MAINE.

REPUBLICAN.

April 16, 1896.-The platform declared the policy of the party in its indorsement of Thomas B. Reed for the Presidency. It presented Mr. Reed's name "because he stands for Protection as taught by Lincoln, illustrated by the signal prosperity of the country for thirty years and rounded cut by the Reciprocity of Blaine; he is opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, except by international agreement, until which he believes that the present gold standard should be maintained; he favors measures for the restriction of immigration, also a just administration of all pension legislation, and is an earnest friend of American shipping and its returning to its former rank in the world; he also stands for the preservation of the National honor at home and abroad."

June 2, 1896.-"We are opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, except by international agreement, and until such agreement can be obtained we believe that the present gold standard should be maintained.

"We believe in the maintenance of the highest National credit by the utmost faith toward the public creditor-not for the creditor's sake, but for the Nation's sake, for the sound reason that the most valuable possession of any nation in time of war or distress, next to the courage of its [eople, is an honorable reputation. Whoever pays with honor borrows with case. Sound finance and certainty at the Treasury and protection for the producers will mean prosperity and peace.

"We are in favor of a foreign policy which shall be at all times and with all nations firm, vigorous and dignified, which will preserve the National honor at home and abroad.

"We are in favor of measures for the restriction of immigration.

"We are in favor of a just administration of all pension legislation.

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"We congratulate our delegation Congress that their long-continued efforts in behalf of American shipping have at last aroused an interest throughout the country that promises to restore this great industry, so important to National defence, to its former prominence. We join our fellow-Republicans of the thirteen States in the advocacy of discriminating duties in favor of American ships, a policy approved by Hamilton, the father of American protection, and which gave us our carrying trade in the early days of the Republic.'

DEMOCRATIC.

June 17, 1896.-The following plank was adopted:

"We oppose the free coinage of silver and favor the single gold standard, unless a different standard is adopted through international agreement."

The minority of the committee, lacking two votes of a majority, reported a resolution favoring the use of both gold and silver, and the coinage of both without discrimination against either, but it was defeated by 193 to 101. Other planks indorsed President Cleveland's Administration, expressed sympathy for the Cubans, and asked for a resubmission of the prohibitory liquor law to the people.

August 6, 1896.-The platform declared that "we take from our State platform the following declaration: 'We oppose free coinage and favor the single gold standard, unless a different standard is adopted through international agreement'; and that we indorse the National Democratic platform with Bryan and Sewall."

POPULISTS.

June 4, 1896.-"We demand the coinage of both silver and gold in a ratio of 16 to 1, without asking the consent of any other nation. We demand the payment of our bonded debt, and that hereafter no bonds shall be issued under any circumstances, that Congress shall assume its Constitutional right to issue a greenback currency, which shall be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, until the sum total of the money in circulation shall reach $50 per capita."

Other planks demanded that all railroad, telegraph and telephone systems should be owned and operated by the Government; that all undesirable foreign immigration shall be absolutely prohibited; that all trusts and combinations founded for the purpose of speculating in the necessaries of life shall be forever prohibited and their promoters treated as public outlaws; that all land held for speculative purposes shall be taxed to the full extent of its rental value; the initiative and referendum, so that all laws can be referred back to the people for their approval before they become statutory enactments, and that all persons, firms or corporations in this State employing the labor of unnaturalized foreigners shall pay into the city or town treasury where such persons, firms or corporations are located the sum of 50 cents a day for each foreigner thus employed.

MARYLAND.

REPUBLICAN.

September 15, 1897.-That part of the platform relating to National affairs read:

"The Republicans of Maryland, in State Convention assembled, view with the utmost satisfaction the beneficent results so lately achieved under Republican administration in State and Nation, and we regard a continuance of the Republican party in power as essential for still further enlarged public service and greater public benefit.

