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and yet so much better is Republican administration that the annual sum collected by Republican State officers is nearly twice as great as that collected under Democratic government. The law taxing estates commonly known as the "transfer tax" was also a Republican measure. It was enacted in 1885 by a Senate and Assembly both Republican. Under it $25,000,000 has been collected for State purposes since its enactment, but the difference between Republican and Democratic administration is shown by the fact that the sum collected during the seven years of Democratic governmnt amounted to but little more than $9,000,000, as against nearly $16,000,000 collected by Republican State officers during the last seven years. The Raines Liquor Tax law is also a Republican measure. It has been in operation since and including the year 1896. The Democrats have opposed it in every Democratic State platform since its enactment, and have threatened its repeal. This law has brought into the town, city, and State treasuries of New-York during the five years of its operation the great sum of $60,788,$56. One-third of this sum, $20,262,952, has been applied to State purposes, while the balance of $40,525,904 has by so much reduced local taxation on real and personal property. The amount collected for State purposes in 1900 will exceed $4,250,000. The Republican Legislature has also enacted the franchise tax law, which is now for the first time being put into operation. Its results cannot yet be stated. The taxation of corporations enjoying the use of public property will continue to be as it has been in the past, a policy of the Republicans. These are examples of Republican legislation removing the burden of State expenditure from the real and personal property of the citizen. But their enactment is not the only cause, despite the annually increasing cost of the government, due both to its growing population and to the assumption by the State of the great charge for the care of the indigent and insane, of a low tax rate accomplished by Republican legislation. The year 1893 was the last year when the laws were enforced by Democratic State officers. In that year only $2,357,341 73 was expended by the State, irrespective of the expenditures by localities, for the support of the indigent and insane. Under the new law the appropriations for this purpose for this fiscal year are $8,922,443, all of which is included in the State's expenditures. Notwithstanding the difference in this single item, the tax rate of 1893 was 2.58 mills and the total expenditure was $17,367,335, while the present tax rate is only 1.96 mills and the total expenditure is $22,031,674. The economies of the Republican Legislatures no less than the enactment of new laws and the better enforcement of old ones have brought about this reduced charge for public purposes on the citizen. The proper policy to be pursued with respect to the canals of the State is a subject of grave concern to the people. Thirty years ago, when the capacity of the canals was less than it is to-day, there was moved over them twice as great a tonnage. In proportion as their capacity has increased and as the amount of possible business has grown and developed, their use has decreased. In 1896 the lake receipts of flour amounted to 10,371,653 barrels, but only 17,166 were shipped through the canals; the lake receipts of grain were 215,537,169 bushels, but only 23,296,000 were shipped through the canals; the lumber movement at Tonawanda amounted to 469,177,446 feet, but the canal shipments were only 184,709,746. The freight tonnage in 1898 over the railroads of New-York was 63,781,083 tons, but the canal tonnage was only 5 per cent of the railroad tonnage, although the railroad charge for freight per ton per mile was nearly twice as great as the canal charge. The last Republican Legislature appropriated the sum of $100,000 to be expended in a thorough and scientific investigation of the cause of this decline in canal traffic and of the character and expense of all the numerous projects that have been proposed for the betterment of the canals and to bring about their greater use. It is the policy of the Republican party, if any further expenditure is to be made upon the canals, except for maintenance, to place before the people the assured facts, together with estimates the accuracy of which can be relied upon. It is obvious, however, that the canal problem is not merely one of an improved waterway. Connected therewith there is another-the problem of more modern transportation methods. This feature, together with the question of economic advantage to the State, should be thoroughly examined. Other clauses call attention to legislation in the interest of workingmen, farmers and women, and the purity of elections, opposition to conspiracies between public officials and corporations. The paragraph relating to the water question announces the belief that in the interest of the health and comfort of citizens the people of the municipalities should own and operate their water supplies, and promises that the Republican party will favor legislation to enable every municipality, the just rights of all being conserved, to enter upon and take under the condemnation laws the watersheds necessary to secure for their inhabitants an adequate water supply. Praise is given to the National Guard for its patriotic spirit and military efficiency, the repeal of the Horton law is alluded to, and the platform closes as follows: The Republican party has taken special care of the interests of the unfortunate classes, the idiotic, the insane, the blind. It has established a State Hospital for crippled and deformed children. It has liberally provided for the treatment of indigent consumptives and epileptics. It has appropriated for scientific investigations, looking to the discovery of the sources and of means to prevent the extension of contagious diseases. It has liberally appropriated for the care of orphans, and for the maintenance of industrial schools for the instruction and reformation of juvenile offenders. It has looked carefully to public improvements. It has finished the Capitol. It has protected the Palisades. It has accomplished great improvements at the State Reservation at Niagara. It has greatly extended State Ownership of timber lands in the Adirondacks for the protection of the watersheds. Its laws have been effective for the promotion of public order and health, good morals, and wise and economical government of the State and all its communities. Covering the whole period of the seven years of its control of the State government, the Repub

lican party points to a record during which the charge of maladministration cannot be brought successfully against any of its officials. It is a record of progress and good government; of promises kept, not of pledges broken. Relying upon this, it asks the support of all the voters for the candidates nominated by this Convention.

