NEW YORK (STATE). 



551 



be made in the tariff laws should be made by the 

 friends of those laws and in the interest of protection 

 of labor on our own soil, and of home markets, not by 

 or in the interests of free-trade propagandists, nor for 

 the benefit of foreign producers and foreign labor. 

 National taxation should be so adjusted as to raise 

 revenue sufficient for an economic and wise adminis- 

 tration of the Government, for the payment of the 

 public debt, for the development of national resources, 

 and for national defense ; but any reduction should be 

 so made as not to impair the prosperity of home in- 

 dustries. American markets must be preserved to the 

 products of American labor and capital, and protected 

 from foreign encroachments. 



4. The principle of the national and State civil-serv- 

 ice-refbrm laws has our hearty approval. These laws 

 should be executed in the spirit in which they were 

 enacted and accepted by the people, and be advanced 

 and be made permanent. The hypocritical pretenses 

 under which both President Cleveland's and Gov. 

 Hill's administration have continually and shamefully 

 violated the law, by systemic perversion to partisan 

 purposes, deserves the popular condemnation. 



5. The political rights of all persons throughout the 

 land must be established firmly and beyond contro- 

 versy. The persecutions of the workingrnan in the 

 South, and the denial of his civil rights, cause degra- 

 dation, low wageSj and inferior products, which bring 

 into unfair competition the labor of the North, and ob- 

 struct that full measure of property and thrift that 

 equal conditions throughout the country would estab- 

 lish and maintain. A fair hearing on all public ques- 

 tions, a free ballot in every citizen's hands, and an 

 honest count of the vote, are just prerogatives of citi- 

 zenship, to which full respect must be paid, to insure 

 the enjoyment of the freeman's birthright and the 

 maintenance of republican government on a stable 

 foundation. 



6. The veterans of the Union armies and navies are 

 entitled to the liberal consideration of this people for 

 all public preferment, and should receive generous 

 care and adequate pensions. The flippant, sneery 

 language of President Cleveland's vetoes of pension 

 bills was insulting to the veterans and degrading to 

 the executive. The subservient spirit displayed in 

 Mr. Cleveland's illegal order to return rebel 'battle- 

 flags, the precious trophies of the Union troops, de- 

 serves only reprobation, and justly excites the resent- 

 ment of all loyal citizens. 



7. Congress should pass laws and establish regula- 

 tions that will prevent the coming to our shores of 

 disreputable and undesirable persons whose presence 

 here would threaten good government, disturb the 

 peace and order, and depreciate the dignity and re- 

 wards of honest labor. Anarchists, communists, po- 

 ly gamists, paupers, fugitives from justice, and insane, 

 vicious, ana criminal persons, as also contract labor, 

 should be rigorously excluded ; but honest, industri- 

 ous, well-intended persons, escaping the oppression 

 and degradation of Old World despotisms, and the 

 crushing force of free-trade policies, are welcome as a 

 desirable element in our population. 



8. The record of the Kepublican Legislature for 

 wisdom in general action, for giving labor the legisla- 

 tion it sought, and for efficiency and economy in State 

 expenditure, commands appro val. The low rate of 

 State taxation is the best evidence of fidelity and pru- 

 dence. Had the Democratic Governor given sanction 

 to wise legislative action, the tax list would have been 

 reduced to a minimum, and the people would have 

 cause to rejoice in an era of genuine reform. 



9. We heartilv indorse the purpose of the Republican 

 majority of the Legislature in passing the bill to limit 

 and restrict the liquor-traffiCj and we condemn the 

 vetoes of the Governor as hostile to that purpose. We 

 recommend comprehensive and efficient legislation for 

 giving local option by counties, towns, and cities, 

 and restriction by taxation, on such localities as do 

 not, by their option, exclude absolutely the traffic. 



10. The State census under constitutional direc- 



tions, having been voted by the Republican Legislat- 

 ure, and defeated by the Democratic Governor's veto, 

 the failure to secure an enumeration and reappoint- 

 ment and other benefits of the census is chargeable 

 solely to the executive's nullification of the Consti- 

 tution's mandate, and his defiance of the co-ordinate 

 branch of the State Government, with which all legis- 

 lation must originate, and which is accountable there- 

 for ; and the Democratic party, in sustaining the Gov- 

 ernor's veto, shares with him the responsibility and 

 discredit for the wanton overriding of the Constitu- 

 tion. 



11. The veto and defeat, by Gov. Hill, of an im- 

 proved registry bill, of which the purpose was to pro- 

 mote pure elections, was an outrage upon the rights of 

 lawful electors. The most efficient safeguard should 

 be placed about the primary, the source of all political 

 action, as well as about the ballot-box, so as to secure 

 their purity and inviolability. 



12. The people of the State, having voted in favor 

 of a constitutional convention, the Legislature made 

 provision therefor, and the Governor became responsi- 

 ble, by his veto, for the annulment of the popular will. 



13. Whatever propositions of legislation will miti- 

 gate and equalize taxation should be enacted, and to 

 Republican legislation is due the progress that has 

 been made in this direction in this State. The cor- 

 poration tax laws and collateral inheritance bill and 

 homestead tax are in the right spirit, and tend to 

 simplify the tax system. We are in favor of further 

 changes in the tax* laws as shall equalize the burden, 

 and compel personal property to bear its proper share. 



14. We approve trie laws, State and national, pro- 

 hibiting the manufacture and sale of articles of food 

 made in imitation of butter and cheese, and earnestly 

 favor such further legislation as mav be necessary for 

 the protection of genuine dairy-products. 



15. We recommend to the Legislature a just care of 

 the interest of the people of this State in the mainte- 

 nance of cheap transportation, through a wholesome 

 competition by the State waterways, and the doing of 

 this without placing unnecessary burdens upon locali- 

 ties beyond the benefits received. National support 

 of the Erie Canal, the great highway for the products 

 of the West to the seaboard, is favored and invited. 



16. The cause of Ireland and the efforts in its behalf 

 by Gladstone, Parncll, and their associates, have the 

 earnest sympathy of Republicans, and commend their 

 operation by all peaceful methods to promote an early 

 and complete triumph. 



The Democratic State Convention met, at 

 Saratoga on September 27, and nominated the 

 following ticket : For Secretary of State, Fred- 

 erick Cook: Comptroller, Edward Wemple ; 

 Attorney-General, Charles F. Tabor; Treas- 

 urer, Lawrence J. Fitzgerald; State Engineer 

 and Surveyor, John Bogart. The platform put 

 forth contained the following planks. 



Whereas, the unnecessary Federal taxation of the 

 last fiscal year exceeded $100,000.000. Unnecessary 

 taxation is unjust taxation ; therefore, the Democracy 

 of New York demand that Federal taxation be 

 straightway reduced by a sum not less than $100,000,- 

 000 a year ; and also respectfully urge upon Congress, 

 that a measure shall be adopted which will, in the 

 language of the President's inaugural address, " re- 

 lieve the people from unnecessary taxation, having a 

 due regard to the interests of capital invested, and 

 workingmen employed in American industries." The 

 taxation to be nrst reduced, or altogether removed, 

 are those on imported raw material which now Bassist 

 and promote foreign competition with ourselves in our 

 own markets, and prevent or hinder the sale of our 

 surplus products in foreign markets. 



Along with these taxes should be forthwith remit- 

 ted or reduced the taxation which enriches the cost 

 to our wade-earners of the common necessaries of life 

 and the price of the common daily clothing of all our 



