SOUTH DAKOTA.

REPUBLICAN.

March 25, 1896.-"The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold and silver as standard money, with restriction, and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government, shall be as good as any other. We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our Government to secure an international conference, to adopt such measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver for use as money throughout the world."

DEMOCRATIC.

May 20, 1896.-The money question was covered by this resolution: "The Democratic party of South Dakota is in favor of the present standard of value in our money system and the use of full legal tender silver, coins and paper, convertible into coin on demand, in such quantities as can be maintained without impairing or endangering the credit of the Government or diminishing the purchasing or debt-paying power of the money in the hands of the people, and it is not in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1."

TENNESSEE.

REPUBLICAN.

April 22, 1896. The platform favored protection to American industries and the doctrine of reciprocity; condemned the ad ministration of Grover Cleveland; favored the completion of the Nicaragua Canal; expressed the belief that the material and commercial interests of both the United States and Cuba demand an early cessation of the present war; condemned the action of a majority of the Democratic party in the Tennessee Legislature, by which Henry Clay Evans was counted out in the Gubernatorial contest; appealed for reform of the fee system, and indorsed the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The financial plank of the platform was:

"We are unalterably opposed to any scheme that will give to this country a depreciated and debased currency. We favor the use of silver as currency, but to the extent only that its parity with gold will be maintained, and in consequence are opposed to a free and unlimited and independent coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. We believe that every American dollar should be an honest 100-cent dollar, always and everywhere.'

DEMOCRATIC.

May 7, 1896.-The platform urged an income tax law; commended the action of the Legislature in seating Mr. Turney over H. Clay Evans as Governor; urged the reduction of costs in criminal prosecutions. It also adopted the following money plank: "We hold that it is the high duty and honor of the Democratic party to call back

the Government to the old paths, to restore it to purity and virtue, and to root out all the pernicious influences that have corrupted its legislators and the administration of its laws. As a first and most recessary step to this end, we demand the restoration of the money of the Constitution by a law providing for the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver as full legal-tender money at the ratio of 16 to 1, regardless of the action of any other nation."

PROHIBITION.

April 29, 1896.-The platform adopted denounced the liquor traffic and declared that men grown rich by it have paralyzed the Government against themselves; that the enemies of the saloon should be controlled by neither political party; affirmed belief in equal suffrage regardless of sex; demanded a graduated income tax on all incomes exceeding $2,000 and a graduated inheritance tax on all inheritances of $10,000 or more; wanted criminals worked on public roads in the counties; wanted undesirable immigrants excluded; extension of the naturalization period; abolition of the free system; local option for municipalities; favored a constitutional convention. A free silver resolution was knocked out almost unanimously.

TEXAS.

REPUBLICAN (BLACK AND TAN). March 28, 1896.-"We reaffirm the historic adherence of the Republican party to scund finance. We demand an honest dollar of greatest purchasing power for every class alike; the largest issue of gold, silver, and paper compatible with security and the requirements of trade, all of equal value, interchangeable one for the other, every dollar resting on gold as money of final redemption."

REPUBLICAN (LILY WHITE).

April 20, 1896.-"We favor bimetallism, the use of gold and silver coin as money of mutual redemption. We favor the immediate calling of an international monetary and reciprocity conference for the adoption of an international agreement, with such reciprocal clauses as to trade between countries that ratify the action of the conference as will force every country, through self-interest, to adopt the basis thus established."

DEMOCRATIC.

July 30, 1897.-The Blake Conference, at Waco, adopted a platform which said: "We hail as an advance sign of the return to the principles upon which the prosperity of the country can alone be achieved the disposition of the people in other States, as expressed in the recent elections, to turn to the time-honored doctrine of bimetallism and to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money metals of the country and to system of just and fair taxation, opposed to trusts and monopolies, and to the principles contained in the last National Democratic platform adopted at Chicago in 1896.

