The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-09-18
WHY THE REPUB-
LICANS SHOULD WIN.
Prize Essay By Frank Hendrick.

1.-The Party of Expansion.
The Republican party was founded
upon the principle that this government
was established to protect for all times
the rights and opportunities of every
individual from abridgment. That prin-
ciple it has successfully maintained.
Through the Civil War it consecrated
a reunited country to free and equal
American citizenship. 1t has kept the
channels of Interstate Commerce open
for all and, through the national bank
ing system, the refunding of the ma
tiOnal debt, resumption of specie pay
ments, the gold standard and the
emergency currency law, has sustained
the life current of national integrity
AS trustee of the national wealth, it
has Investigated mineral regions, sur
veyed soils, developed waterways, in
Guiding the Panama Canal, irrigated
deserts, conserved watersheds, and hus-
banded the public lands. Protecting
American labor by regulating immigra'
ton and by taking at the custom house.
to pay American taxes, foreign capitals
advantage from low wages, it has pre-
served to American industries the home
market of eighty millions of the worlds
greatest consumers and so laid the
surest basis for American competition
in foreign markets. Uniting capital and
labor, thus, in a common prosperity
and common source of increased re-
ward, it has created opportunities, jim
proved conditions Of employment,
brought about a higher standard of
living, and more widespread distribu-
ton of wealth and well-being, and
made expansion moral as well as ma
terial.
Entrusted with insular possessions, it
has brought them peace and progress,
and provided for the extension and
protection Of American trade, for the
national defense, and for the honorable
discharge of the responsibilities of
world greatness. Maintaining peace at
home, with foreign nations and among
them, it has given American rights and
American opportunities new meaning
throughout the nation and throughout
the world.
1.-THE Party Of Progress and Pros
perity.
Promising progress and prosperity, it
has been politically sincere. 1t has
never had a candidate of a section,
prejudice, or class, nor platform of
negation, scheme of reputation, pro-
gram of scuttle, or doctrine of despair.
1t has never lent itself to a demand for
revolution, to be followed by reaction
and retrogression, it has stood firm for
evolution by constant, steady and Ell.
during progress Finding trusts, giant.
born, fourishing under supposed con-
fict of state and national law, the
double prohibition of existence serving
but to foster their development, it has
never, in an attempt to destroy trusts,
withdrawn, in state or nation, the pro-
lection of law from property, but has,
through executive investigation and re-
sort to the courts, resolved the con-
f1ict which had silenced law and given
trusts existence.
1t has never proposed to advance
American workingmen and American
institutions by banishing American in
dustres and building up those of other
lands, and scorned to insult labor with
an illusory promise of immunity from
law. Yet it passed the pure food law
and the employers liability law, Sc
cured equal accommodations on rail
roads, aided agriculture, created the
civil service, established free rural
mail delivery, reduced foreign postage
and increased pensions. Continuing
naturally marked-out progress, it will