The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-03
The REP PLATFORM
The Radicals Actually De-
clare Against Trusts
They Endorse RusselI's Administration Instructs
For Mckinley And Denounce
The Amendment
The Amendment

The Amendment
Following is the material part OF
the platform adopted by the Republi-
can State convention here yesterday:
We reaffirm our allegiance to the prin-
ciples of the Republican Party as set
forth in the national platform of 1896.
We endorse without condition and with
enthusiasm the Administration of Presi-
dent Mckinley, and we instruct our dele
gates to vote for his nomination.
Every sound that greets the ear, and
every sight that meets the eye, is an
argument in favor of the continuance of
Republican policies now in successful and
benaficient operation throughout this
broad land. AS if by magic despair has
given place to joy, distress has been con-
verified into prosperity, and no section has
been more signally benefited than the
South, and no part of the South more
benefited than North Carolina.
The Democrats in our own State are
left absolutely without cause of COM
plant against the National Administra-
ton, and have been compelled to resurrect
the ghost of negro domination in order to
distract public attention, and if possible,
prevent our people from endorsing at the
poles the splendid achievements of Will
liam Mckinley in the execution of Repub-
lican policies at home and abroad.
In spite of the official records which
show that there has been on negro domi-
nation, and no possibility of negro domi-
nation in the State or in any of its coun~
ties, during the past quarter of a century,
the Democratic leaders have determined
to wage the coming campaign upon the
race issue alone, and they go before the
people with scheme of disfranchise-
ment which is the most impudent assault
upon the Constitution of the United
States, and the most shocking act of
party perfidy ever attempted by men who
recognize the obligation of an oath or the
sanctity Of public pledge.
We denounce, with indignation and alb
horrence, the Democratic proposition that
the right to vote should be made de-
pendent upon heredity and thus build up
an aristocracy of birth upon the ruins of
free government.
We denounce the frauds. robberies, vio-
lence and intimidation by means of
last election. We point to the exposure
Of these unlawful methods in the contest
election cases from the Sixth and Ninth
Congressional districts now pending in
the House of Representatives. and We
confidently appeal to that body to set
the seal of condemnation upon these
crimes against the ballot box, which If
unpublished at home and unrebuked by
olc c
into a mockery and farce.
The administration of the affairs of the
State and Of the several counties, during
four years of Republican ascendency, has
been scrupulously clean, faithful and
economical.
During this period the credit of the
State, as shown by the market value of
its bonds, has reached the highest point
known in our history, and we challenge a
comparison of this record with that of the
Democracy during any like period.
We are opposed to combinations of capt.
tai whenever they become Obstructive of
rights of individual citizens, and such
combinations should be suppressed by
adequate statutes enacted by the legisla-
lures of the several States, or by Con-
gress if the resulting evils are beyond
the power and jurisdiction Of the States.
The Republican party has always fost-
cred popular education, that party en-
grated in the organic law of the State
the mandatory requirements providing
public schools for both whites and blacks,
but that party will never brand ignorance
as a crime whose penalty is disfranchise-
ment, so long as the cause OF that ignor-
ance is the neglect of the State. And
we do not believe that any man, with the
natural instincts of father, will vote to
disfranchise his offspring and degrade
them to the level of felon simply be-
cause he or his State has failed to edu-
cate such offspring, or because Providence
has afflicted them with physical blindness
for which this wicked scheme makes no
exemption. We can only judge the flu
ture by the past; this is especially true
when we study the value of Democratic
promises in the light of their perform
ances. They tell us that they are the
devoted friends of education; that their
candidate for Governor is it's especial
champion. The impartial hand of his
tory points to their record from 1870 to
1895, during which period they had unin-
terrupted control of the Legislature, and
during that quarter of century the num-
Der of illiterate white voters instead of
diminishing actually increased by more
than twenty thousand, being an average
of about one thousand a year. The fig
ures Of the census show the number of
illiterate white voters in North Carolina
was in
1870. -. 49,. !. .. .... 3d. Ill
$780,. :. :. ;. :. :. ;. ;. :. :. ;. "A, APO
$780,. .... ;. :. ;. :. :. :. ;. ;. 1850
BY the census of 1890 the number of
white voters, who could read, but could
not write, was $4,000.
So that the total number of white
voters liable to be disfranchsed is 3d. $40.
(Here the original draft of the platform
contained these words: Number of white
voters liable to be disfranchised, $4,000"
This was stricken out before the plat
form was read to the convention.)
How then can we trust these Demo-
cratic leaders to wipe out illiteracy even
among the whites within the next eight
years, when their first step is to throw
away 100000 a year of the schoo! fund
heretofore derived from the poll tax.
With such a record in the past, how can
any man expect their promises to be re-