"We congratulate the people of this country on the revival of business and the return of prosperity, through the principles and policies of the National Republican party. Therefore, be it

"Resolved, That, first-In reaffirming our devotion to the principles espoused in both State and National Republican platforms, we extend to President McKinley, Senator Wellington, the Congressmen and Governor of our State, and all who have aided them in the National and State administrations, our hearty congratulations for the wisdom, courage and fidelity displayed by their strict adherence to our party platform pledges.

"Second-That the supreme duty of maintaining inviolate the National honor and credit renders it imperative that Maryland at this juncture should elect to the United States Senate an advocate and

July 28, 1897.-The money planks declared that "the Democracy of Maryland, in common with the Democracy of the Union, believe now, as they always have believed, in honest money, the gold and silver money of the Constitution and the coinage of both metals without discrimination against either into standard dollars of final payment and redemption;' that "while many Democrats have not approved all the expressions of their party in National Convention bimetallism will surely come. It may come through the instrumentalities set in motion by the present Administration, though in truth inspired by the intrepid action of the Democratic voters; but it will come, and the prosperity and happiness that follow in its train will be due to the courage, the undaunted fidelity and the intelligent patriotism of the Democracy.'

On tariff, the platform declared that "Congress has adjourned without giving the people the smallest measure of relief and with the sole result of imposing upon them a tariff law more oppressive and iniquitous than has ever disgraced our statute books-a law which taxes the masses for the benefit of the classes, which narrows the field of individual opportunity, which forbids the expansion of our commerce, and which has not even the merit of providing a sufficient revenue for the proper conduct of the Government. It is in all respects a more odious and abhorrent measure than the McKinley act of 1890. That act was overwhelmingly repudiated and rebuked by the people in 1892. The Dingley act will be still more signally condemned in 1898."

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On Cuban affairs the platform said: "The appalling atrocities committed the war now being waged on that island merit the execration of all civilized people, and we demand that the American Government, while observing every treaty obligation, shall take such proper and effective action as will ameliorate the atrocities now being committed and fully protect every American citizen in his life and property."

The other planks dwelt upon State affairs. They condemned the Republican Administration; promised a modification of the existing assessment law if the Democratic party should be restored power; denounced the appropriations made by the Legislature; decried the existing

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SOUND MONEY DEMOCRATS. August 26, 1896.-The resolutions adopted condemned the financial policy of the Chicago platform, stated that unlimited coinage of silver is simply a synonyme for repudiation; indorsed in every detail the platform promulgated by the recent Democratic State Convention; denounced the "assault" by the Chicago Convention upon President Cleveland, and heartily commended his Administration. The resolutions also denounced the Chicago nominee as being undemocratic, and demanded a Democratic platform and candidates "in opposition to the Populist platform and candidates" adopted and named by the Chicago Convention.

September 29, 1897.-"Twelve months ago a party once great put forward a platform of devastation and destruction. Upon it. under a new and strange leadership, stood candidates who violently advocated its purposes of disorder-disorder in our revenue, in our financial system, in the execution of law and the administration of justice. Confidence flc. business cowered and shrank away, dout and danger alarmed the land. To-day that mass of dream and delusion is spurned even by the Nebraska farmers, who voted for it and who now know the fallacy of the deadly parallel between wheat and the white metal. Calked with free silver heresies, that same platform floats an abandoned derelict upon a turbulent sea, sighted now and then from some volcanic rock, by a Debs, an Altgeld, or even as on yesterday, by somebody or other in our own State, but never again to enter the haven of American confidence, to threaten and affright. To that creed of Bryanism and disorder, the St. Louis platform stood opposed. It won the fight in behalf of principle and National honor. But the Republican party has done more than win; it has scrupulously kept and promptly performed its promises. It has maintained the gold standard. It has given what the people wanted and believed in a tariff, to protect our labor and our industries; to furnish adequate revenue to our Treasury-an American policy for the American people. We see a Republican President instituting an honest search for honest bimetallism, which an international agreement alone can effect; under severe pressure for place, not merely maintaining, but wisely

extending the merit system in our Civil Service; declaring to other nations a policy dignified and firm without arrogance, patriotic always.

