The Portland daily press., 1900-06-21

presidential term mas Decn 80 CfoNutu
with great events as that which Is now
drawing to a close. They have been four
memorable years. To Republicans they
show a record OF promises kept, OF work
done, of Unforeseen questions met and
answered. To the Democrats they have
been generous In the exhibition of unful-
filled predictions, In the ruin of thsir
hopes of calamity and In futile opposition
10 the forces OF the times, and the aspira-
tons OF the American people i wish
could add that they had been equally in.
structive 90 our opponents, but while 1t
Is true that the Democrats, like the Bour-
bons, learn nothing, it Is only too evident
that the familiar comparison cannot be
completed, for they forget . great deal
which IL would be well for them to re-
member.
In 1897 we took the government and
the country from the hands Of President
Cleveland. His party had abandoned
him and were joined 70 their idols, oil
which he was no longer one. During the
last yenrs of his term we Ind presented
30 ms the melancholy spectacle OF Prest-
dent trying TO govern without party.
The result was that his policies We're IN
ruin, legislation was at n standstill, ana
public affairs were in a perilous and In
coherent condition. Party responsibility
had vanished, and with IL all possibility
of intelligent action, demanded by the
country ut home and abroad. IL was an In
teresting but by no means singular dis
play of Democratic unfitness for the pfac-
tical work of government. To the politi-
cal student II was Instructive, TO the
country 1t was extremely painful, 70
business disastrous. 60
We replaced this political chaos with a
President in thorough accord with his
party, and the machinery of government
began again 20 move smoothly and etfec-
lively. Thus we kept at once our prom
Use of better and more efficient admins
tration. In four months after the inau-
guration Of President Mckinley we had
passed a tariff bill. For ten years the ar
Iiticial agitation, in behalf OF what was
humorously called tariff reform, and OF
what was really free trade, had kept
business in ferment and had brought q
treasury deficit, paralyaed industries, de-
preston, panic, and, finally, continuous
bad times 20 q degree never before tm-
aRined Would you know the result of
our tariff legislation, look about you
Would you measure it's success, recollect
that Ii Is no longer an issue, that our OPP
ponents, free traders as they are, do not
dare to make IL an issue, that there is not
state in the Union today which could
De carried for free trade against protec-
ton. Never was policy more fully JUS
titled by its works, never was promise
made by any party more absolutely ful-
filled.
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
maintain the gold standard. We have
done so We have done more. We have
been better than our promise. Failing to
secure, after honest effort, any encourage
inent for international bimetallism, we
have passed law strengthening the
gold standard and planting 1t more firmly
than ever in our financial system, I'M
proving our banking laws, Duttressing
our credit, and re-funding the pubic
debt at two per cent. interest, the lowest
rate in the world. 1t was great work
well done. The only argument the Dem
ocrats can advance today in their own be-
half on the money question Is that ke-
publican Senate, in the event of Demo-
cratic success, would not permit the re-
peal of Republican law. This is a
precious argument when looked at with
considerate eyes, and quite worthy of
the intellects which produced 1t. Apply
it generally. Upon this theory because
we have defeated the soldiers of spain
and sunk her ships we can with safety
dispense with the army and the navy
which did the work. Take another ex-
am pie. There has been. fire in. a great
city; 1t has been checked and extin-
guished, therefore 1ct-us abolish the fire
department and cease to insure our
homes. Distrust In Our currency, the
dread OF change, the deadly fear OF de-
based standard were raging four years
ago and business lay prostrate before
them. Republican supremacy and Re
publican legislation have extinguished
the fires of doubt and fear and business
has risen triumphant from the ashes.
Therefore abolish your fire department,
turn out the Republicans and put in
power the incendiaries who lighted the
flames and trust to what remains OF he
publican control 10 avert disaster. The
proposition is its own reputation. The
supremacy OF the party that has saved
the standard of sound money and guarded
ID by law is as necessary for Its security
and for the existence of honest wages
and of business confidence now as 1t
was in 1876 The moment tho Republi-
can party passes from power, and the
party of free silver and fiat paper comes
In, stable currency and the gold standard,
the standard of the civilized world, are
In imminent and deadly peril. Sound cur
rency and q steady standard of value are
today safe In Republican hands.
But there were still other questions in
1896. We had already thwarted the efforts
of the Cleveland administration to throw
the Hawaiian islands back to their de-
throned queen and to give England
foothold for her cables in the group,
We then said that we would settle finally
the Hawaiian question. We have done
so. The traditional American policy has
been carried out. The flag of the Union
floats today over the crossroads of the
Pacific.
We promised TO deal with the Cuban
question. Again comes the reply, we
have done so. The long agony of the is
land is over. Cuba is free. But this
great work brought with it events and
issues which no man had foreseen. Tor
which no party creed had provided poll
cy. The crisis came, bringing war in
its train The Republican President and
the Republican Congress met the new
trial in the old spirit. We fought the
war with Spain. The result is history
known of all men. We have the perspec-
tive now of only short two years, and
yet how clear and bright the great facts
stand out, like mountain peaks against
the sky, while the gathering darkness of
just oblivion is creeping fast over the
low grounds where lie forgotten the
trivial and unimportant things, the crit
icisms and the fault findings which
seemed so huge when we still fingered
among them. Here they are, these great
facts: A war of hundred days, with
many victories and no defeats, with no