McKinley's letter of acceptance : the light of day on money and tarifffs. A political classic on all the great questions in issue.

McKINLEY’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. The Light of Day on Money and Tariffs. T' A POLITICAL CLASSIC ON ALL THE GREAT QUESTIONS IN ISSUE. j. BOSTON, 1896: Published by the Home Market Club. SOUND York. 52 WilUar" St., New THE MONEY LEAELETS issued by the Home Market Club are brief, to the point, full of facts, respectful and candid, and they answer all the arguments for free coinage. Sample copies and also a CATALOGUE OF TARIFF PAMPHLETS published by this Club are sent free on application. The Home Market Club, 56 Bedford Street, Boston, Mass MCKINLEY’S ACCEPTANCE. Sou-nd Money and Protection ttie Su-preme Issnes. Major McKinley’s letter accepting the Republican nomination for President was made public Aug. 26th. While large space is given to a discussion of the money and tariff questions, reference is made to all the im¬ portant planks of the Republican platform. We give the letter in full: — Hon. John M. Thurston and others, Members of the Noti¬ fication Committee of the Republican National Convention— Gentlemen: In pursuance of the promise made to your com¬ mittee, when notified of my nomination as the Republican can¬ didate for President, I beg to submit this formal acceptance of that high honor, and to consider in detail questions at issue in the pending campaign. Perhaps this might be considered un¬ necessary, in view of my remarks on that occasion, and those I have made to delegations that have visited me since the St. Louis convention; but, in view of the momentous importance of the proper settlement of the issues presented on our future prosperity and standing as a nation, and considering only the welfare and happiness of our people, I could not be content to omit again calling attention to the questions which, in my opinion, vitally affect our strength and position among the governments of the world, and our morality, integrity and pat¬ riotism as citizens of the republic, which for a century past has been the best hope of the world and the inspiration of man¬ kind. We must not now prove false to our own high stand¬ ards in government, nor unmindful of the noble example and wise precepts of the fathers, or of the confidence and trust which our conduct in the past has always inspired. 4 Perils of Free Coinage. For the first time since 1868, if ever before, there is pre¬ sented to the American people this year a clear and direct is¬ sue as to our monetary system, of vast importance in its effects, and upon the right settlement of which rests largely the finan¬ cial honor and prosperity of the country. It is proposed by one wing of the Democratic party and its allies, the People’s and Silver parties, to inaugurate the free and unlimited coin¬ age of silver by independent action on the part of the United States, at a ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. The mere declaration of this purpose is a menace to our financial and industrial interests, and has already created uni¬ versal alarm. It involves great peril to the credit and business of the country, a peril so grave that conservative men every¬ where are breaking away from their old party associations, and uniting with other patriotic citizens in emphatic protest against the platform of the Democratic national convention as an as¬ sault upon the faith and honor of the government and the wel¬ fare of the people. We have had few questions in the lifetime of the republic more serious than the one which is thus pre¬ sented. No Benefit to Labor. The character of the money which shall meastire our values and exchanges and settle our balances with one another and with the nations of the world is of such primary impor¬ tance, and so far-reaching in its consequences, as to call for the most painstaking investigation, and, in the end, a sober and unprejudiced judgment at the polls. We must not be mis¬ led by phrases nor deluded by false theories. Free silver would not mean that silver dollars were to be freely had without cost or labor. It would mean the free use of the mints of the United States for the few who are owners of silver bullion, but would make silver coin no freer to the many who are engaged in other enterprises. It would not make labor easier, the hours of labor shorter or the pay better. It would not make farming less laborious or more profitable. It would not start a factory or make a demand for an additional day’s labor. It would create no new occupations. It would add nothing to the comfort of the masses, the capital of the people or the wealth of the nation. It seeks to introduce a new measure of value, but would add no value to the thing measured. It would not conserve values. On the contrary, it would derange all existing values. It would not restore business confidence. 5 but its direct effect would be to destroy the little which yet remains. What It Means. The meaning of the coinage plank adopted at Chicago is that any one may take a quantity of silver bullion, now worth 53 cents, to the mints of the United States, have it coined at the expense of the government and receive for it a silver dollar, which shall be legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. The owner of the silver bullion would get the sil¬ ver dollar. It would belong to him and to nobody else. Other people would get it only by their labor, the products of their land, or something of value. The bullion owner, on the basis of present values, would receive the silver dollar for 53 cents’ worth of silver, and other people would be required to receive it as a full dollar in the payment of debts. The government would get nothing from the transaction. It would