Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-06-20
FIRST Days PROCEEDINGS
Of THE BIG CONVENTION.
Continued From First Page.

vice to his country and his party. No
whisper Of personal attack intruded
upon the National issues which deter
mined the contest. There was a double
safeguard for the country's welfare.
Every true American knew that If in
the dispensation of Providence our
Leader should be called from his high
place, there stood beside him a states
man devoted and staunch, in whose
hands the vast and weighty affairs of
our country could be we'll and safely
entrusted. Had Garrett Augustus Ho-
bart been spared to us until to-day,
the work of this convention would
have been limited to a cordial and I'M
animous Endorsement of the leaders of
'96.
So many events of great portent have
that we are apt to judge and Measure
the work of this administration chilly
by the occurrences since the outbreak
of the Spanish war. 1t is worth while
for US to recall earlier days. Senator
Walcott then reviewed the early
months of
The Mckinley Administration
drawing comparison with the late
Cleveland administration.
Passing over, for the moment, the
events associated with the war, let me
refer briefly to other legislation of the
past four years.
We passed a national bankrupt act.
For half a century the Hawaiian ISL
ands, a menace to the long line of
coast which skirts our Pacific slope,
finally, after years of misgovernment
by native rulers, it was left for this
administration to make them a part of
American territory.
President Mckinley collected every
dollar of both principal and interest
due from the Union Pacific Company,
and the principal of the debt due from
the Kansas Pacific. We saved more
that twenty millions of dollars over
the offer of settlement made by Mr..
Cleveland.
Whenever a Republican administra-
ton is in power there is constant talk
of trusts. The reason isn't far to seek.
Ag~gregations and combinations of cap
ital find their only encouragement in
prosperous days and widening com-
merce. The Republican party has al
ways maintained that any combination
having for its purpose the cornering Of
a market or the raising or controlling
of the price of the necessaries of life
was unlawful and should be punished,
and a commission appointed by the
President under act of Congress has
made careful investigation and will
o present a full report of the best
method of dealing with this intricate
question.
The campaign four years ago was
fought on the currency question. Fol
twelve years the platforms of our party
have declared in favor of the use of
gold and silver as money. The logic
of recent events, together with the at
tempt of the Democracy to drag down
the question from its international
character, has impelled our people to
this
Settlement of This ProbIem,
and the recent action of Congress has
eliminated the danger which its fur
ther agitation menaced.
May l, a Western man, add another
word? The passage of this bill, which
received the vote of every Western Re-
publican in Congress, marked the ter
mination. forever final, of any sort Of
difference between Republicans of the
East and of the West, growing out of
currency problems. Before the ex-
piration of Mr.. McKinley's first term,
we shall have passed a law relieving
certain articles from a portion at least
of the burdens they now carry because
Of the wal revenue act, and mean
while we have, out of surplus revenues,
already paid and called in for can
collation. forty-three millions of out
standing bonds. The coming winter
will see enacted into law, legislation
which shall revivify and upbuild our
ocean merchant marine, and enable us
to compete on fair terms with the sub
sidized ships of foreign nations which
now so largely %monopolize the carriage
of American goods.
This is the brief account of our stew
ardship for four years. During a por-
ton of that period we were involved in
a war that for a time paralyzed bus
mess and commerce, and would have
taxed heavily the and credit
of any other country than ours; and
for the past year or more we have been
employing an army Of some $4,000 men
in suppressing an instruction against
our authority 5000 miles away.
Chairman Wolcott gave a long re-