The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-06-17
THE REPUBLICAN
NATIONAL CONVENTION
Continued from First Page

Che ranks Of men and cannot be the
floating phantOms of an uneasy dream.
The American people must choose next
November between us and the Demo-
cratic party. With the Democratic
party, and with that alone, must the
comparison be made We differ from
that party in some important partic-
Mlars. We both, it is true, have & past
and history, but we treat those pos
sessions very differently. They wish
to keep their past profound secret.
We seek by all means to publish ours
to the world. If we refer to their his
tory they charge us with calumny. We
regard ours, truthful and undistOrted,
as our greatest glory. To the youth
of the country they say, Judge us
solely by our undiscovered future We
say, Read our record; judge US by
our past and present, and from these
learn what we are, what we have been
and what we mean to be- Recall the
cries which have sounded from the
Hips Of these two parties during the
last half century. On the one side:
Slavery; secession; reputation of the
public debt; fiat money; free trade;
free silver; the overthrow of the courts
and government ownership
"On the Republican side: Free soil;
free men; the Union; the payment Of
the debt; honest money; protection to
American industry; the gold standard;
the maintenance of law, Of order and
h IL.
Nlation Of great corporations The old
shiboleths Of the Democrats are today
the epitaphs of policies which are dead
and damned. They serve only to re-
mind us Of dangers escaped or to warn
us of perils to be Stunned. The bat
tie cries of the Republicans have been
the WatchWords Of great causes. They
tell of victories won and. triumphs
tasted; they are embodied in the laws
and mark the stepping stones by which
the republic has risen to evsM greater
heights of power and prosperity.
LAS we thus call up the past and
the echoes of these old conflicts again
sound in our ears and touch the chords
Of memory one great fact stands forth
clear and shining. The Republican
party has never failed except when it
has faltered. Our long career of VIC
tory, SO rarely broken, has been due to
our meeting boldly each question as it
arose, to our facing every danger as 1t
crossed our path with entire courage.
fearless of consequences and deter
mined only to be true to the principles
which brought the party into existence
and to the spirit which has inspired it
from its birth. We faced secession
rather than assent to the extension of
slavery. Rather than submit to seces-
sion we took up the dread burden of
civil war. But few years ago we
permitted thousands of Republicans to
leave us, thereby importing our polit-
ical power, rather than abandon the
gold standard and plunge the country
Into disaster and dishonor.
I'm these latest years, as in the
most remote, we have been true to our
traditions. In the process of develop
ment point was reached where the
country was confronted by a situation
more perilous than any it has ever
faced except in the Civil war and we
Republicans were, therefore, Obliged
TO deal with problems of the most com
pick and difficult character
ITO our honor, be it said, we have
not shrunk from the task Much has
Deen done; much, no doubt, still re-
mains to do; but the great underlying
principles have been established and
upon them we can build, as necessity
arises, carefully and deliberately.
Il have spoken of the seriousness of
the situation with which the country
was confronted. It's gravity can hardly
be overestimated It grew out of con-
d1tions and was the result of forces
beyond the control Of men. Science
and Invention, the two great factors in
this situation, have not only altered
radically human environment and our
relations TO nature, but, in their appli-
cation, they have reYolutionized eco
nomic conditions. These changed eco