"To the Republicans of Massachusetts State control is not new, but never has the sense of their responsibility been more alert. They maintain their fundamental belief in the unsectarian free public school; they dare insist upon a full enforcement of the liquor law. They believe that the frequent approval of loans outside the debt limit is against wise municipal economy. They think the time has come to restrain the further extension of boards and commissions, and to promote the rational simplification many now existing. They demand strict enforcement of all statutes and thereby a leaner blue book.

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"Recognizing the importance of extending our commercial relations, they recommend the careful study of our consular service so that its efficiency and dignity may be increased. They would secure a safe and high citizenship, and they therefore urge that the laws of naturalization and immigration be so improved that our gates shall be promptly and tightly closed against all who are too ignorant to understand or too vicious to appreciate our institutions and laws. They declare that any man who is capable of assailing the foundations of credit and commerce by an adherence to Bryanism and the Chicago platform, or who maintains a vociferous silence when they are so assailed, should be considered as unfit to hold high municipal office or to administer State or federal functions.

"Fortunate, twice fortunate, does the Republican party find itself to-day in State and Nation. Surrounded by a cabinet, in which Massachusetts has the right to feel especial pride, having an invincible patriotism which obliterates sections and ignores creeds and conditions, stands the President of the whole nation, William McKinley. With a manhood unstained by fear or bravado, by insincerity or selfish ambition, with wisdom in the councils of State, with dignity for the assemblies of men, with a gracious geniality which makes him the friend at every fireside in the commonwealth, stands the man, fit to rank with the great historic Governors of Massachusetts, Roger Wolcott.

DEMOCRAT.

September 28, 1897.-The platform reaffirmed "allegiance to the great principles of Democracy as enunciated in the party's National Convention at Chicago; and we take special pleasure in recording our appreciation and indorsement of the splendid campaign waged in behalf of the people's right by their intrepid champion, who stands in merit and esteem with the historic leaders of the Democracy, the Hon. William Jennings Bryan.'

On the money question it said: "Whether it is judicious to abandon half the money in the world is the supreme question. The demonetization of silver, begun in 1873 with little or no thought in Europe and America, has been a potent and increasing factor in the disastrous depression of the last twenty years, not uniform. but with ups and downs, each level being lower than the

last. Gold has appreciated in purchasing power more than 3 per cent a year, demoralizing the producing classes with paralysis of trade through falling prices, and causing cruel unemployment of labor and reduction of the wage fund. The destruction of silver money already in process will, if completed, have doubled the demand for gold, its price and its purchasing power, while all other prices will have suffered a ruinous decline, with burden of debts doubled, debtors bankrupted, and a vast share of the world's wealth transferred from debtors to creditors by the malignant magic of an appreciating standard of value. The Democratic party opposes the attempt to fasten on the country gold monometallism and demands the remonetization of silver ict the ratio to gold

of 16 to 1. The demand for silver would be so enormous and the demand for gold so reduced that the two would meet and remain at parity, and the paralyzing battle of the standards would cease and the

world enter upon a period of assured prosperity. Just now a shortage of the world's food crops, culminating in widespread and ghastly Asiatic famine, has raised prices for our products. These abnormal conditions have largely eliminated the competition of silver-usi g countries. But a recurrence of good crops will renew the fierce competition of these countries, which will again underbid the American farmer and reduce the world's prices of agricultural products. While Republicans may place their reliance upon temporary distress abroad, Democrats demand such just and broad basis of standard money as will maintain a stable standard of value and stable prices, with steady employment of labor and capital. The greenbacks issued by the Government have proved the country's best paper money and should not be cancelled. There can be no privilege more dangerous than the control of our currency supply by private bankers, and we stoutly oppose their attempt to strengthen such a monopoly by the substitution of banknotes for our National notes.'

