and costly litigation through which an injurd employee must go in order to recover damages-litigation which on account of the poverty of the employee frequently serves to defeat the ends of justice, and in other instances leads to exorbitant and unjust verdicts.

CONSERVATION.

One of the great questions which has been made a national issue and aroused public interest through the insistence of President Roosevelt is that of conservation of our national resources. From the Federal standpoint, this concerns the preservation of forests, the reclamation of arid lands of the Government and the proper treatment and disposition of our Government coal lands, phosphate lands, oil and gas lands, and of the lands known as water-power sites at the points on the streams where the water power must be converted in order to be useful. During Mr. Roosevelt's administration millions of acres of lands included within the classes described were withdrawn in the United States proper and in Alaska, in order to await proper legislation. Doubt arose as to the Executive power to make these withdrawals, and therefore as to their legality should they be contested in court. The present administration continued the Executive withdrawals, but suggested, as a matter of wise precaution, securing from Congress express power to make them. By Republican majorities in both Houses a withdrawal bill for this purpose was enacted, and now over seventy millions of acres have been rewithdrawn of lands included within the classes described. Much of the land reserved as coal land is valuable for agriculture, and therefore Congress adopted an entirely feasible and useful plan by which the homestead laws were applied to the surface of the land, while the coal in the ground is still reserved as the property of the Government. This is a new departure in our land laws, and is highly to be commended. In addition to this, it was deemed necessary, in order that certain reclamation projects of the Government should be completed within a reasonable time, that an issue of $20,000,000 bonds should be authorized with which to secure water for the settlers upon Government lands within the promise of the project, the bonds to be redeemed by the water rents for the service rendered. In this way hundreds of settlers who have been patiently waiting for the completion of the projects and suffering great privation will be rehabilitated. At the same time, the law authorizing the bond issue prevents the expenditure of any of the proceeds of the bonds in any of the projects until a board of army engineers shall report the same as worthy and feasible. Moreover, additional provision has been made in the appropriation laws for money with which to carry on surveys of unsurveyed public lands, a crying need in certain States and in

Alaska. Thus it is not too much to say that most important steps have been taken toward the proper conservation of our resources in the legislation of the present Congress. There remains to be considered and settled the question of the method of disposing of these lands so that the Government may retain sufficient control to prevent a monopoly in their use and to secure the public against extortion for coal, oil, gas, phosphate or water power on the one hand, and yet may give to private capital sufficient inducement to bring about a normal development of the wealth contained in these lands to aid in the building up of the country. Neither the Democrats of the House nor the Democrats of the Senate as a body, although their platform formally declared in favor of conservation, have taken any active part or can be counted upon to assist materially in the solution of these complicated questions.

Another subject of pressing importance is that of the improvement of our waterways. The present Congress has enacted a rivers and harbors bill appropriating more than $41,000,000 for the carrying out of a number of well-defined plans for the permanent improvement of rivers and harbors within a certain period, and in addition authorizing contracts to be entered into subject to future appropriations by Congress, aggregating over ten millions of dollars. The bill was subject to criticism in that it still continued the old piecemeal system and appropriated something for nearly every project recommended by the army engineers. It is hoped and believed that in the next session and thereafter the engineers will so make their recommendations as to indicate the projects of greater importance, so that adequate sums may be appropriated for their completion within a reasonably short time and the piecemeal policy of extending the construction of improvements of this kind indefinitely for years may be abandoned.

OTHER PLEDGES REDEEMED.

The Republican platform promised that it would admit to Statehood the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and that promise has been redeemed with suitable provisions for securing good and sane constitutions of the States by requiring their adoption in advance of the election of State officers, and their submission to Congress for consideration, and possible rejection, at one of its sessions.

All this long list of useful enactments was promised in the Republican platform and has been put through by Republican majorities.

Congress has also enacted into law, in accordance with the promise which I made as a candidate for the Presidency, a bill requiring the publication by the Congressional committees of detailed statements of the money received by them and

is elected to assist, the cutting down of the tures by the adoption of modern economic the business of the Government will reach to many millions. How much the expenses can impossible to approximate at this time. Th the administration is to get full value for ev burses.

The appropriations for the last year were 000,000 less than the appropriations of the in the actual execution of the law $11,000,00 the operation of the Post Office Department, f priation had already been made.

FUTURE LEGISLATION.