bear the expense of coining the silver and the community would suffer loss by its use. The Dollars Compared. We have coined since 1878 more than 400,000,000 of sil¬ ver dollars, which are maintained by the government at parity with gold, and are a full legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. How are the silver dollars now in use different from those which would be in use under free coin¬ age? They are to be of the same weight and fineness; they are to bear the same stamp of the government. Why would they not be of the same value? I answer: The silver dollars now in use were coined on account of the government, and not for private account or gain, and the government has solemnly agreed to keep them as good as the best dollars we have. The government bought the silver bullion at its market value and coined it into silver dollars. Having exclusive control of the mintage, it only coins what it can hold at a parity with gold. The profit, representing the difference between the commercial value of the silver bullion and the face value of the silver dol¬ lar, goes to the government, for the benefit of the people. The government bought the silver bullion contained in the silver dollar at very much less than its coinage value. It paid it out to its creditors and put it in circulation among the people at its face value of 100 cents, or a full dollar. It required the people to accept it as a legal tender, and is thus morally bound to maintain it at a parity with gold, which was then, as now, the 6 recognized standard with us and the most enlightened nations of the world. The government having issued and circulated the silver dollar, it must in honor protect the holder from loss. This obligation it has so far sacredly kept. Not only is there a moral obligation, but there is a legal obligation, expressed in public statute, to maintain the parity. They Could Not be Kept at Par. These dollars, in the particulars I have named, are not the same as the dollars that would be issued under free coinage. They would be the same in form, but different in value. The government would have no part in the transaction, except to coin the silver bullion into dollars. It would share in no part of the profit. It would take upon itself no obligation. It would not put the dollars into circulation. It could only get them, as any citizen would get them, by giving something for them. It would deliver them to those who deposited the silver, and its connection with the transaction there end. Such are the silver dollars which would be issued under free, coinage of silver at a ratio of i6 to i. Who would then maintain the parity? What would keep them at par with gold? There would be no obligation resting upon the government to do it, and if there were it would be powerless to do it. The simple truth is, we would be driven to a silver basis— to silver mono-metallism. These dollars, therefore, would stand upon their real value. If the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of i6 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold would, as some of its advocates assert, make 53 cents in silver worth 100 cents and the silver dollar equal to the gold dollar, then we would have no cheaper money than now, and it would be no easier to get. But that such would be the result is against reason, and is contradicted by experience in all times and in all lands. It means the debasement of our currency to the amount of the difference between the commercial and coin value of the silver dollar, which is ever changing, and the ef¬ fect would be to reduce property values, entail untold financial loss, destroy confidence, impair the obligations of existing contracts, further impoverish the laborers and producers of the country, create a panic of unparalleled severity, and inflict upon trade and commerce a deadly blow. Against any such policy I am unalterably opposed. 7 Bimetallism. Bimetallism cannot be secured by independent action on our part. It cannot be obtained by opening our mints to the unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, at a ratio of i6 ounces of silver to i ounce of gold, when the commercial ratio is more than 30 ounces of silver to i ounce of gold. Mexico and China have tried the experiment. Mexico had free coin¬ age of silver and gold at a ratio slightly in excess of i6| ounces of silver to i ounce of gold, and while her mints are freely open to both metals at that ratio, not a single dollar in gold bullion is coined and circulated as money. Gold has been driven out of circulation in these countries, and they are on a silver basis alone. Until international agreement is had, it is the plain duty of the United States to maintain the gold standard. It is the recognized and sole standard of the great com¬ mercial nations of the world, with which we trade more largely than any other. Eighty-four per cent of our foreign trade for the fiscal year 1895 was with gold standard countries, and our trade with other countries was settled on a gold basis. We now have more silver than gold. Chiefly by means of legislation during and since 1878 there has been put in cir¬ culation more than $624,000,000 of silver or its representative. This has been done in the honest effort to give to silver, if pos¬ sible, the same bullion and coinage value, and encourage the concurrent use of both gold and silver as money. Prior to that time, there had been less than $9,000,000 of silver dollars coined in the entire history of the United States, a period of 89 years. This legislation secured the largest use of silver consistent with financial safety and the pledge to maintain its parity with gold. More Silver Than Gold. We have today more silver than gold. This has been ac¬ companied at times