Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-07-07

debts. TO whom is the credit due OF
that enormous task, that sublime eff
fort OF common honesty, IL not to the
party which against every assault OF
open and covert reputation stood by
the country's honor and kept it free
from stain?
Let me hurriedly enumerate a few
Of the events in the long and fruitful
career Of the Republican party which
seem to us to entitle it to the conf.
dence of the country and the final APP
proyal of history. After the wal was
ended and peace re-established with
no damage to the structure Of the
Government, hut, on the contrary,
with added strength and with increas
ed guarantees of its perpetnity, it re
manned to be shown whether the power
and success of the Republican party
were to be permanent, or whether,
born Of a crisis, it was fitted TO cope
with the problems of daily national
life. It had destroyed slavery, or,
perhaps we might better say, it had
! created the conditions by which slay.
cry had committed suicide. In he
labsence of this great adversary, could
the party hold together against the
thousand lesser evils that beset the
public life of modern peoples--the
evils of ignorance, corruption, ava,
Erice, and lawlessness, the %prejudices
of race and of class, the voice of dem
agogues, the cunning of dishonest
, craft, the brutal tyranny of the boss,
the venality of the mean? | think 1t is
not too much to say that the last forty
years have given an answer, full OF
glory and honor, to that question. The
Republican party, in the mass and in
detail, has shown its capacity to gov,
ern. BY the homestead law, with
equal generosity and wisdom, 1t dis
tributed the immense national domain
among the citizens who were willing
Ito cultivate it and who have convert.
ed wide stretches of wilderness into
smiling homes. 1t built the Pacific
Railroad, which has bound the Union
together from East to West by bands
of steel and made the States beyond
the mountains among most loyal
Land prosperous commonwealths. 1t
redeemed our paper currency and made
all our money of exactly equal value,
and our credit the best in the world,
BY persistent honesty in u finances
lin the face of obstacles which might
have daunted the hardest statesmen
lit has reduced our interest charges
so that in any mart on earth we can
borrow money cheaper than any other
people. In the financial revolutions
to which all communities are subject
We are able, thanks to our laws and
our administrative system, to meet
and pass the most violent crises with.
out lasting damage to our prosperity.
We have, by the patient labor of years
so succeeded in reforming and regu.
lating our civil service that patron.
age has almost ceased to cast its dead
ly blight upon the work of Ii public
servants. Human nature Is weak and
offenses Happen; but they are al
most always found out and are punish
ed without mercy when detected.
BY persistent adherence to the polio.
of protection, we have given to our
industries a development which the
fathers of the Republic never dreamed
Of; which besides supplying our home
market. had carried manufactures
TO the uttermost ends Of the earth.
History affords no parallel to the
| vast and increasing prosperity which
/ this country has enjoyed under Re
publican rule. hasten to say we dc
not claim TO have invented seedtime
and harvest, and industry and thrift.
We are a great people and success Is
our right; God is good to those who
behave themselves. But we may
justly claim that the Republican party
has been in power during these years
of marvellous growth, and we can at
least bring proof that we have not
prevented it-and this Is no slight
honor for a party TO claim. will not
at this moment speak Of the impor.
tant acquisitions Of territory we havd
made, which render us in many ways
the predominant power In the Pacific.
But ont of the territory we already
possessed, fourteen new States have
entered the Union. The census Of
1850 gave us 100000 0 Of population
1.-THE last one, 10000, 900. The mum
Der Of our farms-the total Of our cul.
tivited acreage-has increased four
fold. Our corr crop Is five times
L. a.. E.& 49, -.