VISUAL INSTRUCTION. 



757 



ington, commending its financial and for- 

 eign policies; approved the ship subsidy 

 bill in Congress, and opposed the civil 

 service laws and urged their repeal or 

 modification. They denounced the Legis- 

 lature of 1899-1900 for adding to the 

 " iniquitous election laws " and increas- 

 ing the number of officeholders, and for 

 the provision for holding a constitutional 

 convention, which would result in the 

 formation of an office-holding oligarchy 

 that could only be overthrown by revo- 

 lution. 



The Democratic State Convention met 

 in Norfolk, May 2. Presidential electors 

 at large were nominated. In the plat- 

 form the principles of democracy as enun- 

 ciated in the Chicago platform of 189(5 

 were approved, and the delegates to the 

 national convention were instructed to 

 vote for William J. Bryan as the candi- 

 date for President. The Republican pol- 

 icy of imperialism was denounced as 

 undemocratic, un-American, and uncon- 

 stitutional. The platform demanded that 

 the Philippine Islands be turned over as 

 soon as practicable to their own inhab- 

 itants; that a just territorial govern- 

 ment be given to Porto Rico; and that 

 the solemn declarations of our Govern- 

 ment concerning Cuba be promptly and 

 honorably made good. Opposition was 

 declared to militarism and great stand- 

 ing armies as the worst enemies of the 

 republic. Criminal trusts and other ille- 

 gal combinations of capital were de- 

 nounced as a serious menace to the pub- 

 lic welfare, and the Republican party was 

 arraigned for failing to enforce existing 

 laws and to enact others against them. 

 The State administration was approved 

 and the people were congratulated upon 

 its liberal support of the public schools 

 and of disabled Confederate soldiers and 

 Confederate widows. The platform ap- 

 proved the action of the General Assem- 

 bly in submitting to the people the ques- 

 tion of calling a constitutional conven- 

 tion, and counseled that in framing a 

 new Constitution no effort should be 

 made to disfranchise any citizen of Vir- 

 ginia who had a right to vote prior to 

 1861, nor the descendant of any such 

 person. 



At the elections of May 24 the Demo- 

 crats were generally successful in the 

 election of local officers. The most im- 

 portant question before the people, that 

 of calling a constitutional convention, 

 was decided in the affirmative, and it 

 remained for the next Legislature to fix 

 a date for the convention to meet. The 

 total vote on this question was 137.732, 

 and the majority in favor of the conven- 

 tion was about 17^000. 



At the general election of Nov. 6 the 

 Democrats of the State elected their full 

 congressional ticket by a majority of 

 more than 00,000. The presidential vote 

 was divided as follows: Bryan, 146,080; 

 McKinley, 115.865; Woolley, 2,150. 



VISUAL INSTRUCTION, informa- 

 tion that reaches the mind chiefly through 

 the sense of sight, aided by the explana- 

 tion of the teacher. A picture of the 

 subject to be studied, or a series of pic- 

 tures of different parts of the subject, is 