with grave peril to the public credit. The so-called Sherman law sought to use all the silver product of the United States for money at its market value. From 1890 to 1893 the government purchased 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month, or 54,000,000 ounces a year. This was one-third the product of the world, and practically all of this country’s pro¬ duct. It was believed by those who then and now favor free coinage that such use of silver would advance its bullion value to its coinage value, but this expectation was not realized. In 8 a few months, notwithstanding the unprecedented market for the silver produced in the United States, the price of silver went down very rapidly, reaching a lower point than ever be¬ fore. Then, upon the recommendation of President Cleve¬ land, both political parties united in the repeal of the purchas¬ ing clause of the Sherman law. We cannot with safety engage in further experiments in this direction. The Double Standard. On the 22d of August, 1891, in a public address, I said; “If we could have an international ratio, which all the leading nations of the world would adopt, and the true relation be fixed between the two metals, and all agree upon the quantity of sil¬ ver which should constitute a dollar, then silver would be as free and unlimited in its privileges of coinage as gold is today. But that we have not been able to secure, and with the free and unlimited coinage of silver adopted in the United States at the present ratio, we would be still further removed from any international agreement. We may never be able to secure it if we enter upon the isolated coinage of silver. The double standard implies equality at a ratio, and that equality can only be established by the concurrent law of nations. It was the concurrent law of nations that made the double standard; it will require the concurrent law of nations to reinstate and sus¬ tain it.” It Favors the Use of Silver Money. The Republican party has not been, and is not now, op¬ posed to the use of silver money, as its record abundantly shows. It has done all that could be done for its increased use, with safety and honor, by the United States, acting apart from other governments. There are those who think that it has already gone beyond the limit of financial prudence. Sure¬ ly we can go no further, and we must not permit false lights to lure us across the danger line. We have much more silver in use than any country in the world, except India or China—$500,000,000 more than Great Britain, $150,000,000 more than France, $400,000,000 more than Germany, $325,000,000 less than India and $125,- 000,000 less than China. The Republican party has declared in favor of an international agreement, and, if elected Presi¬ dent, it will be my duty to employ all proper means to pro¬ mote it. The free coinage of silver in this country would de- 9 fer, if not defeat, international bimetallism, and until an inter¬ national agreement can be had every interest requires us to maintain our present standard. Free Coinage Means Currency Contraction. Independent free coinage of silver at a ratio of i6 ounces of silver to i ounce of gold would insure the speedy contrac¬ tion of the volume of our currency. It would drive at least 500,000,000 of gold dollars, which we now have, permanently from the trade of the country and greatly decrease our per cap¬ ita circulation. It is not proposed by the Republican party to take from the circulating medium of the country any of the silver we now have. On the contrary, it is proposed to keep all of the silver money now in circulation on a parity with gold by maintaining the pledge of the government that all of it shall be equal to gold. This has been the unbroken policy of the Re¬ publican party since 1878. It has inaugurated no new policy. It wdll keep in circulation and as good as gold all of the silver and paper money which are now included in the currency of the country. It will maintain their parity. It will preserve their equality in the future as it has always done in the past. It will not consent to put this country on a silver basis, which would inevitably follow independent free coinage at a ratio of 16 to I. It will oppose the expulsion of gold from our circu¬ lation. Farmers and Laborers Would Suffer Most. If there is any one thing which should be free from specu¬ lation and fluctuation it is the money of a country. It ought never to be the subject of mere partisan contention. When we part with our labor, our products, or our property, we should receive in return money which is as stable and un¬ changing in value as the ingenuity of honest men can make it. Debasement of the currency means destruction of values. No ®ne suffers so much from cheap money as the farmers and la¬ borers. They are the first to feel its bad effects and the last to recover from them. This has been the uniform experience of all countries, and here, as elsewhere, the poor, and not the rich, are always the greatest sufferers from every attempt to debase our money. It would fall with alarming severity upon investments already made; upon insurance companies and their policy-holders; upon saving banks and their depositors; upon building and loan associations’ members; upon the sav- 10 ings of thrift; upon pensioners and their families, and upon wage earners and the purchasing power of their wages. Irredeemable Paper Money. The silver issue is not the only issue affecting our money in the pending contest. Not content with urging the free coin¬ age of silver, its strongest champions demand that our paper money shall be issued directly by the government of the United States. This is the Chicago Democratic declaration. The St. Louis People’s declaration is that ‘‘our national