administration of Grover Cleveland, which ended only on the 4th of March, 1897. The Democracy then had its opportunity to show the world what it could do' with government, for it pos- sessed the Executive office, a majority of the Senate and a ma- jority of the House. Its opportunity to exercise that control for the public benefit was wasted. Discord and confusion reigned throughout the entire four years. Incapacity to reach practical 30 conclusions or to take any effective action was demonstrated. No promises were kept. No reforms were accomplished. How Democrats Hated th6ir Leader. It became apparent that the sole cohesive force that bound the Democratic party together was the desire for ofifice, and once in office, instead of progress, we had all factions ' pull- ing different ways, totally incapable of agreeing upon a common course of conduct. There was but one sentiment in which a majority of the Democratic majority could be united; that was in hatred of Mr. Cleveland, and they hated him for his virtues. His sturdy integrity and high courage, his sincere convictions and patriotic purpose, his experience in government and strong practical sense afforded a leadership under which a party capable of government could have done great things for the country. The Democratic party repudiated his leadership, and the very men who now control that party followed him to his grave with depreciation and detraction. Under that discordant Democracy the country drifted through years of commercial depression and disaster, poverty and distress, without effective government until the first election of McKinley and a Republican Congress placed the reins of power in the hands of a party competent to govern. Are the people of the United States ready to repeat that experience of Democratic government? 31 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 042 422 5