The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-20
Senator Lodge Expresses SOr-
row For the Opposition
In His Speech Assuming Per-
manent Craftsmanship.
POINTS WITH PRIDE
To the Record of His Own Party
For Four Years.
Great Events With Which They
Have Been Crowded.

Philadelphia, June 2O.-In assuming
the permanent craftsmanship of the |
Republican national convention this af-
ternoon Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of |
Massachusetts spoke as follows:
Senator Lodge said:
One of the greatest honors that can fall |
10 any American in public life IS to be /
called to preside over a Republican ma |
tional convention. How great that honor |
IS you know, but you not realize, nor |
can express me sra1tuue, WIllcn l LSel
70 you for haYing conferred II upon me. /
can only say to you. in the simplest /
phrase, that 1 thank you from the bottom
OF my heart .Beggar that am, am /
even poor in thanks. and yet thank |
you"
We meet again to nominate the next |
president of the United States. -Four |
years have passed since we nominated the |
soldier and statesman who is now presi- |
dent and who is soon TO enter upon his |
second term. Since the Civil war no
presidential term has been so crowded |
with great events as that which is now
drawing TO "A close. They have been four
memorable wears To Republicans they
show a record of promises kept. of work
done. OF unforeseen questions met and an
svvered. 10 the Democrats they have been
generous in the exhibition of unfultilled
predictions, in the ruin of their hopes of
calamity and in futile opposition to the
forces of the times and the aspirations of
the American people. j wish l could add
that they had been equally instructive to
the Democrats. like the Bourbons, learn
nothing, it is only too evident that the
for they forget a great deal which 1t
would be well for them to remember.
In 1897 we took the government and the
country from the hands of President
Cleveland His party had abandoned him
and were Joined to their idols, of which
he was no longer one. During the last
years Of his term We had presented to us
the. melancholy spectacle Of president
trying to govern without party Ihe re-
suit was that his policies were in ruin,
legislation was at a standstiH and public
affairs ere in perilous and incoherent
condition. Party responsibilities had van
ished and with il all possibility of intellt-
gent action demanded by the country at
home and abroad. 1t was an interesting,
but by no means singular display of Dem
ocratic unftness for the practical work of
government. To the political student it
was instructive, to the country it was
extremely painful, to business disastrous
We replaced this political chaos with a
president in thorough accord with his par
" and the machinery of government be-
~. Thus, we kept at once our promise of
better and more efficient administration.
In four months after the inauguration of
President Mckinley we had passed a tariff
bill. For ten years the artificial agitation
IN behalf of what was humOrously called
tarlu reform, and OF what was really free
trade, had kept business In ferment, and
had brought a treasury deficit, paralyzed
industries, depression, panic ana hnally
continuous bad times to a degree never
before imagined. Would you know the re-
suit Oh our tarlH legislation, look ABOUT
you Would you measure its success, rec
ollect that 1t is no longer an issue, that
our opponents, free traders as they are,
do not dare to make it an issue, that there
is not a state in the Union today which
could be carried for free trade against
protection. Never was policy more fully
justified by its works, never was prom
fulfilled.
Dominant among the issues of four
years ago was that Of our monetary and
financial system. The Republican party
promised to uphold our credit, to protect
our currency from revolution and to MAIN
tain the gold standard. We have done
so. We have done more. We have been
better than our promise. Failing to Sc
n hon OFT. 700
ment for international bimetallism, We
have passed a law strengthening the gold
standard and planting it more firmly than
ever in our financial system improving
our banking laws, buttressing our credit
and refunding the public debt at two
per cent interest the lowest rate in the
world. 1t was a great work well done.
The only argument the Democrats can ad-
vance today in their own behalf on the
money question is that a Republican SEN
ate, in the event Of Democratic success,
would not permit the repeal OF a Repuh-
ucan law. This is precious argument,
when looked with considerable eyes. and
quite worthy OF the tntellects which pro-
duced. Apply it generally. Upon this
theory because we have defeated the SOL
oilers of Spain and sunk her ships we can
with safety dispense with the army and
the navy which did the work. Take an
other example. There has been a fire in
a great city; 1t has been checked and ex-
unguished. therefore let us abolish the
fire department and cease to insure our
hopes. DistruSt in currency, the
dread of change, the deadly fear of de-
based standard were raging four years
them. Republican supremacy and Repub-
llcan legislation have distinguished the
risen triumphant from the ashes There
fore abolish your fire department, turn
out the Republicans and put in power the
incendiaries who lighted the flames and
trust what remains of Republican control
to avert fresh disaster. The proposition
IS It's Own reputation. The supremacy OF
the party that has saved the standard OF
sound money and guarded it by law is as
necessary for its security and for the eX-
istence Of honest wages and of business
confidence now as it was in 1895. The mo-
ment the Republican party passes from
power and the party of free silver and
nat paper comes in, stable currency anC
the gold standard the standard of the
civilized world are in imminent and dead
~ peril. Sound currency and a steady
Republican hands.
But there were stin other questions II
1895. We had already thwarted the eff
forts OF the Cleveland administration t
thrown the Hawaiian islands back to thei
dethroned queen and TO give England :
foothold for her cables in the group. w
then said that We would settle finally tn,
Hawaiian question. We have done so
The traditional American policy has beer
carried out. The flag of the Union foat
today over the crossroads of the Pacific
We promised TO deal with the Cuban
question Again comes the reply, We haV
done So Ihe long agony of the island
Is over Cubas is free But this grea
work brought with it events and Issues
which no man had foreseen for which M
party creed had provided a policy. Tn
crisis came, bringing war in its train Tn
Republican president and the Republi
can congress met the new trial IN the OLE
spirit. We have fought. the war witt
Spain. The result Is history known of al
men. We have the perspective now o
only a short two years, and yet how clea
and bright the great facts stand out Xix
mountain peaks, against the sky, Will
the gathering darkness of a just Oblivion
IS creeping fast over the low ground
whore lie forgotten the trivial and unim
portant things the criticisms and tn
fault findings which seemed so huge whei
we stin fingered among them. Here the,
are these great facts a war of a hun
drad days, with many victories and ~
defeats, with no prisoners taken from u
and no advance stayed, with triump1an
outcome startling in its completeness an