At the Democratic convention held at Balti more, 25 June-2 July 1912, 46 ballots were taken, the first ballot for the four leading candidates resulting: Champ Clark, Missouri, 440%; Woodrow Wilson, New Jersey, 324; Judson Harmon, Ohio, 148; Oscar W. Under wood, Alabama, 117%; the final ballot, Wood row Wilson, 990; Champ Clark, 84; Judson Harmon, 12; Thomas R. Marshall, Indiana, was nominated for Vice-President. The Re publican party renominated as President, Wil liam Howard Taft, Ohio, and nominated as Vice-President, Nicholas Murray Butler, New York. The Progressive party nominated Theo dore Roosevelt, New York, for President and Hiram W. Johnson, California, for Vice-Presi dent. Eugene V. Debs, Indiana, as President with Emil Seidl, Wisconsin, as Vice-President were nominated by the Socialist party; Eugene W. Chafin, Ariz., as President and Aaron S. Watkins, as Vice-President by the Prohibitionist party; and Arthur E. Reimer, Massachusetts, President, August Gilhaus, New York, Vice-President, by the Socialist Labor party. The results of the election were as follows: Woodrow Wilson received a plurality vote of 2,173,519; the figures being Woodrow Wilson, 6,193,019; William H. Taft, 3,484,956; Theodore Roosevelt, 4,119,507; Eugene V. Debs, 901,873; Eugene W. Chafin, 207,928; Arthur E. Reimer, 29,259. Among the chief declarations in the National platform of the Democratic party, adopted at Baltimore, Md., 2 July 1912, were those on tariff reform; cur rency reform; on the enforcement of the anti trust law ; on income tax and popular election of senators; on Republican extravagance through oppressive taxation; on the establish ment of rural credits; a redeclaration from the platform of 1908 on the rights of labor; the conservation of national resources; on law re form; and the policy toward the Philippines. Attention was also called to the fact that The Democratic Party's demand for a return to the rule of the people, expressed in the National platform four years ago, has now become the accepted doctrine of a large major ity of the electors. We again remind the country that only by the larger exercise of the reserved power of the people can they preserve themselves from the misuse of delegated power and the usurpation of governmental instrumentalities by special interests. For this reason the National conven tion insisted on the overthrow of Cannomsm and the inaugu ration of a system by which United States senators could be elected by direct vote. The Democratic party offered itself to the country as an agency through which the com plete overthrow and extirpation of corruption, fraud and machine rule in American politics can be effected, At the Democratic National Convention held at Saint Louis, Mo., June 14-16, 1916, Presi dent Wilson and Vice-President Marshall were renominated by acclamation. The Republican party nominated Charles E. Hughes, New York, and Charles W. Fairbanks, Indiana, respec tively, for President and Vice-President. The election resulted with a vote of 581, 941 for Wilson, the figures being Woodrow Wilson, New Jersey, Democrat, 9,129,269; Charles E. Huhes, New York, Republican, 8,547,328; Allen J. Bensen, New York, Socialist, 590,579 ; J. Frank Hanly, Indiana, Prohibitionist, 221,329; Arthur E. Reimer, Massachusetts, Socialist Labor, 14,180.
Endorsing the administration of Woodrow Wilson as the best exposition of sound Demo cratic policy ever displayed at home and abroad, the National Convention at Saint Louis, Mo., 16 June 1916, adopted a declaration which challenged a comparison of the record of the party in keeping pledges and in constructive legislation, with those of any party at any time. The achievements wrought by four years of Democratic administration were summarized, and for the further conduct of national affairs the policies to which the party committed itself included: Economic freedom to remove so far as possible every remaining element of unrest and uncertainty from the path of the business men of America; an unreserved endorsement of the Underwood tariff law as the best means for providing sufficient revenue for the economical administration and operation of the Govern ment ; the development of Americanism, sum moning all men of whatever origin or creed who would count themselves American, to join in making clear to all the world the unity and consequent power of America; industrial pre paredness as preparedness to maintain peace and to ensure the same respect for its rights as the nation extends to the rights of other powers ; to make the honor and ideals of the United States a standard for international re lations alike in negotiation and action; to con tinue the promotion of the Pan-American Con cord, the friendly relations between the peo ple of the Western Hemisphere; the develop ment of the merchant marine ; of agriculture and betterment of the farmer ; the construction of good roads ; the extension of the franchise to the women of the country by the States upon the same terms as to men; the pro tection and preservation . of the sacred right of Atnerican citizenship at home and abroad; the modern principles of prison reform to be applied in the Federal penal system. The conclusion of the declaration summarized as follows: This is a critical hour in the history of America, a critical hour in the history of the world. Upon its record, which shows great constructive achievement in following out a consistent policy for our domestic and internal development, upon the word of the Democratic administration, which maintained the honor, the dignity and the interests of the United States and at the same tune retained the respect and friendship of all the nations of the world, and upon the great policies for the future strengthening of the life of our country. the enlargement of our national vision and the
ennobling of our international relations, we appeal with confidence to the voters of the country.
In the President's armed neutrality message delivered in a personal address to Congress 26 Feb. 1917 he said in part: Since it has unhappily proved impossible to safeguard our neutral rights by diplomatic means against the unwar ranted infringements they are suffering at the hands of Germany, there may be no recourse but to armed neutrality, which we shall know how to maintain and for which there is abundant American precedent. It is devoutly to be hoped that it will not be to put armed forces anywhere into action. The American people do not desire it, and our desire is not different from theirs. I am sure that they will understand the spirit in which I am now acting, the purpose I hold nearest my heart and would wish to exhibit in everything I do. . . . No course of my choosing or of theirs will lead to war. War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of others.
In the President's address to Congress, de livered at a joint session of the two Houses 2 April 1917, the reasons for entering the World War were stated as follows: The present German submarine warfare against com merce is a warfare against mankind.. . . It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, Amer ican lives taken in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for our selves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single cham pion. . . . When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutral ity, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping. it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations have assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances. grim necessity, indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The Govern ment denies the rights of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defence of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend. The intimation is con veyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond thepale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circum stances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making; we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life. . . . Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves, but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our opera tions as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. . . . It is a distressing and oppressive duty. Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To sucn a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, every thing that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when Amer ica is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other" . . .