PENNSYLVANIA. 



659 



discharge of duty it has reflected high credit upon the 

 party which called it into power, and gives assurance 

 to the people of an economical and wise administration 

 of the affairs of the Commonwealth. 



On August 24, at Harrisbarg, the Prohibi- 

 tionists nominated Col. Dallas C. Irish for 

 State Treasurer, and Simeon B. Chase for Su- 

 preme Judge. The following is a part of the 

 platform : 



"We denounce the hypocrisy of the Kepublican party 

 in pretending to favor the prohibition of the drink 

 traffic by the passage of a resolution for the submis- 

 sion of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the 

 manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor, and then 

 nullifying the same law by the passage of a high- 

 license law, with the approval, as we believe, of the 

 liquor interest of the State, in and by which they seek 

 by a division of the license fees to make the citizens 

 of the Commonwealth in every county, city, and bor- 

 ough, partners in the profits of the liquor-traffic, and 

 thereby secure the defeat of the amendment if finally 

 submitted to a vote of the people. 



The Democratic Convention was held at Al- 

 lentown on August 31, and resulted in the 

 nomination of Bernard J. McGrann for Treas- 

 urer, and J. Ross Thompson for Supreme Judge. 

 Its platform approves the national Democratic 

 platform of 1884, and the national administra- 

 tion, favors the restriction of pauper immigra- 

 tion, and a liberal pension-list, and continues 

 as follows: 



The failure of the State revenue bill, after it had been 

 carefully perfected and nearly unanimously passed by 

 both branches of the Legislature, was a crime against 

 the majority of the Commonwealth, whereby the people 

 must pay a million dollars annually that should and 

 would have been paid by the corporations, and the 

 failure of the State administration to attempt any cor- 

 rection of the wrong-doing or exposure of the fraud or 

 criminal neglect condoned a crime against both au- 

 thority and people, and confessed the supremacy of 

 ring-rule in Pennsylvania. 



We reaffirm our declaration in favor of the passage 

 of such legislation as will properly enforce the pro- 

 visions of act seventeen of the Constitution, relative 

 to corporations to previous improper discrimination, 

 and to equalize taxation. 



We denounce the action of the last Eepublican Legis- 

 lature in the defeat of the bill for the relief of produc- 

 ers and refiners of oil in the oil-district of the State, 

 known as the Billingsley bill ? as being in the interest 

 of monopoly and against the interest of the people of 

 that large section of the State. 



The nominees of the Union Labor and Green- 

 back party were, H. L. Banker for Treasurer, 

 and Charles S. Keyser for Judge. The former 

 having declined the nomination, the name of 

 John Q. A. Kennedy was substituted before 

 the election. The vote for Treasurer was : 

 Hart, 385,514 ; McGrann, 340,269 ; Irish, 18,- 

 471 ; Kennedy, 8,900. Republican plurality, 

 45,245. Williams, for Supreme Judge, re- 

 ceived 383,257 votes ; Thompson, 343,042 ; 

 Chase, 16,921 ; Keyser, 8,477 Republican 

 plurality, 40,215. 



The American Party. A convention of dele- 

 gates from various States met at Philadelphia 

 on September 16 and 17, for the purpose of 

 organizing a new American party, having for 

 its object to maintain the power and suprem- 

 acy of American-born citizens. The time and 



place for holding the convention were chosen 

 to coincide with the centennial celebration of 

 the ratification of the Constitution. In the fol- 

 lowing resolutions adopted by the convention 

 the object of the new party are fully set fortli : 



Whereas, We Americans hold that a longer contin- 

 uance of our present system of immigration and natu- 

 ralization of foreigners is detrimental to the welfare 

 of our beloved country, and that the time is fast ap- 

 proaching when rigid restriction of immigration will 

 be necessary in order to preserve the peace and pros- 

 perity of our people and the stability of our insti- 

 tutions, and that the time has arrived when a new 

 departure must be taken by the Government of the 

 American people, looking to the elimination and re- 

 striction of all evil-disposed foreigners from landing on 

 our shores or becoming citizens of the United States ; 



Whereas, the past has demonstrated that hordes of 

 foreign immigrants whom we have welcomed to our 

 land, and to whom we have given the right of citizen- 

 ship, without regard to character or qualification, are 

 the refuse subjects of European nations, who, by teach- 

 ing and training, are unfit subjects to become Ameri- 

 can citizens ; banding together in societies for the de- 

 struction of private property and personal liberty ; be- 

 coming the political ana social agitators of every cause 

 looking to the destruction of private rights, heading 

 and encouraging all disturbances of labor, seeking to 

 array labor against capital, setting themselves up as 

 the judges of the rights of the American people, com- 

 mitting murderj arson, and other crimes by means of 

 secret organizations, thrusting aside the American citi- 

 zen and wage-worker to make place for themselves, 

 preventing by threats the children of American citi- 

 zens from apprenticeship to trades, the enemies of all 

 free government by the people ; and, 



Whereas, Both the Eepublican and Democratic par- 

 ties are unwilling to adopt an adequate policy on this 

 question, and have in recent elections pandered to the 

 worst element of foreign-born citizens, giving them 

 prominence as the balance of voting power, offering 

 offices as a reward for their political labor, and setting 

 up new parties composed of foreigners to accomplish 

 their selfish ends, having no issue save the issue of 

 office ; therefore, 



Resolved, That we, the representatives of the Amer- 

 ican party, in convention assembled, in discharge of 

 the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, 

 and in order to perpetuate the sentiment of " America 

 for Americans," unite in the following declaration : 



1. That our present system of immigration and nat- 

 uralization of foreigners is detrimental to the welfare 

 of the United States, and we pledge ourselves to its 

 restriction and regulation ; to that end we demand the 

 establishment of a department of immigration by Con- 

 gress, the head of which shall be appointed "by the 

 President of the United States, and who shall be a 

 member of his Cabinet. 



2. We demand a revision of the naturalization laws, 

 making a continued residence of fourteen years an in- 

 dispensable requisite for citizenship, and excluding all 

 communists, socialists, nihilists, anarchists, paupers, 

 and criminals from naturalization as American citi- 

 zens ; but no interference with the vested rights of 

 foreigners. 



3. To protect and promote the American free com- 

 mon-school system l we recommend that the several 

 States and Territories establish, by law, a system of 

 free common schools for the universal and enforced 

 education of our children. 



4. That the safety of the republic rests largely with 

 her citizens who have small holdings of her soil, and 

 any attempt at the destruction of ownership thereof is 

 revolutionary and in violation of the guarantees of our 

 Constitution. We hold that American lands should 

 be reserved for American citizens ; that no alien non- 

 resident should be permitted to own real estate in the 

 United States, and that the real-estate possessions of 

 resident aliens should be limited in area and value ; 



