The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-17
deeds the achievement of real things, and
the winning of real victories?
TILE Ii DINO nIrE.crIONr

the guidance of Divine Providence, has
started the Republic on it's noblest career
of prosperity duty and glory; or shall the
American people rebuke that administra-
ton, reverse the wheels of history, halt the
career of the flag and turn to that purpose
less horde of criticism and carping that is
assailing the government at Washington.
Shall it be Mckinley, sound money and a
world-conquering commerce, or Bryan,
Bailey, Bland and Blackburn, a bastard
currency and a policy of comercial retreat?
In the only foreign war this Nation has had
IN two generations, Will you, the voters Of
this Republic and the guardians of its good
repute, give the other nations of the world
to understand that the American people do
not approve and indorse the administration
that conducted il? These are the questions
you must answer at the polls, and / We'll
know how you will answer them. The thun-
der of American guns at Santiago and Ma
Mia will find its answer in the approval of
the voters of the Republic. For the admir-
istration of William Mckinley in both
peace and war; will receive the mightiest
Endorsement of a grateful people ever reg
istered. In both peace and war, for we rely
on the new birth of national prosperity as
well as on the new birth of national glory.
Think of both, Think Of our country two
years ago and think Of it to-day!
Two years and more ago American labor
begged for work; to-day employment calls
for mine, factory and field Two years and
more ago money fled from the fingers of
as demand and interest is at the lowest
point in all the history of trade. Two years
and more ago bonds were sold to syndicates
in sudden emergencies to save the Nations
credit; in 1898, bonds were sold to the peo-
pie in the emergency of war, to rescue the
oppressed and redeem benighted lands. In
1896, we exported gold in obedience to the
natural laws of finance; in 1885, we export
bayonetS in obedience to the natural law
of liberty In 1894, the American people
fought each other in strikes and insurrec-
tionS because of misunderstanding born OF
the desperation of the times; in 1898, united
and resistless, capitalist and workingman,
side by SIDE in trench and charge, the
American people fought the last great pi-
rate of the world, in a war holy as right
eousness. Two years and more ago, error
blinded and hatred maddened men sought
to create classes among the people, de-
clared the decadence of American man
hood and proclaimed the beginning of the
patriots are the only class this country
knows that American manhood is as virile
under Santiago's sun as 1t was among the
SHOWS of Valley Forge, despite its SANDER
erS, and that the real career of history S
greatest Republic has only just begun.
A moment ago said that the .administra--
ton of William Mckinley had been guided
by a providence divine. That was no sacri-
legious sentence. The signature of events
proves 1t. This man OF destiny has amazed
the world He was nominated as the apes
tie of protection: in two months he was
the standard bearer Of the Nations honor.
He was elected as the representative of
two years he filled the world with the thun-
der of the Republics guns and the heavens
with the unfurled flag of liberty. This man,
whom the world regarded a single-issue
statesman, as a tariff-schedule expert, gave
to his countrymen the ableSt argument in
finance since Hamilton; rebuked the silver
pirates of the Senate with utterance rich
with the eloquence of truth; caught up the
tangled lines of a diplomatic situation
vexed with infinite complication and in
herited blunders; gave mankind noble eX-
ample of patient tact; taught the nations
their first lesson in the diplomacy of hon
est Speech refused to be stamDeded into
conflict until the thunderbolts of war were
forged; launched them at last when time
had sanctified our cause before the bar of
history and preparation had made them ir-
resistable; and now, in the hour of victory,
clear-eyed and unelate, marks out the lines
of our foreign policy as the soon-to-be SUI
preme power of the world, and gives to the
flag It's rightful dominion over the islands
of the sea. From protection to foreign war;
From the insular and isolated to the world
embracing and UNIVERSAL From the tempo
rary and incidental to the essential, the
permanent and the eternal! Who dareS say
Gods hand has not guided him? Who will
fail to say amen with his vote to the adj
ministration and career of the last Ameri-
can President of the nineteenth century
Mckinley, the master statesman of his
day!
What are the great facts of this admins
tration? Not failure of revenue, not a
perpetual battle between the executive and
legislative departments Of the government
not a rescue from dishonor by European
syndicates at the price of tens of millions
in cash and national humiliation unspeaka-
BILE. But a war has marked 1t, the most
holy ever waged by one nation against an
other a war for civilization; a war for a
permanent peace a war which. under God
although we knew it not in the beginning
has swung open to the Republic the por-
tails of the commerce of the world. And
the first question you must answer with
your vote is whether you indorse that war?
We are told that all citizens and every
platform indorse the war. and l admit,
With the joy of patriotism, that this is true.
Eut that is only among OurSelVeS-and We
are of and to ourselves no longer. This
election takes place on the stage of the
world, with all earths nations FOR our au-
ditors. If the administration is defeated at
the polls, will England believe that We
have accepted the results of the war? Will
Germany, that sleepless searcher for new
markets for her factories and fields, and
therefore the effective meddler in all inter-
national complications-will Germany be
discouraged from interfering with our set
tlement of the war, if the administration is
defeated at the polls? Will Russia, that
weaver of the webs of commerce into which
province after province and people after
People falls, regard us as a SteadTaSt peO-
pie if the administration is defeate at the
polls? The world is observing US to-day.
Not a foreign office in Europe that is not
ing the American elections Of 1898 as 1T
never watched an American election before?
Are the American people the chameleon of
the nations? IF so, we can easily handle
them" say the diplomats of the world
" hich result, say you, Will have the best
effect for us upon the great powers that
watch us with the jealousy strength always
ilspires-a defeat at the hands of the Amer
lean people of the administration which has
conducted our foreign war to a World-em-
bracing success, and which has in hand the
most important foreign problems since the
revolution, or, such an Endorsement OF the
administration by the American people as
will swell to national acclaim? No mat
ter what your views on the Dingley or the
Wilson laws; no matter whether you favor
Mexican money or the standard of this Re-
public: we must deal from this day on With
nations greedy of every market we are to
invade; nations with statesmen trained in
craft: nations with ships and guns and
money and men. Will they sift out the
the large result of the Endorsement, or re-
buke of the administration? | repeat, 1t is
more than a party question 1t is an Amer
lean question. 1t is an issue in which his
tory sleeps. 1t = a situation which will
influence the destiny of the Republic.
There is an issue in the war which affects
ourselves. Shall we indorse the admins
tratiOn on the conduct of the war? What
ley was too slow; he waited still. Politi-
clans willing to buy votes with some other
mans blood, called him coward; unmoved,
the President pleaded with Spain TO let tin"
oppressed go. BaSS-drum orators ard
bowie-knfe editors denounced him dis apos
tate to liberty: he silently held his course.
A great party's unWise leaders Lifted the
slogan of ''On to Havana. before the hour
had struck, the chief magistrate pursued the
policies of peace. But while, in and out of
his party, men, powder-brained and POLITICS
mad, stormed while a solid opposition de-
nounced; while the world looked on with