June 5.-While recognizing the fact that as the Nation grows older new issues are born of time and progress, and old issues perish, we insist that the fundamental principles of Democracy, which have been so frequently approved by Democratic. the voice of the people, must ever remain as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights, equal rights for all and special privileges for none, the recognition of the reserved rights of the States, the confinement of the General Government to the exercise of powers granted by the Constitution strictly construd, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, home rule for States and opposition to centralization will ever constitute the true basis of our liberties, and are the essential principles upon which our institutions are founded. It is the especial mission of the Democracy to preserve, cherish and protect these fundamental tenets of our political faith. We hold to the doctrine that publie taxation should not be imposed for private purposes, and adhere to the principle of a tariff for revenue only. We are opposed to governmental partnership with protected monopolies, and we demand that import duties, like other taxes, should be impartially laid and so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country, not discriminating between class or section, and their imposition limited to the necessities of the Government honestly and economically administered. In this connection we assert our opposition to the continuance of war taxes in times of peace. We demand retrenchment and economy in all the departments of the Government, and condemn the extravagance and profligacy which have characterized the present Republican National Administration. We favor both gold and silver as the standard money of the country-the money of the Constitution and of our fathers-each to be maintained at a parity with the other in purchasing and debt paying power, which has been the steadfast policy of the Democratic party since the days of Jefferson, who declared that "the monetary unit must stand on both metals." We pledge our best efforts to continue the work of monetary reform. We are opposed to that foreign policy of the present National Administration, commonly known as "imperialism,' which contemplates schemes of conquest and the establishment of colonial governments in accordance with British theories and practices, demands large standing armies for purposes of subjugation, impoverishes the people with vast public expenditures, creates hordes of officials to rule over peoples who should be permitted to rule themselves, disregards the principles of the Declaration of Independence and materially changes the nature of our republican form of government. We earnestly protest against the wrongs, the usurpations and suicidal follies involved in such an un-American policy. There is no place for subject colonies under the American flag. The Constitution does not contemplate the establishment of colonial systems. We demand that our solemn ante-war pledges made by Congress to Cuba and to the world should be speedily fulfilled in good faith, thereby preserving our National integrity and honor. We maintain that the Constitution follows the flag over every integral part of the United States, affording to its inhabitants the protection and benefits of its guarantees of life, liberty, habeas corpus, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, trial by jury and uniform tariff laws. A Republican Congress has no more right to establish or govern a territorial or colonial system outside of the Constitution than it has to create a king. We demand that every part of our possessions shall be governed according to American precedents and American principles. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico, and give her products free access to our markets. We condemn President McKinley and a Republican Congress for a flagrant violation of this plain duty, and for their hypocrisy and inconsistency. We express our unqualified opposition to those immense combinations of capital commonly known as "trusts," which are concentrating and monopolizing industry and business, crushing out independent producers of limited means, destroying competition, restricting opportunities for labor, artificially limiting production, raising prices, and by reason of their alarming multiplication throughout the country, are rapidly creating a condition which is becoming intolerable. These trusts and combinations are the direct outgrowth of the policy of the Republican party, which has created, fostered and protected them. It receives their support and solicits and accepts their prodigal contributions to aid its retention in power, and it is therefore incapaci tated and unwilling to abolish and destroy them, or even to properly regulate and restrict them. The Democratic party pledges itself that if intrusted with power in either the State or the Nation it will devote its best energies to the relief of the people from these oppressive monopolies. The chief characteristics of the present Republican National Administration are its weakness and corruption. Its course has been vacillating and contradictory on nearly all public questions. It was forced, against its inclinations, to take a patriotic attitude upon Spanish-Cuban affairs by an overwhelming public sentiment, to which it reluctantly yielded. Having obtained power upon the promise that it intended to legislate for the country instead of party, it immediately proceeded to enact a high protective and partisan tariff law, which protected the rich and oppressed the poor, which strengthened monopolies and injured the interests of labor, which increased the people's burdens instead of relieving them. It has covered up and sanctioned the scandals of its military administration. The dis closures of the corrupt methods of its appointees are breaking out everywhere. It has permitted the Civil Service laws to be used for the accomplishment of partisan ends. It has tolerated an Many of its judiciary appointments have been notoriously unfit. offensive bossism in and around the White House which has virtually dictated the