money shall be issued by the" general government only, without the intervention of banks of issue, be full legal tender for the pay¬ ment of all debts, public and private,” and be distributed “di¬ rect to the people, and through lawful disbursements of the government.” Thus, in addition to the free coinage of the. world’s silver, we are asked to enter upon an era of unlimited irredeemable paper currency. The question which was fought out from 1865 to 1879 is thus to be reopened, with all its uncertainties, and cheap money experiments of every conceivable form foisted upon us. This indicates a most startling reactionary policy, strangely at variance with every requirement of sound finance; but the declaration shows the spirit and purpose of those who, by combined action, are contending for the control of the government. Not satisfied with the debasement of our coinage, which would inevitably follow the free coinage of sil¬ ver at 16 to I, they would still further degrade our currency and threaten the public honor by the unlimited issue of an irre¬ deemable paper currency. A graver menace to our financial standing and credit could hardly be conceived, and every pat¬ riotic citizen should be aroused to promptly meet and effec¬ tually defeat it. Highest Degree Reprehensible. It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that an ef¬ fort is being made by those high in the counsels of the allied parties to divide the people of this country into classes and create distinctions among us which, in fact, do not exist, and are repugnant to our form of government. These appeals to passion and prejudice are beneath the spirit and intelligence of a free people, and should be met with stern rebuke by those they are sought to influence, and I believe they will be. Every attempt to array class against class, “the classes against the 11 masses,” section against section, labor against capital, “the poor against the rich,” or interest against interest in the United States is in the highest degree reprehensible. It is op¬ posed to the national instinct and interest, and should be re¬ sisted by every citizen. We are not a nation of classes, but of sturdy, free, independent and honorable people, despising the demagogue, and never capitulating to dishonor. This ever- recurring effort endangers popular government, and is a men¬ ace to our liberties. It is not a new campaign device or party appeal. It is as old as government among men, but was never more untimely and unfortunate than now. Washington warned us against it, and Webster said in the Senate, in words which I feel are singularly appropriate at this time: “I admonish the people against the object of outcries like these. I admonish every industrious laborer of this country to be on his guard against such delusion. I tell him the attempt is to play off his passion against his interest and to prevail on him, in the name of liberty, to destroy all the fruits of liberty.” Protection of Supreme Importance. Another issue of supreme importance is that of protection. The peril of free silver is a menace to be feared; we are already experiencing the effect of partial free trade. The one must be averted; the other corrected. The Republican party is wedded to the doctrine of protection, and was never more earnest m its support and advocacy than now. If argument were needed to strengthen its devotion to the American system or increase the hold of that system on the party and people, it is found in the lesson and experience of the last past three years. Men realize in their own daily lives what before was to many of them only report, history or tradition. They have had a trial of both systems, and know what eiach has done for them. Adequate Revenues Weeded. . Washington, in his farewell address, Sept. 17, 1796, a hun¬ dred years ago, said: “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which un¬ avoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throw¬ ing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.” 12 To facilitate the enforcement of the maxims which he announced, he declared: “It is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be de¬ vised which are not more or less inconvenient or unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of ac¬ quiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate/’ Animated by like sentiments the people of the country must now face the conditions which beset them. “The public exigencies” demand prompt protective legis¬ lation, which will avoid the accumulation of further debt by providing adequate revenues for the expenses of the govern¬ ment. This is manifestly the requirement of duty. If elected President of the United States it will be my aim to vigorously promote this object, and give that ample encouragement to the occupations of the American people which, above all else, is so imperatively demanded at this juncture of our national affairs. Our Condition in December, 1892. In December, 1892, President Harrison sent his last mes¬ sage to Congress. It was an able and exhaustive view of the condition and resources of the country. It stated our situa¬ tion so accurately that I am sure it will not be amiss to recite his official and valuable testimony: “There never has been a time in our history,” said he, “when work was so abundant, or when wages were so high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life. The general average of prices has been such as to give agri¬ culture a fair participation in the general prosperity. The new industrial plants established since Oct. 6, 1890, and up to Oct. 22, 1892, number 445, and the extensions of existing plants 108. The new capital invested amounts to $40,446,060, and the number of additional employes 37,285. During the first six months of the present calendar year, 135 new factories were built, of which 40 were cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 wool¬ len mills, 15 silk mills, four plush mills and two linen mills. Of the 40 cotton mills 21 have been built in the southern states.” 