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"We denounce the hypocrisy and false pretences of the Republican party, which gave the promise of restoring prosperity

June 23, 1896.-"Holding it to be as impossible for man to measure value by more than one standard as it is to so measure any other quantity, and being firmly convinced that a change in the standard for the measure of value at this time would result in a financial panic to which the history of the world furnishes no parallel, and believing that every Government owes it to its own honor and to its citizens that it shall so order its laws as to require all debts to be paid in money as nearly as possible equal in value to the money in circulation at the time of the creation of the debt, we declare that it is the duty of the United States to maintain the present single gold standard of the measure of value, to the end that justice shall be done to all men and the honor of the Nation preserved. We believe in the use of silver as current money, and the coinage and circulation of such amount thereof as can be kept at a parity with gold, but we oppose the free and unlimited coinage of silver by this Government alone as a measure borrowed from Populism and fraught, if successful, with dishonor and disgrace to the Nation and destruction to the people.

"We favor a tariff for revenue only, sufficient in amount to support the Government economically administered.

We demand the immediate retirement of this Government from the banking business, and that the law authorizing the reissuance of the Treasury notes shall be re-pealed and such promises be retired and cancelled. We favor the establishment of a safe system of banking under rigid governmental supervision in order that the people of this country may have at l times a sound, safe and elastic currency amply sufficient for the transaction of their business."

POPULISTS.

August 6, 1896.-The features of the platform were as follows: Notes and securities not rendered for taxation shall be void, the object being to shift the burden of taxation on the holders of vendors' lien notes and relieve the land-owners; limiting salaries of county officers to $2,000; asking Federal appropriation for improvement of Texan waterways and harbors; an eight-hour day for workingmen, and that the legal cotton tax and sugar bounty should be devoted to the support of exConfederate soldiers.

UTAH.

REPUBLICAN.

April 7, 1896.-"We believe in a protective tariff; we believe in reciprocity; we believe in bimetallism, which is the full recognition alike of gold and silver and their free coinage in the mints of the Nation at the ratio of 16 to 1. We hold that as a tariff for revenue has failed to restore prosperity, so a protective tariff, as long as the money of the country is held, ounce for ounce, 100 per cent higher than

the money of the Orient and of SpanishAmerica, is impotent to save our farmers and manufacturers against a competition which they are helpless to meet, and we repudiate the belief that protection without bimetallism can restore prosperity.

"We ask our delegates to St. Louis to do their utmost to secure in the National Republican platform a full acknowledgment of the imperative need of a return to real bimetallism, and a promise of its swift adoption without regard to other nations, by opening our mints to the free coinage of gold and silver at a ratio of 16 to 1."

September 24, 1896.-The majority report indorsed the platform of the National Convention with the exception of the financial plank. It said: "We renew the promises which have been made in former platforms of the Republicans in Utah. We believe in bimetallism, and thereby we mean the use of both gold and silver as standard money and the free and unlimited coinage of both metals at the ratio of 16 to 1. We believe the Republican doctrine of protection is necessary to the return to bimetallism, and as an essential part of it, we believe by a protective tariff and other wise legislation the United States alone, without the aid of other nations, will be able to return to the free coinage of silver at the old ratio of 16 to 1, and we denounce as impossible the present claim of Democrats that free trade and free silver can exist together."

The minority report indorsed the St. Louis platform in its entirety and made no mention of silver. A hot debate ensued, resulting in the adoption of the majority report overwhelmingly.

DEMOCRATIC.

June 6, 1896.-The platform contained this plank:

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"The Democratic party of Utah, in convention assembled, reposing its trust the honesty, intelligence, independence and patriotism of the people, standing upon the great essential principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are founded, while reaffirming its devotion to these principles as declared from time to time in the and party platforms especially those principles announced by the Democrats of Utah in the reconvened convention of 1895, now believing that the restoration of the money of the Constitution is of paramount importance, declares in favor of the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, as such coinage existed prior to 1873, regardless of the action or policy of other nations, gold and silver coin to be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private."

The platform also declared for the divorce of Church and State. The delegates were instructed to vote as a unit for candidates for President and Vice-President known to be in favor of the money plank.

September 24, 1896.-The platform declared for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, without regard to other nations; a tariff for revenue only, and the reopening of the Indian reservations to settlement.

VERMONT.

