The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-20

ever forward We are not so made that
we can be content to retreat, or TO mark
time The traditions of the early days of
our party are sacred to US. and are nos
tages given to the American people that
we will not be unworthy of the great
leaders who have gone. The deeds of yes
terday are IN their turn a pledge ana a
proof of what we promise We perform ana
that the people who put faith in our dec
laratiOns in 1896 were not deceived and
may place the same trust IN US IN lSJO-
But our pathway has never lain among
dead issues, nor have we won our victor
les and made history by delving in pOliti-
cal graveyards. We are the party of to-
day with cheerful yesterdays and confl-
dent tomorrows The living present is
ours. the present of prosperity and activ-
ity in business, of good wages and quick
payments of labor employed, and capt
tai invested, of sunshine in the market
place and the stir of Astounding life in the
workshop and on the farm. 1t is with
this that we nave replaced the depression,
the doubts, the dull business, the low
wages. the idle labor, the frightened cap
ital the dark clouds which overhung in
dustry and agriculture IN 1896 IhlS Is
what we would preserve, so far as sound
government and wise legislation can do
it. This is what we brought to the cOun-
now. Again We promise that the protec-
tive system shall be maintained and that
their way mistaken by the dire fear of
tariff agitation and of changing duties.
Again we declare that we viii guard the
national credit uphold sound currency
based on gold, and keep the wages of the
working men, and the enterprise of the
man Of business, free from that most
deadly of all evils. fiuctuating standard
of value. The deficit which made this
great country in a time of profound peace
a borrower of money to meet its current
expenditures has been replaced by abund-
ant revenue bringing surplus due alike
to prosperity and to wise legislation, so
ample that can now safely promise
a large reduction of taxation without I'M
periling our credit or risking a resort to
We are prepared to take steps to re-
vive and build up our merchant marine,
and thus put into American pockets the
money paid for carrying American
freights. Out of the abundant resources.
which our financial legislation has
brought us. we will build the Isthmian
canal and lay the cable which will help
to turn the current of eastern trade to the
Golden Gate We are on good terms with
all nations, and mean to remain so, while
we promise to insure our peace and safety
by maintaining the Monroe doctrine by
ample coast defenses, and by building up
a navy which no one can challenge with
impunity
The new problems brought by the war
we face with confidence in ourselves and
a still deeper. confidence in the American
people, who viii deal justly and rightly
with the islands which have come into
their charge. The Outcry against our new
possessions is as empty, as the cant about
militarism and imperialism - is devoid
of sense and meaning. Regard for a mo-
ment those who are lOudest in shriel1ing
! that the American people are about to
enter upon a career of oppression and that
the republic is in danger Have they been
/ safety for liberty now to be found most
/ surely in the party which was the de-
/ fender of domestic slavery Is the free
/ dom to be secured by the ascendaucy of
/ the party which beneath our very eyes
seeks to establish through Infamous laws
/ the despotic rule of a small and unscrup-
/ ulOus band of uSurperS in Kentucky who
/ trampled there not upon the rights Of
the black men only, but of the whites,
and which seeks to extend the same sys-
tenn to North Carolina and Missouri? Has
/ it suddenly come to pass that the Demo
cratic party which today aims whenever
! il acquires power to continue in office by
/ crushing out honest elections and pOpu-
/ lar rule: has it indeed come to pass, say
! that that party is the chosen protector OF
] liberty2 If it were so the outlook would
| be black indeed. No. The party of Lincoln
may best be trusted now, as in the past
/ to be true even as he was true, to the
rights of man and to human freedom
/ whether within the borders of the United
/ States or in the Islands which have come
! beneath our flag. The hberatOrs may b
trusted to watch over the liberated. We
I who freed Cuba Will keep the pledge We
made to her and will guide her along the
l road to independence and stable govern
| ment until she is ready to settle her OWL
] future by the free expression OF her peo-
/ pies Will We viii be faithful to the trus
| imposed upon us and if among those tC
/ whom this great work is confined in Cuba
I or elsewhere, wrongdoers shall be found
men not only bad in morals. but dead &
I their Cuty as Americans and false to the
] honor of our name, we Will punish those