The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-18
SENATOR DAVIS
 MAKES RESPONSE Comments Spirit That Now Pervades Rank and File ENDORSES THE PLATFORM Says Rights of Labor Are No Less Vested, Sacred and InaIIenabIe
 Than Rights of
 Capital.
ENDORSES THE PLATFORM

White Sulphur Springs. W. Va, August 17-The response of Senator Henry G. Davis accepting the democratic nomina- ton for the vice presidency today was as follows:
 MT. chairman and gentlemen of the committee:
 The official notification which you brinl of my nomination for the vice presidency of the United States, by the national democracy, gives me a feeling of the sin cerest gratitude to my party for the honor conferred. At the same time, 1t brings to me deep sense of responsibility to my party as a candidate, and to my country In case of my .,ection.
 A spirit of determination to succeed in the campaign before us appears to per wade the rank and file of our party in all sections of the country. Of that rank and file have for many years been A member and have at all times devoted my humble powers to party success belieV- ing that success to be for the country's good. Unexpectedly called as am now to the forefront, am impelled to an accept ance of the obligation by sense of grat- itude to my felow-workers, and the hope that I may be able the better to assist in restoring to power that party whose principles and past history guarantee safe, wise. economical and constitutional administration of the government.
 Pleasure to Accept.
 I find 1t, therefore, great pleasure, standing here upon the borderland of the two Virginias, to receive and accept the commission you bear. and to send greet ings through you to the democracy of the entire country Is 1t not significant of closer and truer brotherhood among us that for the first time since the civil war I. &t,Ixo l.. taken from that section of our common country that lies south of Mason an6 Dixon's line-a happy recognition of the obiteration of all sectional differences which led to and followed that unhappy struggle.
 As introductory to the few remarks shall make, I desire to say that I heartily endorse the platform upon which I have been nominated, and with the convention and its nominee for President, regar6 the present monetary standard of value as irrevoeaby established.
 Republican Idea Of Prosperity.
 In the campaign preceding the last cleo ton, much stress was lad by republican speakers upon the prosperous condition or the country, and forebodings were heard of the i'll results, especially to the laboring man, which would follow any change in the political complexion of the government It is true that the times then were good, but 1t Is no less fact that while there has been no change in the party in power, many of the evils pronhesed have come under republican rule. Four years ago factories, mills, mines and furnaces were in active oper- ation, unable to supply the demand, but now many are closed. and those that are open are being operated with reduced force on short hours Then wages were U work for all Now work is scarce, many wage earners unemployed and wages re- duced. The apprehension which now pre- vails in business circles and the present unsatisfactory industrial conditions of the country seem to demand a poltica C, ange
 Rights of Labor.
 In the language of our platform, the rights of labor are certainly no less vest ed, no less sacred and no less inalien- able than the rights of capital
 The time Is opportune to emphasize the truth of this utterance. The most sacred right of property is the right to possess and own oneself and the labor of ones own hands-capital itself being b stored up labor. For years I worked in the ranks as Wage-earner and I know what 1t is to earn my living by the swea. of my brow. l have always believed and my con victions came from the hard school of ex- perience, that, measured by the character of work he does and the cost of living, a man is entitled to full compensation for his services. My experience as a wage earner and my association with labor have alike taught me the value of demo- cratic principles, for in them the hum- blest has the strongest security for in- dividual rights, and the highest stimulus to make independence of spirit and love of self happiness which produces the finest private characters and forms the base of the best possible government
 Government Receipts.
 The receipts of the government for the year ending June 20. 1902. the first fiscal year of the present administration, showed surplus over expenditures of s9l,OOO00O' but for the fiscal year end 1 Ing June 30, 190i, instead of a surplus I there was deficit of $41, 900, ,0O0 From the lst of July, 1904 to August TO- or for about a month and third of the present fiscal year, the expenditures of the government have exceeded the receipts by $21, ,715,0O0. There could be no stronger evidence of the extravaganza into which the republi- can party has fallen, and no more po- tent argument in behalf of a change to the | party whose tenets have always em- braced prudence and economy in adminis- tering the peoples affairs.
 Our republican friends are prone to re- fer to the great commercial growth of the country under their rule, and vet the census reports show that from 1850 to 1860. under democratic rule and the Walker tariff, the percentage of increase was greater in population, wealth. manufac- lures and railroad mileage, the factors which effect most largely the prosperity of the country, than in any decade since. The cost of government has largely in- creased under republican rule. The ex- penditures per capita for the last years respectively of the administrations given taken from the reports of the secretary of the treasury, were as follows: l In 1860, under Buchanan
 In 1893. under Harrison ...5.77 In 1897, under Cleveland
 In 1901, under Mckinley. 6.5s
 In 1904 under Roosevelt ....... 7.le
 Claim of Consistency.
 The republicans now claim great con- l sistency In their attitude upon the curren- l cy question and the President in his recen; speech of acceptance, said that they know what they mean when they speak of a I 4.I.1