REPUBLICAN,

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April 29, 1896.-"We believe in a tariff which shall raise sufficient revenue to meet the necessity of the Government. economically administered, and at same time furnish reasonable protection to American industries, American labor and the product of American farms. believe in the policy of reciprocity established under the last Republican Administration, which affords us a market for our surplus products and manufactures, and enables us to obtain from other countries, under the most advantageous terms, articles which we desire and do not produce.

"We believe in a consistent and dignified foreign policy, based upon the traditional doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of the Old World and the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine in this. We favor a just but liberal administration of the pension laws, an adequate system of coast defence and a reasonable regulation and restriction of immigration.

"The Republicans of Vermont are unalterably opposed to any scheme to give the country a depreciated or debased currency. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement, and until re-established we believe the present monetary standard should be honorably maintained. The continual agitation of the free coinage of silver retards the return of our confidence and prosperity, and stands in the way of beneficial legislation, and is in every respect harmful to the best interests of the whole hountry.

"We believe that the credit of the Government should be maintained, not by the issue of bonds and the increase of the National debt, but by a return to a system of duties which shall replenish the public treasury, put in motion the now silent wheels of business, and insure living prices to American farms and workshops."

June 17, 1896.-"We denounce and condemn the attempt to establish the free and unlimited coinage of silver as destructive to the best interests of the people, and if successful sure to injure and debase the credit of this country.

"We demand a currency that shall be worth a hundred cents on the dollar throughout the civilized world, and we pledge ourselves to do all in our power to prevent the issue by the Government of any other.

"We demand that sufficient revenue be raised by the Government to pay its expenses, and we declare it pernicious and wrong for the Government in time of peace to increase its debt for the purpose of obtaining money for its ordinary expenses.

"We adhere to the doctrine of protection as held by the Republican party, and demand that the needs of the Government be supplied by duties so laid as to protect the laboring classes of our people from competition with the pauper labor of the Old World, and to promote the business interests of our people.

"Our watchword shall be an honest dollar, good the world over, protection to American labor and industries, and revenue sufficient to maintain the Gov

ernment without further increasing its debt."

Other planks denounced President Cleveland's Administration, pledged earnest support to the Republican nominee for President, and demanded the strictest economy in the affairs of the State.

DEMOCRATIC.

May 27, 1896.-The platform commended the Administration of President Cleveland and his Venezuelan message, expressed sympathy for the Cubans in their struggle for independence, and denounced the American Protective Association. It added:

"We demand the maintenance of a gold standard of value as being in the true interests of all our people, especially those obliged to labor for what they receive, and we are opposed to free coinage of silver, except by international agreement.

"We are opposed to the Republican theory and methods of a protective tariff as being a criminal misapplication of the taxing power of the Nation, producing monopoly, corruption and business stagnation. We therefore demand tariff legislation for the constitutional purpose of providing

revenues for the Government, not for the fostering of trusts, keeping always in mind that unnecessary interference with business interests should be avoided."

The platform also demanded the replacement of the Prohibitory law with a stringent license local-option system, and denounced the Republicans for "increasing the State expenses from $279,000 just after the war to well toward $600,000 now."

POPULIST.

July 28, 1896.-The platform called for fiat money and free silver, and contained also the following plank:

"The resort to bribery as an instrumentality for carrying elections and for securing legislation or court decisions being a direct thrust at the very life of free government and no less an act of treason than firing on our country's flag, therefore demand an act of Congress making it, in law as it is in fact, a capital crime for both the receiver and giver of bribes in any form and punishable as such."

VIRGINIA.

REPUBLICAN.

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April 24, 1896.-The platform reaffirmed its allegiance to the principles of the Republican party, as enunciated in the National platform, and expressed its "pride in being a part of an organization which to faithfully adheres the principles of protection, in which no furnace fires have ever been put out, no factories closed, and no army of workers upon the streets and highways in enforced idleness." It also condemned the Democratic attempt to call a convention to revise the Constitution as "being the first movement of the enemies of our public free schools. Its manifest purpose is to stem the swelling tide of Republican progress in our State by an effort to disfranchise our illiterate voters, both white and colored, to set up a fraudulent and pretended educational qualification, and to so amend the present free school provision as to place it in the power

of future Legislatures to practically destroy the beneficent system of education engrafted in the present Constitution of the State by the Republican party."

