MISSOURI. 



575 



K. Cravens for Judge of the Supreme Court ; 

 H. K. Warren, for Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction (for whom E. A. Cochran was sub- 

 stituted); and J. W. Ilitchins, for Railroad 

 Commissioner. The following is the platform 

 adopted : 



The Republicans of the State of Missouri, in 

 convention, assembled hereby declare : 



1. That the lapse of time and constant experience 

 in the conduct of public affairs for a quarter of a cent- 

 ury have only served to strengthen and intensify our 

 allegiance to those principles of self-government that 

 have ever been the guiding star of the Eepublican 

 party of the nation. 



2. The record of the national Administration for the 

 past eighteen months has proved the untitness of the 

 Democratic party to rule, not only by its utter failure 

 to keep the promises made to the people during the 

 campaign of 1 884, but by its failure to originate any 

 measures of relief whereby the expenses of govern- 

 ment can be reduced, or the relations of capital to 

 labor more equitably adjusted, or by any other benefi- 

 cent measure in the interest of the people. It prom- 

 ised to be the friend and advocate of civil -service 

 reform ; it has lost no opportunity to cripple the effi- 

 ciency and thwart the efforts of the commission who 

 have charge of that reform, and has made civil-service 

 reform odious by not only removing, but attempting, 

 in utter disregard of justice, to blacken the character 

 of thousands of our b'est citizens, many of them old 

 soldiers who have been removed under the cowardly 

 subterfuge of offensive partisanship. It promised that 

 the expressed will of the people should be obeyed. 

 President Cleveland has vetoed more bills passed by 

 Congress during the last session than were ever ve- 

 toed before by all the Presidents of the Eepublic to- 

 gether since its foundation. It promised a reduction 

 in the number of Government officials. It has large- 

 ly increased the number of the employe's of the depart- 

 ments at Washington. It promised tariff reform. It 

 has utterly failed^ even under the pressure of presi- 

 dential and Cabinet influence, to agree on such a 

 measure, much less to pass it in the body where they 

 have an overwhelming majority. We are therefore 

 presented with the spectab'le of an Administration, 

 whose term of office is already more than one third 

 gone, that has utterly failed to redeem even the least 

 of the pledges by and through which it came into 

 power. 



3. As we turn to the Democratic administrations 

 that have dominated Missouri for the last fifteen years 

 we find, it' possible, still less cause for congratula- 

 tion. From the day of the adoption of the enfran- 

 chising amendment sixteen years ago, the old familiar 

 rebel yell has swept the conventions of the Demo- 

 cratic party like a prairie fire, until Union Democrats, 

 who were only here and there briefly given office for 

 a purpose, are cast aside, and no pretense is made of 

 nominating a Union man where there is a possible 

 chance of electing an ex-Confederate, until the calling 

 of the names of Democrats holding offices in the State 

 of Missouri sounds to-day like calling the roll of the 

 ex- Confederate army. We charge the Democratic 

 party with having permitted abuses in the matter of 

 transportation by refusal to pass effective laws for the 

 regulation of railroads, protection alike to the compa- 

 nies and the people which has led to pooling, to the 

 abrogation of all competition and to rates so burden- 

 some that the aggregate charges exceed annually those 

 made for like extent of service in States similarly sit- 

 uated by an amount equal to all taxation for State 

 government, and which, while creating a vast mo- 

 nopoly threatening to the welfare of our commerce 

 and industry, has driven competition into adjoining 

 States, stimulating their progress and development at 

 our expense. We arraign them also for the refusal of 

 officers of their selection to enforce such crude laws as 

 they enacted when appealed to by the people, and for 



their submission to the depression of important in- 

 dustries by extortionate discriminations which such 

 enforcement might prevent. The fact that the chair- 

 man of their Executive Committee is vice-president 

 and general manager of a great railroad, and that 

 seven members of their State Committee are railroad 

 attorneys, proves that they have no intention of ful- 

 filling their hollow pledges in that respect. To the 

 reform of these abuses and to the adoption of meas- 

 ures to promote the progress and development of our 

 commerce and industry the Kepublican party stands 

 pledged. 



4. We charge them with utterly ignoring, especial- 

 ly in Democratic counties, those wise provisions of 

 law requiring public work to be given to the lowest 

 responsible bidder, and bestowing those favors on 

 party friends for party sevices, regardless of those 

 principles of economy and reform by which they have 

 always appealed to the people before an election. We 

 charge that whatever of good has occurred to the 

 State of Missouil during the continuance of Demo- 

 cratic ascendency has occurred in spite of that ascend- 

 ency and not as a result thereof. We recognize the 

 right of intelligent organization of labor for mutual 

 education and for the protection of laborers in all 

 things pertaining to their material welfare, and the 

 promotion of the industries of the country. And we 

 favor the enactment of laws, State and national, for 

 the speedy and equitable adjustment of all disputes 

 and controversies arising between employers and em- 

 ploy ds, so as to avoid the- demoralization and waste of 

 strikes, and for the promotion of the welfare and ele- 

 vation of all working-people. 



5. We favor the granting of generous pensions to 

 the disabled veterans of our wars, whether for the 

 country's defense or for the preservation of the Union, 

 and we denounce the present national Administration, 

 not only for its vetoes of meritorious measures for the 

 relief of soldiers and soldiers' widows and orphans, 

 but for the unfeeling and insolent terms in which 

 those vetoes are expressed. We also protest against 

 the removal of Union soldiers from office to make 

 room tor partisan civilians and ex-Confederates. 



6. We denounce the Democracy in Congress for its 

 flagrant violation of every principle of justice and 

 fairness in refusing to admit Dakota to the sisterhood 

 of States. 



7. We reaffirm the sympathy which the Eepublican 

 party has alwavs held for the oppressed of every land, 

 and especially "with the Irish people in the struggle 

 now in progress for the right of self-government ; their 

 cause is just, and should not appeal in vain to us. 



8. Resolved, That whenever a respectable number 

 of the citizens of the State shall petition the Legisla- 

 ture for the submission of any proposition to amend, 

 change, or modify the Constitution in any matter 

 which is a proper subject of organic law, their request 

 should be granted. 



9. And finally, the Eepublican party of Missouri 

 pledges itself anew to those cardinal principles which 

 have controlled it for a quarter of a century protec- 

 tion to American labor, protection to the American 

 voter, protection to the American tax-payer, protec- 

 tion to American citizens at home and abroad, and to 

 a firm, candid, liberal, and enlightened conduct of 

 public affairs on all subjects affecting the rights and 

 interests of the American people. 



The eighth resolution was intended to cover 

 the case of a prohibitory amendment, and is a 

 substitute for a more pointed declaration sub- 

 mitted by a majority of the committee on plat- 

 form. 



The Greenback-Labor party and the Pro- 

 hibitionists also had tickets in the field. On 

 November 2 the Democratic ticket was elected. 

 The following was the vote for Supreme Court 

 Judge: Democratic, 229,125; Republican, 178,- 

 490; Greenback, 12,430; Prohibition, 3,504; 