13 This fairly describes the happy condition of the country in December, 1892. What has it been since, and what is it now? The messages of President Cleveland, from the beginning of his second administration to the present time, abound with descriptions of the deplorable industrial and financial situa¬ tion of the country. While no resort to history or official state¬ ment is required to advise us of the present condition and that which has prevailed during the past three years, I venture to quote from President Cleveland’s first message, Aug. 8, 1893, addressed to the 53d Congress, which he had called together in extraordinary session: “The existence of an alarming and extraordinary business situation,” said he, “involving the welfare and prosperity of all our people, has constrained me to call together in extra session the people’s representatives in Congress, to the end that through the wise and patriotic exercise of the legislative duties with which they solely are charged, the present evils may be mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be averted. Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of untoward events, nor of conditions related to our national resources. Nor is it traceable to any of the afflictions which frequently check national growth and prosperity. With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunerative production and manu¬ facture, with unusual invitation of safe investment, and with satisfactory assurances to business enterprise, suddenly finan¬ cial distrust and fear have sprung up on every side. Numer¬ ous moneyed institutions have suspended because abundant assets were not immediately available to meet the demands of frightened depositors. Surviving corporations and individuals are content to keep in hand the money they are usually anx¬ ious to loan, and those engaged in legitimate business are sur¬ prised to find that the securitie- they offer for loans, though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer accepted. Values sup¬ posed to be fixed are fast becoming conjectural, and loss and failure have invaded every branch of business.” The Cause of the Change. What a startling and sudden change within the short period of eight months, from December, 1892, to August, 1893! What has occurred? A change of administration. All branches of the government had been entrusted to the Demo¬ cratic party, which was committed against the protective pol¬ icy that had prevailed uninterruptedly for more than 32 years and brought unexampled prosperity to the country, and firmly pledged to its complete overthrow and the substitution of tar¬ iff for revenue only. The change having been decreed by the 14 elections in November, its effects were at once anticipated and felt We cannot close onr eyes to these altered conditions, nor would it be wise to exclude from contemplation and investiga¬ tion the causes which produced them. They are facts which we cannot as a people disregard, and we can only hope to im¬ prove our present condition by a study of their causes. In December, 1892, we had the same currency and prac¬ tically the same volume of currency that we have now. It ag¬ gregated in 1892 $2,372,599,501; in 1893, $2,323,000,000; in 1894, $2,423,342,362, and in December, 1895, $2,194,000,230. The per capita of money, too, has been practically the same during this whole period. The quality of the money has been identical—all kept equal to gold. There is nothing connected with our money, therefore, to account for this sudden aggravated industrial change. What¬ ever is to be deprecated in our financial system, it must every¬ where be admitted that our money has been absolutely good, and has brought neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. A depreciated currency has not existed to further vex the troubled business situation. Good Money and Hard Times. It is a mere pretence to attribute the hard times to the fact that all our currency is on a gold basis. Good money never made times hard. Those who assert that our present industrial and financial depression is the result of the gold standard have not read American history aright or been careful students of the events of recent years. We never had greater prosperity in this country in every field of employment and industry than in the busy years from 1880 to 1892, during all of which time this country was on a gold basis, and employed more gold money in its fiscal and business operations than ever before. We had, too, a protective tariff, under which ample revenues were collected for the government, and an accumulating sur¬ plus, which was constantly applied to the payment of the pub¬ lic debt. Let us hold fast to that which we know is good. It is not more money we want; what we want is to put the money we already have at work. When money is employed men are employed. Both have always been steadily and re¬ muneratively engaged during all the years of protective tariff legislation. When those who have money lack confidence in 15 the stability of values and investments they will not part with their money. Business is stagnated; the life blood of trade is checked and congested. We cannot restore the public confi¬ dence by an act which would revolutionize all values or an act which entails a deficiency in the public revenues. We cannot inspire confidence by advocating repudiation or practising dis¬ honesty. We cannot restore confidence, either to the treasury or to the people, without a change