On the tariff question the platform declared: "Democracy means equality. It abhors legislation which builds up the vast wealth of the trusts and syndicates which overshadow the land and dictate laws to Congress for their own excessive gain. We condemn the Dingley law as a measure enacted on the imperious demands of the corporations which contributed to the scandalous Republican campaign fund, and which, against the public welfare and in violation of the common law, use the favors of the Government to crush out all competition and establish industrial monopoly. The Republican party, under bondage to the trusts, has become the political agent of millionaires and taxes all the people for the benefit of these syndicates, enriching the sugar trust alone with an increased market value of $15,000,000. We demand as a partial measure of instant relief that all duties by which trusts are fostered shall be forthwith abolished."

The platform favored an income tax; the popular election of United States Senators: the adoption of the initiative and referendum; expressed sympathy for

the Cuban insurgents: favored the settlement of all international disputes by arbitration: favored public ownership of water supply, gas and electric lighting, street railways and other service of like character, and the establishment and maintenance by the Government of postal savings banks; favored State taxation of personal property, and a tax on inheritance and successions, and expressed sympathy for the strikers in the coal mining regions.

NATIONAL DEMOCRATS.

September 30, 1897.-On the money question the platform read: "We adhere to and insist upon the maintenance of the present gold standard. We believe that the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, when the present commercial ratio is nearly 40 to 1, would be destructive to the interests of wage-earners, of depositors in savings banks, of the insured, of the veterans, and of the whole people. We believe that the payment of debts, public or private, in dollars of less intrinsic value than those in which they were contracted, is dishonorable and dishonest.

"Therefore, we affirm our allegiance to the great financial principle which guided Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland, that it is the sole function of the Federal Government in monetary matters to provide a standard of value and to coin metallic money, every dollar of which shall be of equal intrinsic value; that nothing but this coined money shall be legal tender; and that the Government shall not carry on a banking business.

"We demand that some safe plan be adopted whereby our legal-tender paper, silver and silver certificates shall be withdrawn, and a banking system under proper control be established through which adequate banking facilities may be furnished to all sections of the country.

"We believe that a currency based upon business assets and issued under proper safeguard responds automatically to the necessities of commerce and permits the issue of an elastic medium of exchange in those sections where it is most needed for the creation of new enterprises and the employment of American labor."

Upon the tariff it reaffirmed the "his-toric Democratic doctrine of tariff for revenue only." It declared that raw materials should be free of duty in the interest of consumers; in the interest of manufacturers that they may be able to compete in foreign markets, and in the interest of the laborers that they may find added employment.

The platform also demanded the extension of Civil Service reform to all postoffices, to the Consular service, and within the State to municipal offices; it opposed all attacks on the integrity of the United States Supreme Court and all efforts to make it deper.dent upon party success; favored arbitration for the settlement of international disputes; opposed all extensions of the boundaries of the United States which would bring under its Government masses of people unfitted for American citizenship and territories difficult to defend in case of war, and requiring burdensome taxation of our own

people to maintain increased armies and navies.

MICHIGAN.

REPUBLICAN.

February 23, 1897.-The Republican party of Michigan, in convention assemsembled, congratulates the country on the magnificent victory of November last and on the return of the Republican party to power. We reaffirm the principles laid down in the last National platform, and we believe that the triumph of Republican principles will restore the country to that condition of prosperity which it has always enjoyed under Republican supremacy.

MINNESOTA.

REPUBLICAN.

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March 24, 1896. The platform advocated a good system of coast defences and a strong army and navy; declared the conviction that the people of Cuba ought to be recognized as belligerents, and urged the preference of William McKinley for President. The financial plank read as follows: "We favor the use of both gold and silver to the extent which they can be maintained in circulation at the parity in purchasing and debt-paying powers; we are earnestly opposed, under the present restrictions, to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, for the manifest reasons that it would destroy such parity, enormously contract the volume of currency by forcing gold out of circulation and immediately place us cn a silver basis. Believing that it is a self-evident fact that the effect of the international demonetization of silver can be overcome only by international remonetization of that metal, the Republican party of Minnesota most heartily favors an international conference of the foreign Powers for that purpose."

