Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-19
MAKES A SOLID PLATFORM
Democracy Arraigned for Its Record of
1n%Competency.
DEVOTION TO PROTECTION ReAFFIRMED
UncGuivocnI Declaration In Regard to
the Money Systcm-Sympathy with
the Struggling Insurgents
of Cuba Expressed.

CONVENTION HALL, ST. LOUIS, June
1S.-The platform adopted by the convention
upon which the republican party will make
the campaign of the present year was finally
ratified by an overwhelming majority
shortly after noon today. The silver men
made an emphatic but useless protest against
the gold standard plank and have given to
the press an address in which their views
are expressed at length.
The platform is, If anything, longer than
usual. 1t arraigns the democratic admins
tration of the past four years for its in
efficient policy and holds it responsible for
the demoralized condition of American in
dustry, for the panic-stricken condition OF
commercial interests and for the large in
crease in the Understanding debt. Protec-
ton and reciprocity are affirmed at length,
the Monroe doctrine extolled, and a firm
foreign policy advocated. Sympathy with
the Cubans is expressed in a guarded man
ner.
The most interesting feature of the plat
form is the gold standard plank. The hos
tility of the party to the free coinage of
silver is pledged, but at the same time the
platform commits the party to an earnest
effort to bring about a recognition of silver
by an International agreement.
The full text of the platform follows:
The republicans of the United States, as
sembled by their representatives in national
convention. appealing for the popular and
the matchless achievements of thirty years
o., republican rule, earnestly ana confidently
address themselves to the awakened in
teiligence, experience, and conscience of
their countrymen in the following declara-
ton of facts and principles;
For the first time since the civil war the
american people nave Witnessed the
calamitous consequences of full and UNI
restricted democratic control of the govern,
ment. III has been Il record of unparalleled
dishonesty, dishonor and disaster. In adj
ministrative management it has ruthlessly
an unceasing deficit, ekcd out ordinary
current expenses with borrowed money,
piled piled u up the public }ordnd debt d by $262, Goa, 600 in
trade, kept n perpetual menace hanging over
the redemption fund, pawned American
credit to alien syndicates and reversed all
the measures and results of successful re-
publican rule. In the broad effect of its
policy 1t has precipitated panic, bIighted
sion, closed factories, reduced work and
wages, halted enterprise and crippled
foreign production for the American market.
Every consideration OF public safety and
ment shall be rescued from the hands of
those who have shown themselves in
capable of conducting It without disaster
to the party which for thirty years ad-
1t with unequaled prosperity and
safety. And in this connection we heartily
endorse the wisdom. patriotism and the
success of the administration of President
Harrison.
PROTECTION AND RECIPROCITY.
We renew and emphasize our allegiance
to the policy of protection as the bulwark
Of American industrial independence and
a ahe p2osperitY' # Thi Am ,Tad Hms ag,yeIoP nn1iGt
home Industry and it puts Che burden of
American market for the American pro-
Queer; it upholds the American standard
1t puts the factory by the side of the farm
and makes the American farmer less de-
on foreign demand and price; 1t
general thrift, and POUNDS the
strength of all on the strength of each. In
its reasonable application 1t is Just. fair
and impartial, equally opposed; 10 foreign
and domestic monopoly; to sectional
discrimination and individual favoritism.
We d%enounce the present democratic tariff
as sectional, injurious to the public credit
and destructive to business enterprise. We
demand such an equitable tariff on foreign
American products as will not only furnish
revenue for the necessary ex-
of the government but will protect
level OF other lands. We are not
pledged to any particular schedules. The
of rates is IA practical question to |
be governed by the conditions of the time
and of. production, the ruling and uncom-
principle Is the protection and
try. The country demands n right settle
and then ii wants rest.
We believe the repeal of the reciprocity
arrangements negotiated by the last repub-
lean administration was n national caiam-
lty. and we demand their renewal and ex-
tension on such terms as VIII equalize our
with other nations, remove the re-
strictions which now obstruct the sale of
American products in the ports of those
countries and secure enlarged markets for
the. products of our farms, forests and
Protection and reciprocity are twin meas
uies OF republican policy, and go hand i'm
:and. Democratic rule has rccklessly struck
both, and both must be re-estab!ished,
for what We produce; free adj
for the necessaries of life which we
do not produce; reciprocal agreements of