Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1904 — FAIRBANKS ACCEPTS. [ARTICLE]

FAIRBANKS ACCEPTS.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DISCUSSES THE ISSUES. In Hia Letter of Acceptance He Ha* Praise for the President and Dwells on Hia Party’s Record Commends Action in Panama. Senator Charles Warren Fairbanks, Republican nominee for Vice President, has formally accepted the honor in a letter addressed to Elihu Root of New York, who was chairman of the notification committee. The Senator heartily commends the principles of the party as voiced in the platform adopted at the Chicago convention and says of parties and their proqunciamentos: “It is not alone what they say, but what they will do which should weigh in determining their capacity to administer public affairs.” With this prelude he plunges into a discussion of the issues. In their order Senator Fairbanks discusses public economics as illustrated by the expenditures, revenues and retrenchments of the last two administrations; the foreign policy as it relates to the European and Asiatic countries and to the treaties which have been made during the last seven years; of the government’s neutral attitude to the l>elligerents in the Orient; of tariff and tariff revision; of reciprocity and the treaty consummated with Cuba, and of the efforts made to cement a reciprocal tie with the Dominion of Canada; of the trust question and of legislation to reduce to a minimum the evils following illegal combinations; of sound money; of the Panama canal and the President’s part in negotiating the Panama treaty; of the Philippines, and finally of irrigation in the arid West and the disappearance of sectional differences. Concerning the administration’s record in public economy, the Senator says that “we have pursue] no parsimonious policy on the one hand nor indulged in extravagance on the other. We have measured the public expense by the public necessity.” He declares the foreign policy of the administration ‘4ias been conservative, just and firm, aqd has made for the advancement of peace.” He continues: Thirty treaties have been concluded and proclaimed and stand to the credit of the administration. Some of these are of farreaching Importance. Among the number are the llay-J*ami<M>forte treaty, superseding the Clayton-Bn!wer convention, which stood In the way of the construction of the isthmian canal; the Panama Canal treaty, the Alasknn boundary treaty, and commercial treaties with China and with Cuba. Of Russia and Japan the Senator says: At the beginning of the war between them they assented to the suggestion made by- the administration limiting the zone of hostilities. Tills tends to preserve the open door in the- Orient, so important and so much desired in the expansion of our commerce. Senator Fairbanks declares for the settlement of international difficulties by appeals to reason rather than to arms, and recalls that President Roosevelt first invoked the aid of The Hague tribunal in the settlement of the Pius fund cases. He - says: , Our relations with the world wore never better. We have avoided entangling alliances, and, in the language of the eminent Secretary of State, “We are without an ally and without an enemy.” Taker Up the Tariff. „The Senator asserts that, «o far as tbe tariff question is concerned, the difference between the two great parties “is radical and fundamental.” Of tariff revision he says: A revision of duties should be made only when conditions have changed so that pul’>lle Interest demands their alteration, and they should be revised so as to preserve and not destroy the protective principle. A revision and reduction by those who regard the tariff as a robbery must awaken serious api>cehenrflon among nil whose capital is employed or who are engaged at labor in the various enterprises throughout the country which depend In large measure upon the maintenance of the protective system. A revision of the tariff along revenue lines means the Increased importation of the products of foreign manufacture which comes into competition with our domestic production. It means a loss to the American wage earners and to American capital. The Senator declares that during the period when protective tariff was maintained “labor has received its largest rewards and capital has been most profitably engaged.” He disposes of reciprocity in a few paragraphs, asserting that “commercial reciprocity with foreign countries ‘consistent with the principles of protection’ has long been one of the well recognized policies of the Republican party.” He dwells upon the efforts made by Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt to negotiate a treaty with Canada and of the failure of the same because of the disagreement in the joint high commission on the Alaskan boundary matter. Of Cuba he declares: 1 The present administration In the face of serious Democratic opposition, secured a treaty of reciprocity with Cuba which promises to give us control of a large share of the commerce of that Islam!. Of trusts and combinations the vice presidential nominee writes more extensively. He tells the people the administration has enforced the Sherman antitrust law and that the hist Congress enacted legislation which aimed to expedite the hearing and determination of antitrust suits;-that Congress also created the Department of Commerce and Labor and amended the interstate commerce law so as to abolish “the pernicious system of rebates under which large shippers could crush eut their smaller competitors.” Senator Fairbanks declares sound money “is so vital to our welfare, so important to our industrial development, that we should let its open enemies or negative friends know that we algite nothing of our determination to uphold' and defend it.” He alludes to the Democratic view on this subject somewhat satirically. / 1 When Democratic candidates epnnot hope to win preferment In a national convention without Industriously concealing their monetary views, and when Democratic.national and State conventions dnre not declare their faith In the virtue of the gold standard, the hour has not arrived when tbe forces of sound money should disband and leave the field. The Senator says the President’s course in Panama merits most general approval. A brief history of the negotiations leading to the Panama treaty la given, and Senator Fairbanks adds: When tbe Insurrection occurred upon the Isthmus the President safeguarded American Interest*. He *cted promptly but deliberately; prudently, not rashly; firmly, not aalawfully. He usurped no authority.