The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1904-11-04
Great Issues at Stake, but
There Has Been No Fever
ish Excitement.
MINDS OF VOTERS MADE UP
Present Conditions Are Satisfactory.
and the People Will Elect Fair.
banks and Roosevelt and a
Republican Congress.

The Presidential campaign which is
Just closing has some unique features.
There has been, from first to last, an
absence of spectacular features. The
unusual feverish excitement, the election
year collapse Of business, the general
uncertainty and anxiety which used to
characterize a national campaign are
iacking this year. Yet the issues at
stake. with choice to be made between
the two great parties, are tremendous.
The cause of the general calm, thu
even carrying on Of business, the abb
sence Of public excitement, is not the
far-famed apathy Of which so much
Ia said just now. The people are not
apathetic. They are only satisfied. They
have what they want. they have made
up their minds to keep it, and they
know they are amply able to keep it
by casting their votes on election day.
Republican rule. Republican work. Re-
publican prosperity, peace and justice,
that is what the people Of the United
States have, and that is what they are
determined to keep, by the election OF
Roosevelt and Fairbanks, and a Republi-
a Congress.
The two great national parties stand
Tor the two kinds OF people into which.
broadly speaking, the whole complicated
mass OF human beings may be divided.
The people who work, the people who
live each day for the best that day af-
fords, the people who accomplish things.
these are naturally and inevitably Re
publieans. The other kind Of people, the
lookers-on, the critics. the fault-6nders.
the promisers OF great things and doors
III AL:. 49, I. 40 h4 IA~~o
cratic party.
The Republican party acts. The Dem
ocratic party protests.
Policies OF the Party.
This programme of the two parties.
carried out for many years, has never
been SO clearly shown as during the dis
cussion of national affairs which has
been going on this year. The Republi-
can party came before the country,
through President Roosevelt, to give an
account OF its stewardship from the day
when President Mckinley took the chair
of Chief Executive in 1897. The first
four years OF the administrative Of Presi-
dent Mckinley must be considered in
connection with the last four year Of
Mckinley and Roosevelt. for the carry
ing out of Republican policy under Re
zyuOA\o piiAAItptCo AAAAA yVhAS
is the basis upon which Republicans ask
TOR another term OF power.
The Republican platform and Presi-
dent Roosevelt's speech and letter Of ac-
ccptance show how closely the ReRubli-
can party sticks to the practical work
Of the present, how we'll it knows what
the people want, and how surely it il
planning and moving to carry out the
desires OF the people. Upon the money
question the party occupies the same
ground where it stood, under attack, in
1896 and 1900.
In its internal policy it stands for pro
lection, the irrigation OF arid lands. the
construction Of the Panama canal, the
regulation Of illegal trusts that run coun
ter to the Interstate laws, the
payment Of just pensions to disabled
hOnorably discharged veterans Of the
War for the Union. and other measures
and ideas familiar to the people. The
hopes and labors OF the government have
been to bring the Philippines into close
relations with the American people, to
1T them for self government. and to give
them q form OF self government 50
clearly defined as to it's future and 80
well set forth hat all may see what has
been lone since the fortunes and fate Of
war threw upon the United States the
direct responsibility for millions OF fel.
low-beings in the Asiatic seas. The for
eign policy is but a record Of peace and
good will with all the nations Of the
earth. Prosperity, industry and hopeful.
ness at home, confidence and respec,
abroad, such is the brief story of Re
publican rule during the past eight years
What has the opposition to offer?
Upon the gold standard its platform is
silent. Its candidate, who voted 70.
Bryan in 1896 and 1900. now firmly de.
clares his conversion to honest money
doctrines. Bryan is on the stump fol-
MI. Parker, and the mass Of Democrats
to-day are for free silver, or any kind
OF money that will serve to call the ig
norant to their standard. Upon all the
questions OF governmentspolicy and prac
tice the Democrats are as much At sea
a. they are upon finance. Their whole
plan Of campaign. 90 far as any plar
has been developed, is the world-without
end scheme Of finding fault with every
body and every institution which accom-
plishes things.
Democracy Weak Protests.
There are feeble and more or less in
telligent protests against protection. No
daring to oppose the Panama canal. tn,
protestors content with protestin,
against everything that has been done
90 far, to make the Panama canal /
real thing. Upon the gigantic trus
evil. which menaces individual prosper
ity, not a word Of sincerity has beef
spoken by a Democrat. The efforts o
President Roosevelt to apply the Unite,
States laws to attractions Of the In
t~erstate laws by the trusts
have been roundly condemned by tn,
Democratic candidate and his followers
The payment Of disability pensions t
aeed veterans OF the civil war has beef
bitterly resented by the same candidate
and BY his political associates.
- foreign policy, ~inaugucated An