It also declared "we are in favor of a tariff duty on foreign importations producing sufficient revenue for the support of the Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industries. We demand the restoration of the principle of reciprocity as a natural policy, and favor, as the logical correlative of our protective tariff laws, such treaty stipulations with foreign countries as will provide a profitable market for our surplus products, and enable us to buy from them on terms mutually advantageous."

Resolutions also declared that the Monroe Doctrine should be upheld; that the Cuban insurgents should be recognized as belligerents, and favored the doctrine of arbitration and a system of stronger coast defence and the development of the Navy.

July 1, 1896.-The platform indorsed that adopted by the National Convention of 1896, also the National ticket; advo cated the construction of good roads and pledged to promote the enactment of suitable legislation to that end; favored the taxation of unused railroad lands; recognized the just claims of the laboring people of the State and their equal right to the benefit and protection of its laws. The closing plank read:

"We call upon all citizens of this commonwealth to unite with us in restoring to our country the blessings of prosperity

June 11, 1896.-The Committee Platform made a majority and minority report, one declaring for gold and the other for the free coinage of silver. The former was adopted by a vote of 420 to 323, and the money plank was as follows:

"We are unqualifiedly in favor of the present gold standard of value. We favor the use of both gold and silver as money and believe our Government should coin and keep in circulation as a part of the circulating medium as large an amount of silver as can be employed without destroying or threatening to destroy the existing parity of value between the unit in gold and the unit in silver. We oppose the free coinage of silver by our Government at the ratio of 16 to 1 without co-operation on the part of the other commercial nations of the world."

August 4, 1896.-The platform declared in favor of the proceedings of the National Convention of 1896, denounced the National Republican platform, and demanded an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing for the election of the President and Vice-President and United States Senators by the direct vote of the people.

April 29, 1896. "Resolved, By the Democrats of Mississippi in convention assembled, that we favor the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the action or co-operation of any other Nation, and we hereby instruct our delegates to the National Democratic Convention to be held in Chicago in July next to vote for a platform embodying these principles; and we further instruct said delegates to vote for no man for President or Vice-President who is not fully and unequivocally in favor of the principles above expressed.

"Resolved, That the delegates to the National Convention from this State be instructed to vote as a unit on all questions."

A resolution instructing the delegates to present the name of Senator Waltham for Vice-President was adopted with a yell. A resolution to indorse President Cleveland's foreign policy was referred to the next State Convention.

MISSOURI.

REPUBLICAN.

May 12, 1896.-The platform began by referring to the tariff, noting that under a Democratic schedule labor and capital are idle and the home market largely destroyed, and continued:

"We demand a return to the sound Republican policy of protection and reciprocity under the reign of reciprocity as advocated by Blaine and enforced by Harrison's Administration. We are firm and emphatic in our demand for honest money. We believe that our money should not be inferior to the money of the most enlightened nation of the earth. We are unalterably opposed to any scheme that threatens to debase or depreciate our currency. We favor the use of silver as currency, but to the extent only and under such regulations that its parity with the present gold standard can be maintained; and, in consequence, we are opposed to the free, unlimited and independent coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1."

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It also declared that William McKinley was the choice for President. July 23, 1896. The platform one and indorsed every plank in the St. Louis platform, indorsed the nomination of McKinley and Hobart, deplored the communistic tendencies of the Democratic party and its reflections on the highest judicial authority, censure of the Federal Government. "It should be disowned by all friends of law and order," says the platform. Tampering with the ballot and the gerrymandering of Congress and Senate districts were denounced as vicious and unjust.

DEMOCRATIC.

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April 15, 1896.-On money the platform said:

"We demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold into primary or redemption money at the ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the action or approval of any other government; we are irrevocably opposed to the substitution for metallic money of a panic-breeding corporation credit currency based on a single metal, the supply of which is so limited that it can be cornered at any time by a few banking institutions in Europe and America; we are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by the law to the Government of redeeming such obligations in either silver coin or gold coin; we are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace, and especially are we opposed to placing the Treasury of the Government under the control of any syndicate of bankers and the issuance of