October 5, 1897.-The platform reaffirmed allegiance to the Republican party and indorsed in its entirety the platform of the party adopted at St. Louis in 1896. It indorsed the "wise and statesmanlike administration of President McKinley, and congratulated the country upon the return of a widespread prosperity, as a result of a restoration of confidence and the legislation of a Republican Congress." It demanded for the State of Virginia, through the Legislature to be elected, a fair election law under which every legal voter shall have the privilege of casting one vote and having it counted as cast. It recognized the people as the source of all power, "and that any action or device tending to restrain or repress their voice or right is flagrantly violative of the spirit and intent of republican institutions and government." It disapproved the action of the State Committee in refusing to call a convention for the purpose of determining all questions legitimately pertaining to convention action and affecting the dignity and the right of the constituent body. demanded greater economy in State expenses; a reduction in the number of officers; an extension and improvement of the public school system; the improvement of the public highways, and as liberal a pension policy in behalf of disabled Confederate soldiers as the finances of the State will permit.

DEMOCRATIC.

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August 12, 1897.-The platform treated exhaustively of State affairs, reminding the people that the November election was of special significance because of the election of State officials; pledging the party a loyal and generous support of the educational system; commending the disabled soldiers of the State and their widows and orphans to the most generous and favorable consideration that it is extend; possible for the Legislature to and promising loyal consideration to the eleemosynary institutions, the agricultural interests, etc.

Upon National affairs the platform reaffirmed the Chicago platform of 1896, "and upon which William Jennings Bryan was nominated for the Presidency of the United States, and we extend our congratulations to our noble champion upon the able and brilliant manner in which he discharged the trust reposed in him. The fact that he received more votes than any previous Democratic candidate for the Presidency and more than any candidate of any party saving alone his successful opponent, is evidence that Democratic principles are still dear to a vast mass of the American people, and that Democracy is living in the hope of an early and complete triumph.'

It indorses the doctrines of the National Democratic party upon the tariff, the income tax and regulating of trusts and the currency; declaring that tariff duty should be levied for revenue purposes and only for so much may be needed for an economic administration of the Government, and denouncing the Republican tariff bill.

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It favored an income tax for the support of the Federal Government, and favored constitutional amendment that such taxes may be levied. It declared against trusts and favored such Congressional action as would curb them. Upon the subject of the currency it opposed the British system of monometallism, and demanded the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any nation. It also demanded the repeal of 10 per cent taxes on the issues of State banks.

Upon the question of United States Senators the platform said this: "Recognizing both the right of the individual voter to express directly his choice for United States Senator, and the importance to our country and our party of providing in the best manner practicable for the exercise of such right, and believing that for the present the best means to the end is to be found in the properly directed primary elections, we so now declare that the Democracy of Virginia favor and adopt as our party policy that method of determining fully and freely the choice of the masses of the party for the high office of the United States Senator, and we further declare that every member of the Legislature hereafter elected as a Democrat shall be bound in honor to adopt and make effective the decision of the people at such primary elections. We further declare and direct that the first of such primary elections shall be held upon the day of the election of members to the General Assembly in 1899, and that if no person voted for shall have a majority of all votes cast therein, a second primary shall be held upon the day to be fixed by our State Central Committee, which shall not be more than thirty days after the former primary, and that at such second primary the choice shall be between the two who shall have received the most votes in such former primary.'

WASHINGTON. REPUBLICAN.

May 14, 1896.-The platform had this money plank:

"Resolved, That we favor the maintenance of the present gold standard, and are opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. We are, however, favorable to an international agreement looking to the general use of both metals as money at a fixed ratio, and commend the efforts in that behalf of the last Republican Administration." A free-silver plank, offered as a substitute, was defeated by a vote of 112 to 290.

DEMOCRATIC.

April 15, 1896.-The platform indorsed the Administration of President Cleveland, but differed from it upon the financial question. The Monroe Doctrine was also unqualifiedly indorsed. The free and unlimited coinage of siver, at the ratio of 16 to 1, was demanded, without waiting for the action of any other nation; and the eight delegates to the National Convention were instructed to work for a free coinage plank, and for candidates known to be in favor of free coinage.

WEST VIRGINIA.

REPUBLICAN.