in our present tariff legis¬ lation. The Tariff of 1894. The only measure of a general nature that affected the treasury and the employments of our people passed by the 53d Congress was the general tariff act, which did not receive the approval of the President. Whatever virtues may be claimed for that act, there is confessedly one which it does not possess. It lacks the essential virtue of its creation—the raising of rev¬ enue sufficient to supply the needs of the government. It has at no time provided enough revenue for such needs, but it has caused a constant deficiency in the treasury and a steady de¬ pletion in the earnings of labor and land. It has contributed to swell our national debt more than $262,000,000, a sum nearly as great as the debt of the government from Washing¬ ton to Lincoln, including all our foreign wars from the revolu¬ tion to the rebellion. Since its passage, work at home has been diminished, prices of agricultural products have fallen, confi¬ dence has been arrested, and general business demoralization is on every hand. i8go and 1894 Tariffs Contrasted. The total receipts under the tariff act of 1894 for the first 22 months of its enforcement, from September, 1894, to June, 1896, were $557,615,328, and the expenditures $640,418,363, or a deficiency of $82,803,035. The decrease in our exports of American products and manufactures during the first 15 months of the present tariff, as contrasted with the exports of the first 15 months of the tariff of 1890, was $220,353,320. The excess of exports over imports during the first 15 months of the tariff of 1890 was $213,972,968, but only $56,758,423 under the first 15 months of the tariff of 1894, a loss under the latter of $157,214,445. The net loss in the trade balance of the United States has been $196,983,607 during the first 15 months’ operation of the tariff 16 of 1894, as compared with the first 15 months of the tariff of 1890. The loss has been constant and steady, at the rate of $13,130,000 per month, or $500,000 for every business day of this year. Losing in Both Directions. / We have either been sending too much money out of the country or getting too little in, or both. We have lost steadily in both directions. Our foreign trade has been diminished, and our domestic trade has suffered incalculable loss. Does not this suggest the cause of our present depression and indi¬ cate its remedy? Confidence in home enterprises has almost wholly disappeared. Our shops are closed or running on half time, at reduced wages and small profit, if not actual loss. Our men at home are idle, and, while they are idle, men abroad are occupied in supplying us with goods. Our unrivalled home market for the farmer has also greatly suffered because those ^ who constitute the great army of American wage-earners are without the work and wages they formerly had. If they can¬ not earn wages they cannot buy products. They cannot earn if they have no employment, and when they do not earn the farmers’ home market is lessened and impaired, and the loss is felt by both producer and consumer. The loss of earning power alone in this country in the past three years is sufficient to have produced our unfortunate business situation. If our labor was well employed, and employed at as remunerative wages as in 1892, in a few months every farmer in the land would feel the glad change in the increased demand for his products, and in the better prices which he would receive. Not Open Mints, But Open Mills. It is not an increase in the volume of money which is the need of the time, but an increase in the volume of business. Not an increase in coin, but an increase of confidence. Not more coinage, but a more active use of the money coined. Not open mints for the unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, but open mills for the full and unrestricted labor of American workingmen. The employment of our mints for the coinage T of the silver of the world would not bring the necessaries arid comforts of life back to our people. This will only come with the employment of the masses, and such employment is certain to follow the re-establishment of a wise protective policy which shall encourage manufacturing at home. 17 Protection has lost none of its virtue and importance. The first duty of the Republican party, if restored to power in the country, will be the enactment of a tariff law which will raise all the money necessary to conduct the government, economi¬ cally and honestly administered, and so adjusted as to give preference to home manufacturers and adequate protection to home labor and the home market. We are not committed to any special schedules or rates of duty. They are, and should always be, subject to change to meet new conditions, but the principle upon which rates of duty are imposed remains the same. Our duties should always be high enough to measure the difference between the wages paid labor at home and in competing countries, and to adequately protect American in¬ vestments and American enterprises. Our Farmers and the Tariff. Our farmers have been hurt by the changes in our tariff legislation as severely as our laborers and manufacturers, badly as they have suffered. The Republican platform wisely declares in favor of such encouragement to our sugar inter¬ ests “as will lead to the production on American soil of all the sugar which the American people use.” It promises to our wool and woollen industries “the most ample protection,” a guaranty that ought to commend itself to every patriotic citizen. Never w^as a more grievous wrong done the farmers of our country than that so unjustly inflicted during the past three years upon the wool growers of America. Although among our most industrious and useful citizens, their