The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-07-27

dressed the opening session of the ma
tional convention of Republican league
clubs He gave a mastery review of the
events since the last presidential cam
paign and presented clear and concise
comparison of the records and aims of
the Republican and Democratic parties
during. those troublous times. He said:
I'm 1892 the American people, in the
midst of prosperity and good times, under
the promise and with the expectation of
still greater prosperity and still better
times, saw fit to take the administration
of national affairs from the hands %
The Republican party and place it in the
hands of the Democratic party.
ION March 4, 1898, the Democratic party
had, for the first time since 1861, full
control of the government, both through
the executive ard the legislative depart
ments The reforms and measures of re-
lief promised by the Democratic party
in 1892 were, in performance, confined
chiefly to two schemes: The enactment
of the Wilson-Gorman tariff law and re-
placing all Republican officials with Dem
ocrats and fastening the latter on the
public service permanently by an ex-
tended application of the civil service
''In the wake of the Democratic admin
istration- speeded, aggravated and swollen
by it-came the Industrial and financial
panic and stagnation of 1893 and the three
following years. Neither the change of
off1ceholders nor the Wilson-G German law
furnished relief nor proved palliative
The law, instead of relieving, measur-
ably intensified and prolonged the in
dustrial stagnation, and by failing to fur
nish a sufficiency of revenue was largely
instrumental in bringing about the great
gold Withdrawals from the treasury in
1S93-4-j, which led to the great financial
panic and congestion during that period
and forced President Cleveland, for the
purpose of maintaining the integrity of
our currency and of securing the neces-
sary revenue for the wants of the gov
eminent, to increase our bonded indebted
ness to the extent of $685., 100000. The
only legislative palliative afforded to stay
the panic and uphold the credit of the
government was the law repeating the
silver purchasing clause of the act of
1880, and the passage of this law was ac-
complished through the efforts of a united
Republican party and a few Democrats
who arose to thes occasion and were
greater than the main body of their
party. With this law and abundant
revenue there would, in all likelihood.
have been no occasion to make such ex-
tensive loans, but with a deficiency of rev.
enue loans We're Inevitable and, neces
sity for the vitality of our currency.
And it was only because of the existence
OF the refunding and resumption acts on
the statute books, passed by the Repub-
ican party in congress, that these loans
could be made. The Republican party
can claim the credit for these acts and
for the act of 1893, repeating the pro-
vision for the purchase of silver. and If
was with these Republican weapons that
cleveland was enabled to partially STAY
the financial panic, to maintain our cur
rency on parity with gold, and to pre-
vent the country from falling into a
state of silver monometallism. But in
all his efforts in this direction he neither
mad the support nor sympathy of his
party or its leaders in congress
-Four years ago, though then slightly
convalescent, we were still suffering from
the effects of
The Hard Times
which had come upon us and had been
with US since 1903. There was still in
dustrial and financial stagnation; facto-
ries and furnaces, mills and shops. were
still closed or on reduced time. Laborers
and employees were still idle or working at
reduced wages and reduced hours Money
was still scarce in active use, and was in
hiding, partly for lack of profitable in
Vestment, but chiefly because of the dread
of threatened silver monometallism and
CONSEQUENT financial ruin.
1t was at this juncture and under these
conditions that the Democratic party
again offered its services to the country.
and it offered as the cure-all for the in
dustrial and financial distress then pre-
vailing the remedy of the free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver at the ratio of 16
to l. without regard to what any other
country might do in the premises
'On this subject, as well as on the tariff
question, the Republican party took Is
sue, and maintained that the only way in
which the financial and industrial distress
could be relieved and prosperity restored
was by a tariff law affording adequate
protection and adequate revenue, and by
financial legislation settling once for all
that our currency should, under all con-
ditions and at all times, be maintained on
a parity with gold-the money standard
of all the commercial and enlightened ma
tons Of the world.
ION these issues the American people
found emphatically in favor of the Re-
publican party four years ago, and they
have had no occasion to regret their ac-
ton since that time. The financial and
tariff legislation which was promised by
the Republican party and which was so
necessary to restore confidence and pros