The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1904-05-07
FIXING PLATFORM
REPUBLICAN LEADERS DISc,tce
THAT DOCUMENT.
Will Probably Be Completed m,
Approved by the President Pc
viOus to Converting of Convon
tion---LOdge Writing 1t and VIII,
Make 1t Brief.


to be adopted by the Republican ma
tional convention was among the ton.
les discussed at the conferences which
have taken place recently at the Whit
House, in committee rooms at the Can
itol and ut different residences wboro
a number of Republicans have heon
assembled. Senator Lodge, who IL
slated for chairman of the committee
on resolutions at the convention. has
prepared preliminary sketches of yar;.
Gus topics that he thinks should hs
treated, and he has submitted them 70
senators and to others for their an,
proval or suggestion as to amendment
1t is believed that before the CONVEX
ton meets complete platform will ba
prepared which will have the approval
of the president.
The Tariff Plank.
The principal features of the nla,
form will be the tariff plank, which
will declare in the strongest terms tho
adherence of the Republican party To
the principle of protection, but will
not bind the party not to revise the
tariff. 1t will say that the party ia not
committed to any schedule, but that
changes should be MADE only when
changed conditions of business or the
treasury render it necessary or adyisa.
BILE. Persons present at the recent con.
ferences say it already has been agreed
that the tariff will be revised in the
Fifty ninth congress if the RepubI.
cans win in November. There is at
present determination to make the
platform as brief as possible, conse.
quently the endorsement of the adimn.
istration and the acts of the party will
be put in compact form. This endorse.
ment will be a general approval of the
course of general action of the presi
dent and the Republicans.
Concerning Trusts.
The plank concerning trusts will, in
effect, declere that the laws for the
regulation of monopolies and the re-
straint of conspiracy against commerce
were enacted by the Republicans, and
that the enforcement Of such laws has
only been by Republican administra-
ton. 1t will also say that it is not the
intention or policy of the Republican
party to assail legitimate industry or
business or to infringe on the rights of
persons or property. Special attention
will be devoted to the phraseology of
this plank.
Some difficulty has been experienced
in finding the proper wording for
reciprocity suggestion. Nearly all the
senators who have attended the recent
conferences contributed their share to-
ward keeping the reciprocity treaties
negotiated by the Mckinley admins
tration closely confined in committee
pigeon holes. Reciprocity has not been
popular III congress, and it was with
great effort that the Cuban legislation
WAS passed.
Senator Aldrich announced when
the Cuban bill was under consideration
that there would be no more tariff leg
islation by treaty. If anything is said
about reciprocity, it will be 80 worded
that it will mean that reciprocity shall
be confined to such articles as are not
Ill competition with products OF the
United States
Financial Questions.
Mention of the financial question
will consist of an allusion to the main
tenance Of the gold standard by the
Republican party and a promise to
continue the finances of the country
upon a sound basis.
Disfranchisement of the negro in the
Southern states will be denounced as
an encroachment ON the rights guaran-
teed by the constitution.
The demand for the restoration OF
the merchant marine of the country
will be renewed. but it is not the inten'
ton to endorse any specicfi plan.
There are several other suggestions
as to planks in the platform, but the
desire to have the platform as brief as
possible may eliminate them from con-
sideration as unnecessary at this time