civil appointments in nearly all the States. We declare that administrative reform is necessary in every department of the General Government, which can only be accomplished by a change of measures, of methods and of men. The Monroe Doctrine, as originally declared and as since interpreted by succeeding Democratic Presidents, is a permanent part of the foreign policy of the United States, and must at all times be vigorously maintained. We are opposed to any alliances, express or implied, with any foreign Government, whereby the influence of this country cannot at all times be freely exerted in behalf of the maintenance and extension of republican institutions, and in favor of any brave people struggling to be free from plutocratic or monarchical rule. Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers and sailors, we favor the enactment of fair and liberal pension laws, and demand their reasonable interpretation and impartial enforcement. We are in favor of an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing for the election of United States Senators by the people of the respective States. The Democracy of New-York favors the nomination of William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, for President of the United States.

September 12.-The Democratic party of the State of New-York, in convention assembled, declares as follows: "We pledge ourselves anew to the principles and policies of Jeffersonian Democracy and indorse the platform adopted by the last Democratic National Convention. We recognize the truth of the declaration of that Convention that the burning issue of imperialism, growing out of the Spanish war, involves the very existence of the Republic and the destruction of our free institutions. We regard it as the paramount issue of the campaign. Upon this issue, therefore, we invite all citizens of our State to promote the election of a Democratic President, however they may differ upon National issues which at this time are inferior in rank. In the presence of this momentous peril to our land and to the cause of Democratic and industrial self-government we are confident that the patriotic citizens of this State, faithful to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, will not permit themselves to be divided upon any difference of belief or judgment as to any other question of governmental policy. The issue now paramount includes the question of the perversion of the power of Government to the exclusive benefit of favored classes, or of the substitution of government by syndicate for government of, by and for the people. And in this connection we wish to impress upon all the following declaration of our last State convention: We are opposed to that foreign policy of the present National Administration commonly known as "imperialism," which contemplates schemes of conquest and the establishment of colonial government in accordance with British theories and practices; demands large standing armies for the purpose of subjugation; impoverishes the people with vast public expenditures; creates hordes of officials to rule over people who should be permitted to rule themselves; disregards the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and materially changes the nature of our republican form of government. We maintain that the Constitution follows the flag over every integral part of the United States, affording to its inhabitants the protection and benefits of its guarantees of life, liberty, habeas corpus, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, trial by jury, and uniform tariff laws. Congress has no more right to establish or govern a territorial or colonial system outside of the Constitution than it has to create a king. We demand that every part of our possessions shall be governed according to American precedents and American_principles. We ratify and indorse the nomination for the Presidency of William J. Bryan, a statesman of undoubted patriotism and independence enjoying in a marked degree the confidence of his fellow citizens, an honest, able and fearless champion of popular rights and aspirations, in whose hands the business interests of the country and the industrial elements of our citizenship would find equal and ample protection. The nomination of that sturdy old Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson as Vice-President is hailed by the Democracy as an inspiration. His long record as a Democrat in public service is a guarantee of wise, conservative, wholesome administration. We condemn the corporate combination known as the Ice Trust and denounce all combinations of capital known as trusts as inevitably and intolerably unjust to both producer and consumer. By substituting for the natural laws of commerce the arbitrary dictates of selfish greed prices are reduced to the producer and increased to the consumer to the extreme limit to provide enormous dividends upon fictitious capital values. To accentuate the evil, the policy of trusts, in restricting production, deprives thousands who under legitimate conditions would be profitably employed of all opportunity to earn a livelihood in the calling or occupation to which they have been trained. The direct effect of these immense combinations of capital in control of every industry is to destroy all individual enterprise, and to rob the young men of the country of the free field and fair competition which in Democratic times constituted the great glory of the Nation and permitted the advancement and independence of our youth without any favoritism and without any other requisite aids than merit, honesty and industry. The hope of former days has departed from the young men of the land. The outlook promises only that what they are to-day that they shall remain to the end of their lives. The savings of their laor and frugality during a lifetime promise no relief from present drudgery in even the distant future. Turn where they may to improve their condition, they encounter the crushing rivalry of aggregated millions, and the inequality of the contest for improved conditions for the individual renders the contest hopeless. The day of individual opportunity must be restored, and to achieve this laudable public endeavor the Democratic party is pledged in both State and Nation. We favor economy in public expenditure and a reduction of the volume of appropriations to the needs of efficient government. We repeat our demand for "the abolition of unnecessary offices and tax eating commissions" whereby the expenses of the State have been made to exceed by more than $10,000,000 those of the last Democratic State administration. We earnestly oppose