A number of other promises remain to be ke ready alluded to the provisions to regulate the and bonds by interstate commerce railways, to w ocratic minority in the Senate gave its solid opp ground that the Central Government has no power to make and enforce such regulation. there is the promised procedure to determine ho injunction shall issue without notice, and when. tion for this the Democratic platform proposes a to the existing law which would create a privile lawless workmen and would seriously impair the courts of equity to do justice. Then there is the promote the merchant marine engaged in foreig which in previous Congresses the Democratic pa ways opposed an almost solid front. There is t forbidding the acquisition of stocks by one railwa in a competing line, and there are also those bills, ferred to, to secure further safety appliances on ra to establish a basis for workmen's compensation. also the promise of the Republican platform to m provision for securing the health of the nation. tangible and useful form that this can take would tablishment of a national bureau of health to inclu health agencies of the Government now distributed in Departments. Finally there is the Appalachian F serve Bill which passed the House by a Republican

is on the calendar of the Senate, and will probably pass at the coming session of this Congress.

In view of what the present Republican Congress has done in the fulfilment of its promises, and in view of the standard that it has set in respect to the sacredness of party pledges, I have no hesitation in urging all who are in favor of the performance of the remaining pledges, who are in favor of progress, in favor of practical conservation, in favor of economy in government, in favor of the just regulation of railways and of interstate commerce corporations, in favor of a bureau of health, in favor of a proper limitation of the power of equitable injunction, and who are in favor of measures to promote the merchant marine engaged in foreign service, to vote for the Republican candidates for Congress in order that their wish for all this progressive legislation may be gratified.

CONCLUSION.

In closing, it may not be inappropriate for me to invite your attention, and that of all those engaged in advocating the Republican cause in the coming election, to the fact that it is of the utmost importance to make this a campaign of education as to facts and to clear away the clouds of misrepresentation that have obscured the real issues and have made it difficult to secure for the Republican majority in Congress the real credit due them from the country for the tremendous task they have accomplished. If this is brought clearly home to all voters, and especially to the young men now voting for the first time, and they become impressed, as they ought to be by this record, with the difference in the governmental efficiency and capacity of the Republican and Democratic parties, they will enroll themselves with the party of construction and progress rather than with the party of obstruction and negation, and the resulting legislation of the Sixty-second Congress will vindicate their choice. Sincerely yours,

WM. H. TAFT.

HON. WILLIAM B. MCKINLEY, Chairman,
Republican Congressional Committee,

1133 Broadway, New York City.

Campaign and Issues of 1910

With but few prior exceptions the entire membership of the House of Representatives of the Sixty-second Congress will be elected on the 8th of next November. In the present Congress of the 391 members, 219 are classed as Republicans, and 172 as Democrats. Unusual interest will be centered in the campaign this year because of the factional differences in both parties, but already the early assured confidence of the Democrats has given place to doubt, while the Republicans are sincere in their belief that their present majority will be maintained.

In many respects the year 1910 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Republican party. It was in May, 1860, that the first important bill was passed by a Republican House of Representatives, and it is most significant that this bill was an act providing for the protection of American labor and industries, having been reported by Mr. Morrill of Vermont from the Ways and Means Committee, and afterwards known as the Morrill Tariff. It did not pass the Senate until the following year, but was signed by President Buchanan two days before the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.

The year 1910 also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln and his election as the first Republican President. Of the 25 Congresses of the past half century the Republican party has had a majority of the House of Representatives in all except eight, namely, the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-eighth, Fortyninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-second and Fifty-third, and during the 50 years' legislative and administrative life of the Republican party in only two years has the Democratic party had complete control of the Government. The history of the country, then, for the past 50 years has been almost identical with the history of the Republican party, and the best Text Book that could be used in a political campaign for the purpose of giving a complete record of party legislation and party administratio n, would be the Statistical Abstract of the United States, but it is impracticable to circulate generally and widely this voluininous publication and consequently an endeavor will be made in the following pages to present briefly, but comprehensively, the record of the party, as shown by the acts of Congress and the execution of those acts by the Presidents and their Cabinets. A Republican Text Book differs from a Democratic Text Book somewhat as history differs from romance. A Republican Text Book aims simply to give facts and results-a Democratic Text Book is like a promise to pay without funds in the Bank.

The history of the Republican party, the record of its legislation and administration and the results of the operation of its official acts, has been repeated again and again. It is well known to all speakers and editors and most voters, yet at every election it is recognized that there are a million or so first voters, besides other millions who may have forgotten or mislaid the Text Books and pamphlets of other days. It seems

18