inter¬ ests have been practically destroyed, and our woollen manu¬ facturers involved in similar disaster. At no time within the past 36 years, and perhaps never during any previous period, have so many of our woollen factories been suspended as now. The Republican party can be relied on to correct these great wrongs if again entrusted with the control of Congress. Reciprocity. Another declaration of the Republican platform that has met most cordial support is that which favors reciprocity. The splendid results of the reciprocity arrangements that were made under authority of the tariff law of 1890 are striking and suggestive. The brief period they were in force, in most cases only three years, was not long enough to thoroughly test their great value, but sufficient was shown by the trial to con¬ clusively demonstrate the importance and the wisdom of their adoption. In 1892 the export trade of the United States attained the highest point in our history. The aggregate of our exports that year reached the immense sum of $1,030,278,148, a sum greater by $100,000,000 than the exports of any previous year. In 1893, owing to the threat of unfriendly tariff legislation, the total dropped to $845,665,194. Our exports of domestic mer¬ chandise decreased $189,000,000, but reciprocity still secured us a large trade in Central and South America, and a larger trade with the West Indies than we had ever before enjoyed. The increase of trade with the countries with which we have reciprocity agreements was $3,560,515 over our trade in 1892, and $16,440,721 over our trade in 1881. The only countries with which the United States traded that showed increased exports in 1893 were practically those with which we had reci¬ procity arrangements. The reciprocity treaty between this country and Spain, touching the markets of Cuba and Puerto Rico, was announced Sept, i, 1891. The growth of our trade with Cuba was phenomenal. In 1891 we sold that country but 114,441 barrels of flour; in 1892, 366,175; in 1893, 616,406; and in 1894, 662,248. Here was a growth of nearly 500 per cent, while our exportations of flour to Cuba for the year ending June 30, 1895, the year following the repeal of the reciprocity treaty, fell to 379,856 barrels, a loss of nearly half our trade with that country. The value of our total exports of merchandise from the United States to Cuba in 1891—^the year prior to the negotia¬ tion of the reciprocity treaty—^was $12,224,888; in 1892, $17,- 953,579; in 1893, $24,157,698; in 1894, $20,125,321; but in 1895, after the annulment of the reciprocity agreement, it fell to only $12,887,661. Many similar examples might be given of our increased trade under reciprocity with other countries, but enough has been shown of the efficacy of the legislation of 1890 to justify the speedy restoration of its reciprocity provisions. In my judgment. Congress should immediately restore the reci¬ procity sections of the old law, with such amendments, if any, as time and experience sanction as wise and proper. The un¬ derlying principle of this legislation must, however, be strictly 19 observed. It is to afford new markets for our surplus agricul¬ tural and manufactured products, without loss to the Amer¬ ican laborer of a single day’s work that he might otherwise procure. Foreign Immigration. The declaration of the platform touching foreign immigra¬ tion is one of peculiar importance at this time, when our own laboring people are in such great distress. I am in hearty sym¬ pathy with the present legislation restricting foreign immigra¬ tion, and favor such extension of the laws as will secure the United States from invasion by the debased and criminal classes of the old world. While we adhere to the public policy under which our country has received great bodies of honest, industrious citizens, who have added to the wealth, progress 1 and power of the country, and while we welcome to our shores the well-disposed and industrious immigrant, who contributes by his energy and intelligence to the cause of free government, we want no immigrants who do not seek our shores to become citizens. We should permit none to participate in the advant¬ ages of our civilization who do not sympathize with our aims and form of government. We should receive none who come to make war upon our institutions and profit by public disquiet and turmoil. Against all such our gates must be tightly closed. Our Soldiers and Sailors. The soldiers and sailors of the Union should neither be neglected nor forgotten. The government which they served so well must not make their lives or condition harder by treat¬ ing them as suppliants for relief in old age or distress, nor regard with disdain or contempt the earnest interest one com¬ rade naturally manifests in the welfare of another. Doubtless, there have been pension abuses and fraud in the numerous claims allowed by the government, but the policy governing the administration cf the pension bureau, must always be fair and liberal. No deserving applicant chould ^ ever suffer because of a wrong perpetrated by or for another. Our soldiers and sailors gave the government the best they had. They freely offered health, strength, limb and life to save the country in the time of its greatest peril, and the gov¬ ernment must honor them in their need as in i:heir service, with the respect and gratitude due to brave, noble and self-sacrific- 20 ing men, who are justly entitled to generous aid in their neces¬ sities. Our Merchant Marine and Navy. The declaration of the Republican platform in favor of the ^ upbuilding of our merchant marine has my hearty approval. The policy of discriminating duties in favor of our shipping, which prevailed in the early years of our history, should be again