MAINE. 



MANITOBA. 



44' 



The financial plank was as follows: 

 ' \\Y arc opposed to the free and unlimited coin- 

 age of silver, except by international agreement; 

 and until such agreement can lie obtained we be- 

 lieve that the present gold si audard should bo main- 

 tained." 



A vigorous foreign policy was urged, also re- 

 striction of immigration and just administration 

 of peiiMon laws. 



The Prohibitionists met in convention at Water- 

 ville. April :(>. On the subject of the liquor traffic 

 the platform said : 



" We declare that the State of Maine presents a ' 

 condition of lawlessness that disgraces its civiliza- 

 tion ; that nullification of the liquor law is wide- 

 spread and open ; that whole communities are com- 

 pelled to consent to a shameless and illegal traffic ; 

 that county officials work the law for purposes of 

 revenue: and that long-continued familiarity with 

 illegal rum selling has begotten in a considerable 

 number of citizens a disrespect for the authority of 

 law in general. We hold the Republican and Demo- 

 cratic parties responsible for this deplorable condi- 

 tion ; the officials of these parties nullify the law, 

 and the voters of these parties condone the nullifi- 

 cation at the ballot box. ' 



Ammi S. Ladd was made the candidate for 

 Governor. 



The Populists convened at Lewiston, June 4. The 

 resolutions reaffirmed the principles of the party and 

 called for the free coinage of silver. Luther C. Bate- 

 man was nominated as candidate for Governor. 



The Democrats met in convention at Portland, 

 June 17. There was a contest over the resolutions. 

 The majority report of the committee, which was 

 adopted by a vote of 7 to 6 in the committee, was 

 adopted in the convention by a vote of 193 to 101 

 against the minority report, which differed from it 

 in declaring in favor of placing gold and silver on 

 an equality. The resolutions that were adopted de- 

 clared against sumptuary laws, interference with 

 local affairs of municipalities by the State, unneces- 

 sary increase in public officers, and increase of sala- 

 ries, and demanded the abolition of all unnecessary 

 offices and impartiality in the laws. It called for 

 the repeal of the act of 1893 abolishing school dis- 

 tricts, and favored the protection of American ship- 

 ping, denouncing the Republican policy. 



The financial plank was as follows : " We oppose 

 the free coinage of silver, and favor the single gold 

 standard unless a different standard be adopted by 

 international agreement." 



Edward B. Winslow was nominated for Governor. 

 He deferred signifying whether he would accept un- 

 til after the Chicago Convention, when he declined. 



The question was raised whether the State com- 

 mittee had power to fill the vacancy. The Secretary 

 of State held that they had not, and another conven- 

 tion was called which met Aug. 6 at Waterville. A 

 resolution was adopted approving the Chicago plat- 

 form and nominees, and the gold plank in the plat- 

 form adopted in June was stricken out. The gold 

 men withdrew from the convention. 



Melvin P. Frank was chosen candidate for Gov- 

 ernor. 



Later in the day the gold Democrats convened 

 and nominated W. H. Clifford for Governor. On 

 Aug. 20 they held a convention at Portland and 

 chose delegates to the Indianapolis convention on 

 a platform equivalent to the one adopted at the 

 June State convention. 



At the State election. Sept. 14, Llewellyn Powers, 

 Republican, was elected Governor. Following were 

 the returns as reported to the Legislature and ac- 

 cepted : Powers, 82,876: Frank, Democrat. 34.453; 

 Ladd, Prohibition, 2,714; Bateman, Populist, 3.306 ; 

 Clifford, National Democrat, 610; scattering, 31. 



At the presidential election the vote stood: Total 

 11S.:W4: McKinlcy and Hobart. S(I.-!'J.") ; liryan and 

 Sewall. :>2. '-217; Palmer and Miickner. 1.M54; Lever- 

 ing and Johnson, 1.571; Bryan and Watson. 2.'J S 7. 



All the representatives in Congress will be Repub- 

 lican, and on joint ballot the State Legislature will 

 have 1 ?(i Republicans to 6 Democrats. 



MANITOBA, PROVINCE OF. Government 

 and Polities. This province has had two years of 

 exciting political history. In consequence of the 

 local school question becoming a Dominion isMie, 

 the province has been kept to the front of current 

 discussion, and has passed through an election of 

 its own, while furnishing the chief question between 

 the two Federal parties at another general election. 

 In 1895 the legal question whether Mr. Green way's 

 Government in Manitoba had the right to abolish 

 the Catholic separate schools of the province passed 

 on appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada to 

 the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Coun- 

 cil. Judgment was given to the effect that the 

 provincial Government had the right to do so, but 

 that the Catholic minority of Manitoba possessed 

 the right of appeal to the Governor General in 

 Council the Federal ministry upon the question 

 of injury to established interests. This at once 

 brought the matter into party politics, and the 

 Bowell Government decided to hear an appeal of 

 this nature. The question was duly argued by op- 

 posing counsel, and the Government decided that 

 it was their duty to order the province of Manitoba 

 to redress the injuries done to the minority. The 

 remedial order was consequently issued with an in- 

 timation that Parliament would be asked for legis- 

 lation to enforce it, if the mandate were not obeyed. 

 When it is remembered that the Manitoba Govern- 

 ment was Liberal in politics, and the Dominion 

 Cabinet Conservative, it will be seen what compli- 

 cations were rendered possible. Protests against 

 the order came from various Protestant organiza- 

 tions in Ontario and elsewhere, while earnest de- 

 mands for its enforcement came from the hierarchy 

 of Quebec and Manitoba. The province refused to 

 obey, and in the parliamentary session of 1896 a 

 remedial bill was introduced "to coerce Manitoba," 

 as opponents declared. The Liberal party blocked 

 its progress, and the country, upon being appealed 

 to by the Tupper ministry, which had succeeded 

 that of Sir M. Bowell, blocked it still more effectu- 

 ally by defeating the Government and placing Mr. 

 Laurier in power. 



In November following it was announced that 

 the Liberal Government of Canada and Manitoba, 

 had effected a compromise by which separate 

 schools were not restored, but the Catholics and 

 other denominations were given a certain period in 

 each day for religious instructions in the school, and 

 were allowed, in places where the majority was of 

 the Roman Catholic faith, to have teachers of the 

 same belief subject, however, to provincial regula- 

 tions and standard. Meantime, in December. 1895, 

 the Greenway Government had appealed to the 

 province upon the general question of public as op- 

 posed to denominational schools, and had been sus- 

 tained by a large majority. On Feb. 6 following the 

 ninth Manitoba Legislature was opened by the 

 Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. J. C. Pat erson. with 

 a "speech from the throne," reading as follows: 



The harvest of the last season has been the most 

 bountiful in the history of the province since its 

 settlement. It is greatly to be deplore.d that the 

 abundance of the products of the soil has been to 

 some extent offset by unusually low prices. The 

 value of such products at the point of production, 

 compared with the cost of conveying them to the 

 markets of the world, emphasizes the well-known 

 fact that freight rates upon outgoing grain are most 