the further increase of State commissions and call attention to the violation of the pledge of the Republican party in 1894 to do away with the commissions then existing. In utter contempt of this promise the number of such commissions has been increased more than threefold, not for the promotion of any public interests, but for the purpose of providing places for political favorites. By this method localities have been deprived of legitimate powers, the exercise of all governmental functions has been centralized at Albany, and the powers of government in this State are now vested largely in commissions and commissioners. We favor the principle of taxing public franchises, and condemn the failure of the Republican administration to enforce in good faith the franchise tax laws already enacted. We pledge the Democratic party to the prompt enactment and honest execution of just and equitable methods of taxing such franchises. We believe in local self-government and in the right of the several municipalities to conduct their purely local concerns without legislative interference, or charter tinkering for partisan purposes. We denounce the action of recent Republican Legislatures in habitually overruling the vetoes by Democratic city authorities of local legislation submitted for their approval, disregarding the merits of such vetoes and the obligation of the Constitution. We favor such reform in legislative methods as will make impossible such forgeries of laws as were perpetrated in the Legislature of 1900, to the great scandal of the people of the State. We favor a reasonable and just excise law under which there shall be restored to the several localities the local supervision of the liquor traffic, now totally destroyed by a system which, under the guise of regulating the traffic, takes away from the people all power of controlling or regulating it in their respective neighborhoods and builds up a political machine to prey upon this traffic for partisan ends. We condemn the canal policy of the Republican party as ruinous to the commerce of the State. The wasteful and fraudulent expenditure of $9,000,000 and the failure to punish those implicated therein is a blot upon the administration of the canals meriting the rebuke of a plundered and betrayed people. We pledge the Democratic party to an economical and honest administration of canal affairs. The complete abandonment of the canal problem by the Republicans is a surrender of the commercial interests of the State to the unrestricted exactions of the railroads. We believe the canals should be maintained, and with economical expenditure improved to the conditions which permit their operation as competitors in freight transportation and as factors in the limiting of freight rates and the prevention of unjust discrimination between shippers." After a clause calling for a strict enforcement of all labor laws, and protesting against the assumption by the Republican leaders that the Republican party is the friend of labor, the platform continues: "We condemn the legislation known as the Ramapo Water bill, passed by a Republican Legislature and approved by a Republican Governor, which granted to this favored corporation such extraordinary power as to place at its mercy many cities and villages which have not yet acquired their own supply of water, or, having acquired it, desire to increase such supply, and we pledge the Democratic party to a correction of the evil, and to the prevention of its repetition by the enactment of such laws as may be necessary. We favor the ownership by the several municipalities of their own water supply and the general principle of municipal ownership of public utilities. mand the repeal of the unconstitutional and partisan statute imposed upon the city of New-York known as the McCullagh force bill. We favor uniform election laws throughout the State respecting the equal rights and equal citizenship of all the electors of the State. We protest against the invasion of homes of the citizens of the Greater New-York and their subjection to an inquisitorial examination by State spies and deputies, armed with pistols and bludgeons, under the guise of enforcing election laws. As the improvement of the rural highways add to the comfort and welfare of the people and materially aid the producers of the State by affording more easy access to market, increasing the value of farm property, we favor liberal expenditures by the State for the construction and maintenance of such roads. And we favor organized movements having for their object the building and improvement of the highways, roads and bicycle paths. We favor the election of United States Senators by a direct vote of the people. We recognize in the existing process of appointment and removal of the teachers in the public schools of the State a constant menace to the well being and effective service of instructors of our youth and a detriment and obstacle to the progress of their pupils; and we pledge ourselves to the enactment of a tenure of office law that shall correct the present conditions, and we deprecate the tendency manifested by the Republican party of dragging the public school system of the State into politics.' Practical Civil Service is demanded, and the platform concludes: "Believing that the success of the Republican party means continuance of the policy of criminal aggression abroad and the complete ascendency of trusts and favored interests at home, the Democrats of New-York State appeal to the patriotism and intelligence of the voting population to support in State and Nation the party whose cardinal principles have ever been equal and exact justice to all, special privileges to none. Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none. Home rule. Individual liberty. Common sense Civil Service. Honest pay for honest toil. And the lowest possible taxation consistent with efficient administration. Upon this and the National declaration of party faith we stand, and confidently urge upon the people of this State the claims to their consideration and support of the party which, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, made glorious the opening of the century by re-establishing on a firm foundation the principles of republican government."

