The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1908-07-10
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
The following is the complete text of
lie Platform adopted at Montpelier, July

list:
The Republicans of Vermont, by thei
delegates in Convention assembled a
Montpelier, July LIST, 1908, do declare:
|. We are proud to be Republicans i
this history-making era. The primar
principles of our great organization hav
ever been the protection of the weak iron
the might of the strong, the uplifting O
the masses and the control of the classes
the fair deal, the square deal to every man
Never have those principles been so grand
" examplifed and so forcefully applied a
under the leadership of Theodore Roose
welt. We praise his administration anC
rejoice in all the great works he has per
formed.
2. We heartily endorse and adopt a.
our own the platform of the Republican
party of the nation. We endorse the
candidacy of that great American who
has, by the overwhelming expression o.
the will of the people, been chosen as oul
standard bearer, William H. Taft of Ohio
To him and to his associate we pledge oul
fealty, our best endeavor, and we promise
the support of Vermont to Taft and Sher-
man by vote so nearly unanimous that
our State shall maintain its honored posi-
ton as the first of Republican Common
wealths.
3. The Republican administration OF
the State of Vermont brings as an open
book the account of its stewardship for the
last two years. We confidently make the
assertion, proved by that account, that
we have met every promise with perform
ance.
We pledged ourselves by our platform
of 1906, to continued efforts to upbuild
and strengthen our public schools. Our
administration has made and enforced
laws to provide State aid to the higher
education of the young; to lend the aid
of the State to better and more efficient
supervision of our common schools; to
extend and make more beneficial our care
for the weak and the unfortunate; and to
add substantially to the permanent fund
dedicated to the support OF elementary
education. We recommend such altera-
tions in the penal laws as would work to
their more efficient administration and
result in more direct and speedy punish
ment of crime. There has been placed
upon our statute books a law requiring
all sentenced prisoners to work, and in its
administration it has worked to the up
lifting and improvement of the criminal
class.
We promised such needed changes in
the administration of our penal institu-
tons as would tend to make better men
and women of the inmates there. By
a statute law and by rules established, a
long step has been taken to that end.
We pledged our support to the cause
of better highways. The Republican
Legislature has passed and the Repub-
lean administration has carried out, a law
appropriating from the general funds
of the Commonwealth a substantial sum
toward the building of permanent high
ways, and providing efficient County
supervision.
We urged the reorganization of our
judiciary system, to the end that the adj
minstration of justice might be more
speedy and that the crowded dockets of
our courts might be relieved. That re-
organization has been brought about with
the result that today the courts are re-
lieved and the number of long standing
causes has been reduced to the minimum. !
We promised legislation to strengthen |
and make effective our laws for the con- |
troll of public service corporations. That |
legislation has been passed. Our Railroad |
Commission has been endowed with |
and power to the resulting
good of both people and corporations.
~ ,tive measures have been passed by
|
judgment of the highest court of the land,
to make all corporations. domestic and
foreign, subservient to the process and
orders of our courts.
We declared that economy in the eX-
penditure of the money of the people
should at all times be the aim. So care
fully have we kept that pledge that all
the expenses of the State government,
with its widened scope and generous aid
to schools and highways. have been met
without one dollar of direct taxation.
We nominated for Governor in 1906,
a young man whom we placed before the
people with the assertion that he was a
man of marked ability and progressive
ness, believer in the application of thor
ough business principles and methods to
the affairs of the government and
champion of the greater Vermont. There
stands in Vermont today not man who
can question that our Governor is all we
for him. We take pride in the
and the work of Fletcher
d. Proctor, and our best endorsement of
him is our claim that no one has ever
better filled the gubernatorial chair.
The Republican party in Vermont by
its earnest effort to do what it has proms-
ed, has made the party platform mean {
ingful. h
We therefore here make to the voters
our promise for the future.
EDUCATION.
The Republican party regards the /
education of the young as the most i'm {
portant function of government. We ]
have ever striven to make our State 5
among the foremost in this prime work. /
Our changing population demands even f
more effort to maintain and improve our .
Therefore, to meet the needs {
apparent, we pledge our support TO further
and larger appropriations for our general {
school fund; to wider and more efficient
supervision of our common schools 10
measures providing for better qualified J
and better paid teachers for our rural
schools; and to the establishment, wher- Z
,ver practicable, of classes for industrial r
md manual training and domestic sciences I
md manual training and domestic |
ciences. /
TAXATION.
We appreciate that the proper and =
.quitable assessment upon property for il
he support Of government is ever trouble n
ONE. and that no system yet devised is c
Wholly Just. lv
We pledge the earnest and faithful il
work of our party to the solution OF the A
,roblems of taxation as they arise. We n
hall seek such remedy for double taxation, 4
wherever and however it exists, as will !,
aualize the burden. But We sbelieve n
hat evasion of taxes is the greater evil, Il
nd that our first duty is to see to it that a
II taxable property pays its fair share.
We demand the enactment Of such laws
5 will make the duty 10 paw the lawful =
Ak a debt which may be collected when r
yer the evidence shall appear, and that D