Tariff laws should be amended by putting the products of trusts upon the free list, to prevent monopoly under the plea of protection.
The failure of the present Republican administration, with an absolute control over all the branches of the national government, to enact any legislation designed to prevent or even curtail the absorbing power of trusts and illegal com binations, or to enforce the anti-trust laws already on the statute books, _proves the insincerity of the high-sounding phrases of the Republican platform.
Corporations should be protected in all their rights, and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations to interfere with public affairs of the people or to control the sovereignty which creates them Should be forbidden under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible.
We condemn the Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding measure, skilfully devised to give the few favors which they do not deserve and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear.
We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the inter state commerce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminations and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.
It will be seen that the question of imperial ism was made the paramount issue, the trust question coming next in the amount of attention given to it, The convention, however, re affirmed the principles embodied in the Chicago platform, and reiterated the position taken four years before on the money question and on several other questions.
Mr. Bryan was renominated and Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois was placed upon the ticket as the candidate for Vice-President. This ticket was endorsed later by the People's Party convention, and by the Silver Republi can convention, both of which parties adopted .platforms in line with the Democratic platform upon the leading issues. The Democratic ticket was also endorsed by the Anti-imperalists.
While the Democrats tried to focus public attention .upon the menace of imperialism, the Republicans said: "Let well enough alone," and credited the improved conditions of the peo ple in part to the gold standard and in part to the high-tariff law enacted in 1898. They pro tested against any change in the financial laws or the tariff law, and denied that they intended any departure from the principles of free gov ernment.
The Republican ticket, headed by President McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt of New York, was again successful, the popular plurality being 849,455. The • electoral vote stood, Mc Kinley and Roosevelt 292; Bryan and Stevenson 155. The campaign of 1900 did not excite as much interest as the preceding campaign. In 1904 Alton B. Parker of New York was norni nated for President, with Henry G. Davis of West Virginia for Vice-President. In this elec tion the party practically reversed its previous position on the money question. The Republi can party, with a ticket headed by President Roosevelt, was again successful, the electoral vote standing 336 to 140.
While Roosevelt's popular vote and popular majority were the largest ever recorded for any President up to that time, it is remarkable, and indicative of the increasing independence of the voters, that five States which gave Roosevelt large majorities elected Democratic governors: Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, and Montana. The same zeal for thorough going reform and an appreciation of the per sonal character of candidates has greatly af fected State and municipal elections, resulting in the overthrow of bosses and machines and a permanent elevation of popular political standards for parties and for administration.
The principal declarations in the platform of the Democratic party, adopted at Saint Louis, Mo., 8 July 1904, were: In favor of laws giving labor and capital impartially their just rights; trial by jury in cases of indirect contempts in Federal Courts; liberal appropriations for the improve ment of waterways; economy of administration, without impairing efficiency of any branch of the government; and the enforcement of honesty in public service; Condemning the action of the Republican party in Congress in refusing to prohibit an executive department from entering into contracts with convicted trusts or unlaw ful combinations in restraint of interstate trade, and in favor of " Jeffersonian simplicity of living" on the part of public officials; against " executive usurpation of legislative and judicial functions " by the President; preservation of an open door for the world's commerce in the Orient without any unnecessary entanglement in Oriental and European affairs, and without arbitrary, unhanded, irrosponsible and absolute government anywhere within our jurisdiction," against " an indefinite, irresponsible, discre tionary and vague absolutism and a policy of colonial ex ploitation "; and against making one set of laws for those " at home " and a different set of laws for those " in the colonies"; Against tariff legislation that " robs the many to enrich the few," and in favor of a tariff limited to the needs of the Government, economically administered, and so levied as not to discriminate against any industry, class or section; a gradual reduction of the tariff, against private monopoly. and in favor of individual equality of opportunity and free competition; against rebates and discrimination by trans portation companies; and in favor of an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, reclama tion of arid lands in the West, no land monopoly, the speedy construction of the Panama Canal, and the election of U. S. Senators by direct vote of the people; Condemnation of polygamy within the jurisdiction of the United States, and also of the ship subsidy bill passed by the United States Senate; and in favor of upbuilding a merchant marine, liberal trade arrangements with Canada, the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, a reduction of the army, generous pensions, and civil service reform.