The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-06-21
Elihu Root Reviews Repub-
lican Party.
CRY is ROOSEVELT AND FAlRBANKSr'
Opening Day of Convention One OF
Quietest Ever KnOwn-Little For
Delegates to Do Save to Rhtify
Prcnrrnnged Plans.

CHICAGO, June 2l.-The Republican
national convention of 1904 began its
three days session here when Henry
G. Payne. chairman of the national
committee, at - O'Clock noon called
on the Rev. Timothy =. Frost to open
the assembly with prayer Secretary
Elmer Dover then read the call of the
convention, after which the chairman
of the national committee introduced to
the assembly Temporary Chairman Of
the Convention Elihu Root of Nv
York, late secretary of war.
Mr. Root began his address with a
review Of the achievements of the Re-
publican party in the fifty years Of its
existence, declaring that now as in the
past on that party rested the resUonsi-
bility of government Continuing he
dweIt at length on the administrations
of Presidents Mckinley and Roosevelt
discussing eXhaustively the great queS-
tons which had come before the public
in the past seven years and the man
ner in which they had been dealt with.
In speaking Of the Philippines he gave
TO the Filipinos this promise Of uiti-
mate self government:
mo one can fortell the future, hUt
there seems no reasonable cause 70
doubt that under the policy already Of
fectively inauguratcd, the institutions
already implanted and the processes al
ready begun in the Philippine Islands,
10 MI Mt
ed, the Philippine people will follow in
the footsteps of the people of Cuba:
that more slowly indeed, because they
are not as advanced, yet as surely,
they will grow in capacity for self
government and, receiving power as
they grow in capacity, will Gome to-
bear substantially such relations to the
people of the United States as do now
the people of Cuba, differing in details
as conditions and needs differ, but the
same in principle and the same in be
nehcent results"
Summarizing the administration OF
President Roosevelt he said:
1.-THE present administration has re-
duced taxation, reduced the public
debt reduced the annual interest
charge. made effective progress in the
regulation OF trusts, fostered business,
promoted agriculture, built up the ma
w, reorganized the army, resurrected
the militia system, inaugurated new
policy for the preservation and recla.
nation Of public lands, given civil gov
eminent to the Philippines, established
the republic of Cuba bound It 10 us by
ties of gratitude, of commercial inter-
est and of common defense, swung
open the closed gateway of the 18TH
mus, strengthened the Monroe doc
trine, ended the Alaskan boundary dis
pute protected the integrity of China,
opened wider its doors of trade, adj
vanced the principle of arbitration and
promoted peace among the nations.
1--WE challenge judgment upon this
record of effective performance in leg
islation, in execution ana in admins
tration."
Whether the policies thus outlined
shall be reversed or committed to I'M
friendly guardians, whether the revi-
sion of the tariff, which may soon be
necessary. shall be made by the friends
of or enemies of the protective system,
whether the honor of our country
should be intrusted to unknown and
perchance feeble hands, the American
people, Mr.. Root declared, have now to
say.
Mr. Root closed with an eloquent eu-
logy of the late President Mckinley
and a glowing tribute to Theodore
Roosevelt, of whom he said:
''No people can maintain free govern
ment who do not in their hearts value
the qualities which have made the
present president of the United States
conspicuous among the men Of his
time as a type Of noble manhood. Come
what may here-come what may in
November, God grant that those quail
tiles of brave, true manhood shall have
honor throughout America, shall be
held for an example in every home
and that the youth Of generations
to come may grow up to feel that IT is
better than wealth or Office or power
to have the honesty, the purity and the
courage Of Theodore Roosevelt"
With the time occupied in caucuses
of state delegations, which, with a few
exceptions, were mere ratification
meetings held to approve state conven-
ton programmes, the opening of the
Republican national convention has
been one of the quietest ever known.
Senators and representatives in con-
gress were as thick on the streets and
In the hotel Hobbies as they are in the
national capital when a particularly
uneventful or dry debate is in progress
in congress Figures prominent in the
political strife of former national con-
ventions were everywhere. They min
gled with delegates and others not on
the inside. talking of anything which
promised even mOmentary interest
N'bot, tho laoJprc raopbpI Cbipu 90 n