promptly adopted by Congress and vigorously supported until our prestige and supremacy on the seas is fully main¬ tained. We should no longer contribute, directly or indirectly, to the maintenance of the colossal marine of foreign countries, but provide an efficient and complete one of our own. Now that the American navy is assuming a position com¬ mensurate with our importance as a nation, a policy I am glad to observe the Republican platform strongly indorses, we must ^ supplement it with a merchant marine that will give us the advantages in both our coastwise and foreign trade that we ought naturally and properly to enjoy. It should be at once a matter of public policy and national pride to repossess this im¬ mense and prosperous trade. Civil Service Reform. The pledge of the Republican national convention that our civil service laws “shall be sustained thoroughly and honestly, and extended wherever practicable,” is in keeping with the po¬ sition of the party for the past 24 years, and will be faithfully observed. Our opponents decry these reforms. They appear ^ willing to abandon all the advantages gained after so many years’ agitation and effort. They encouf^ge a return to methods of party favoritism which both parties have often de¬ nounced, that experience has condemned, and the people have repeatedly disapproved. The Republican party earnestly op¬ poses this reactionary and entirely unjustifiable policy. It will take no backward step upon this question. It will seek to im¬ prove, but never degrade the public service. It Demands Special Attention. A There are other important and timely declarations in the platform which I cannot here discuss. I must content myself with saying that they have my approval. If, as Republicans, we have lately addressed our attention, with what may seem 21 great stress and earnestness, to the new and unprovoked as¬ sault upon the financial integrity of the government, we have done it because the menace is so grave as to demand especial consideration, and because we are convinced that if the people are aroused to the true understanding and meaning of this silver and inflation movement they will avert the danger. In doing this we feel that we render the best service possible to the country, and we appeal to the intelligence, conscience and patriotism of the people, irrespective of party or section, for their earnest support. It Will Maintain Law and Order. We avoid no issues. We meet the sudden, dangerous and revolutionary assault upon law and order, and upon those to whom is confided by the constitution and laws the authority to uphold and maintain them which our opponents have made, with the same courage that we have faced every emergency since our organization as a party, more than 40 years ago. Government by law must first be assured; everything else can wait. The spirit of lawlessness must be extinguished by the fires of an unselfish and honest patriotism. Every attack upon the public faith and every suggestion of the repudiation of debts, public or private, must be rebuked by all men who be¬ lieve that honesty is the best policy, or who love their country and will preserve unsullied its national honor. Sectionalism Almost Obliterated. The country is to be congratulated on the almost total obliteration of the sectional lines which for so many years marked the division of the United States into slave and free territory, and finally threatened its partition into two separate governments by the dread ordeal of civil war. The era of reconciliation, so long and earnestly desired by Gen. Grant and many other great leaders North and South, has happily come, and the feeling of distrust and hostility between the sections is everywhere vanishing, let us hope never to return. Nothing is better calculated to give strength to the nation at home, in¬ crease our power and influence abroad and add to the per¬ manency and security of our free institutions than the restora¬ tion of cordial relations between people of all sections and parts of our beloved country. If called by suffrages of the people to assume the duties of the high office of President of the United 22 States, I shall count it a privilege to aid, even in the slightest degree, the promotion of the spirit of fraternal regard which should animate and govern the citizens of every section. State or part of the republic. After the lapse of a century since its utterance, let us at length, and forever hereafter, heed the admonition of Wash¬ ington: “There should be no North, no South, no East, no West, but a common country.” It shall be my constant aim to improve every opportunity to advance the cause of good government by promoting that spirit of forbearance and justice which is so essential to our prosperity and happiness, by joining most heartily in proper efforts to restore the relations of brother¬ ly respect and affection which in our early history characterized all the people of all the States. I would be glad to contribut-- toward binding in indivisible union the different divisions of the country, which, indeed, now “have every inducement to sympathy and interest” to weld them together more strongly than ever. I would rejoice to see demonstrated to the world that the North and the South and the East and the West are not separated, nor in danger of becoming separated, because of sectional or party differences. The war is long since over, “we are not enemies, but friends,” and as friends we will faith¬ fully and cordially co-operate, under the approving smile of Him who has thus far so signally sustained and guided us, to preserve inviolate our country’s name and honor, its peace and good order, and its continued ascendancy among the greatest governments on earth. WILLIAM McKinley. F i L