We de

June 6.-A declaration of principles was adopted which was substantially the same as that of 1896. Special resolutions censure President McKinley for the troubles

with the miners in Idaho, as well as "the Free Silver Bryanistic Governor Steunenberg, the Silver Republican State Auditor Sinclair and the Populist Governor Smith of Montana," besides various judges and labor leaders, including Samuel Gompers and Eugene V.

Socialist Labor.
Debs.

May 2. The

Republican.

(LILY WHITE).

NORTH CAROLINA.

convention declared vigorous opposition to negro domination, and instructed the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention to vote for McKinley, pledged support to the National Administration, favored expansion, the gold standard and protection.

April 12.-The platform favored peaceful commercial expansion, denounced the Republican party's legislation on the currency question, declared against legislation by which the people in territory acquired by the United States are Democratic. taxed without representation and deprived of the protection afforded by the principle that the Constitution follows the flag, and on tariff and taxes said: "We denounce the tariff legislation of the Republican party which has increased the burdens of taxation upon our consumers and increased the powers of the trusts and monopolies to rob the people. Believing that under our present method of Federal taxation more than three-fourths of our National revenues are paid by people owning less than one-fourth of the property of the country, we protest against such inequality and injustice, and in order to remedy to some extent this great wrong we favor an income tax and favor all constitutional methods to sustain it."

April 18.-The platform reaffirms the platform adopted at St. Louis in 1896 and instructs the delegates to the National Convention at Sioux Falls on May 9 to vote for Bryan, condemns the Democratic Legislature of 1899 for: (1) Its People's. expenditures, (2) its legislation, (3) passage of the constitutional amendment, and on the amendment says: "The constitutional question presented by the proposed amendment is one that must be determined by the judgment and conscience of each individual voter. Therefore, we do not make it a party question. We state the evils and dangers and leave the voters of all parties to pass their verdict in the light of these facts. The question is above party and no one should be more active and anxious in our judgment to defeat it than the rank and file of the Democratic party."

NORTH DAKOTA.

May 16.-The Committee on Resolutions indorsed the McKinley Administration, congratulated themselves on the prosperity existing in the State, reaffirmed their belief in sound money, approved the State's representatives, commended Republican. the North Dakota volunteers for valiant service in the Philippines, condemned trusts, hoped for the adoption of legislation to restrict

them, and favored extension of Oriental markets.

September 25.-The convention ratified the National platform, commended the Administration of President McKinley, favored such legislation as will destroy all unlawful combinations of capital formed for the purpose of limiting production or increasing the price of manufactured products, complimented the North Dakota volunteers upon the splendid record in both the Cuban and Philippine wars, congratulated the people of the country upon the enactment into law of the currency bill, which provides the gold standard as the monetary unit of value, and favored the present prohibition law and a faithful enforcement of the same as well as all other laws of the State, especially those in the penal and criminal codes and their strict and impartial enforcement in all parts of the State at all times.

June 6.-The convention adopted the following: Resolved, That we reaffirm our allegiance to the fundamental principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States. That we are opposed to the Republican policy of miliDemocratic. tarism, colonialism and alliance with any foreign power, opposed to territorial expansion by force of arms, and that we are in favor of trade expansion to the fullest extent. That we are opposed to taxation without representation. That it is our plain duty to abolish all customs duties between ourselves and Porto Rico. That we are opposed to the Republican principle of protection, which makes it possible for combinations to restrict trade and eliminate competition, by fostering trusts and monopolies. We are in favor of the election of United States Senators by popular vote. We are in favor of an economical administration, equitable adjustment of the burden of taxation, and we favor an amendment to the Constitution of the United States conferring upon Congress the power to tax incomes.

July 19.-We, the Democrats of North Dakota, in delegate convention assembled, hereby renew our allegiance to those immortal principles of human rights enumerated by Jefferson, defended by Jackson and in their latest form incorporated in the Democratic platform of 1900. We announce our unqualified approval of every principle embodied in that platform. We send greetings to our ideal leaders, William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska, and Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, and pledge them and the principles for which they stand the loyal support of North Dakota in the National election. The Republicans have been in control of all branches of our State government for the last six years, and we challenge them to defend themselves against the following charges and specifications: First-You have recklessly and prodigally conducted the business of the State, thereby largely and unnecessarily increasing the State taxes and imposing unnecessary and unjust burdens upon the taxpayers. Second-You have carried upon the pay roll employes and clerks who have drawn salaries without rendering service. Third-You have discriminated in favor of cor

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