May 14, 1896.-On the money question the platform contained this plank: "We demand a sound-money policy which shall maintain at an equality of purchasing power every dollar of American money. Every American dollar must be worth 100 cents. The monetary system of the United States must be as sound and safe as the soundest and safest in the world."

It also "denounced the unnecessary issue of Government bonds in time of peace, a transaction involved in a mystery which has surprised and pained every man who loves his country"; demanded liberal appropriations for internal improvements; and declared for "the protection of American industries as taught and maintained for thirty years by the Republican party."

DEMOCRATIC.

June 17, 1896.-The platform indorsed the tariff policy of President Cleveland and reaffirmed the platform of the last Democratic National Convention on the tariff issue. It demanded the restoration by law of the money of the Constitution providing the free coinage of both gold and silver as full legal tender and redemption money at the ratio of 16 to 1 regardless of the financial policy of England or any other nation. The delegation was instructed to vote for no candidate for President or Vice-President who is not an avowed advocate of the policy expressed in the resolution.

POPULIST.

August 5, 1896.-The platform indorsed that of the National Convention of 1896, and the Bryan and Watson ticket.

WISCONSIN.

REPUBLICAN.

March 18, 1896.-"The Republicans of Wisconsin, in convention assembled, renew their devotion to the doctrine of protection. We believe in an adjustment of tariff duties for the twofold purpose of providing sufficient revenue to meet the requirements of the Government and to furnish reasonable and adequate protection to American industries and labor, a tariff both for revenue and protection.

"We also renew our allegiance to the doctrine of reciprocity. We favor as a logical and beneficial result of protective tariff laws mutual trade arrangements with foreign countries that will provide for our manufacturers and producers a market for their surplus product, and at the same time enable us to buy from them under advantageous conditions such articles as they produce and we need to purchase.

"The Republicans of Wisconsin are unyielding in their demand for honest money. We are unalterably opposed to any scheme that will give to this country a depreciated or debased currency. We favor the use of silver as currency, but to the extent only and under such restrictions that its parity with gold can be maintained."

August 5, 1896.-"The Republicans of Wisconsin, in convention assembled, announce their hearty indorsement of the platform of principles adopted by the late National Convention at St. Louis, and

pledge a loyal, united and vigorous support of the principles and policies therein announced and defined. We believe that in the restoration to power in National affairs of the party that stands for a sound and stable currency, honest money with which to pay the wages of labor, buy the products of the farm and factory and carry on the business of this great country, and for a fair and equitable protective tariff that will protect all the people and every section of the country, give employment to American labor, preserve to American producers the first charge on our great home market and at the same time give us enough revenue to pay the necessary expenses of carrying on the Government, lies the only hope of a return to our former prosperity."

The platform then indorses the nominations of McKinley and Hobart, condemns the utterings of the late Chicago Conveňtion upon questions of National policy, declares for the restriction of undesirable immigration, and concludes with a deliverance upon State issues.

DEMOCRATIC.

June 23, 1896.-"We believe that a tariff for revenue only would extend American commerce to the uttermost parts of the earth, and untrammelled industry would advance our country to the foremost place among nations. We are therefore firm in our adherence to the doctrine enunciated by the last National Democratic Convention that this Government should impose no tariff taxes except for revenue.

"We believe that the demands of a commerce built upon the broad and enlightened doctrine of free trade require a currency that cannot be discredited in any civilized country. Realizing this logical demand for the best money for international trade; realizing also the dangers of a fiat currency in domestic use, and aware that the present condition of commercial distress calls for the patriotic and sturdy maintenance of National honor and financial integrity. we declare ourselves opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and in favor of gold, the highest monetary standard of the world."

The money plank in the minority report, which was rejected by 271 to 219, read as follows:

"Resolved, That we reaffirm the platform of the last National Democratic Convention, and particularly upon the subject of coinage, believing that a fair interpretation of the same favors free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold as legal-tender money of the country."

SILVER DEMOCRATS.

September 2, 1896.-The platform declared for free silver; condemned the State administration for releasing the ex-Treasurers from the judgments which were obtained against them; demanded a coemployé act, and protested against the moneyed and corporate interests in their attempt to control elections by intimidation and corruption.