It made the willful acceptance of illegal votes a crime. It made the fraudulent substitution of one ballot for another, for the purpose of having the vote rejected, and for the purpose of having it counted for a person other than the voter intended, a crime. It made the willfully placing of ballots not lawfully cast in any ballot box among ballots lawfully cast for the purpose of changing the result, a crime. It made the unlawfully removing of ballots from a ballot box, lawfully cast, for the purpose of affecting the result of the election, a crime. It made the willful false canvass of votes, or the false certification of such a vote, a crime. It made it a crime for every officer charged with a duty under the law to willfully neglect to perform such duty, or to be guilty of any corrupt or fraudulent conduct of practice in its execution. It made false swearing, in matters pertaining to Congressional election, perjury. It made stealing the ballot box, or the ballots, a felony. It provided just punishment, by fine or imprisonment, or both, for each of these crimes against a government by the people through manhood suffrage. This was the bill. There was not a section, line, or syllable in it, besides this, more than was necessary to enforce with certainty these provisions. A NON PARTISAN COMMISSION. In pursuance of their general policy of misrepresentation, the Democrats have given to this bill in many quarters the reputation of a "force bill." Except in so far as it enjoined admittedly righteous conduct upon all people, and forbids them from admittedly unrighteous conduct, it is as innocent of force as a proverb. The Republican party, however, is in no sense committed to this bill, or to any other particular method of curing the evil of dishonest elections. The President, in messages to Congress, and in his letter of acceptance, has suggested the appointment of a non-partisan commission to take into consideration the whole subject of electoral laws, and to arrange a system which can be open to no party misrepresentation for the accomplishment of results which all honorable citizens must concede to be wise and necessary. The Republican party asks nothing except that the ballot shall be everywhere maintained in its purity, let the result on election day be whatever it will. CLEVELAND'S LABOR RECORD. He Has Written Himself the Relentless Enemy of All Labor Reforms. A FULL AND CORRECT LIST OF HIS LABOR VETOES. They Include the Anti-Convict Labor Bill, the Mechanics' Lien Law, the Life and Limb Bill, the Tenement House Cigar Bill, the Five-Cent Fare Bill, and the Child's Labor Bill. CLEVELAND, THE CONVICT LABOR CANDIDATE. * * * In the Democratic platform, adopted at Chicago, occurs the following: "We denounce the McKinley Tariff law, enacted by the Fifty-first Congress, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent results that will follow the action of the people in entrusting power to the Democratic party." THE MCKINLEY BILL PREVENTS THE PRODUCT OF CONVICT LABOR FROM ENTERING THIS COUNTRY. The Fifty-first Section of the present Republican Tariff, known as the McKinley Law, provides as follows: "SEC. 51. That all goods, wares, articles of merchandise, manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited, and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of this provision." Under the direction of this statute, no article is admitted into this country without a sworn statement from the shipper and the importer that it is not the product of convict labor. This is a part of the law which the Democratic platform declares will be repealed in case power is entrusted to the Democratic Party. CLEVELAND, THE CONVICT-LABOR CANDIDATE. If it is argued that the Democratic attack upon the McKinley law is not aimed at this particular section, the answer is that Mr. Cleveland, as President of the United States, has already committed himself to the policy of employing convicts in Government works, and of deriving Government revenue from their labor in direct competition with free labor. Not only would Mr. Cleveland admit the product of foreign convict labor, but he would employ all the convicts in Federal prisons in industrial pursuits, and would have the Government make money out of their work. In his annual message, dated December 6th, 1886, Mr. Cleveland, referring to the construction of penitentiaries for the confinemennt of all prisoners convicted and sentenced in United States Courts, says: Upon consideration of this subject it might be wise to erect more than one of these institutions located at such places as would best subserve the purposes of businesss and economy in transportation. The considerable cost of maintaining these convicts, as at present, in State institutions would be saved by the adoption of the plan proposed; and, by employing them in the manufacture of such articles as were needed for use by the Government, quite a large pecuniary benefit would be realized in partial return for our outlay.” CLEVELAND'S PERSISTENT HOSTILITY TO LABOR REFORMS. Not only by this ugly recommendation, but by actually twice preventing the full enactment of anti-convict labor laws, has Mr. Cleveland demonstrated his desire to utilize prison labor in competition with the labor of freemen. In 1886, and again in 1888, he killed by "pocket vetoes" Acts of Congress forbidding the use by the Government of the product of convict labor. This law became operative only when Cleveland was defeated, and General Harrison became President. Then it was promptly signed. The following is an itemized record of Cleveland's acts in opposition to labor reforms: While Governor of New York: He vetoed the mechanics' lien law bill, making the wages of workingmen engaged in the construction of buildings a first mortgage on the property. He vetoed the life and limb bill, bi making employers responsible for accidents happening from imperfect machinery or inferior construction of of buildings. He vetoed the tenement house cigar bill, forbidding the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses. He vetoed the bill compelling the elevated roads of New York City to charge only 5 cents fare. He vetoed the printers' bill, requiring all the State printing to be done by union workingmen. He vetoed the bill making ten hours a legal day's work for all street-car employees. He vetoed the bill abolishing convict labor in prisons, although this proposition when submitted to the popular vote of the people was carried by a majority of 60,000. He vetoed the child-labor bill providing for the inspection of factories where children were employed, and prohibiting the employment of children under fourteen years of age. He signed the bill compelling the stationary engineera of New York City to pay a tax of $2 per year to the Police Pension Fund or be debarred from following their vocation. He signed the bill reducing the fees of the New York Harbor pilots, which bill benefited only the foreign steamship monopolies. While President of the United States: He killed by a "pocket veto" the Arbitration bill, compelling the reference to impartial arbiters of labor controversies in certain contingencies. He killed by a "pocket veto" the Anti-Convict Labor bill of 1886, and also that of 1888, forbidding the use by Government officials of any merchandise the product of convict labor. And, in his message of December 6, 1886, he recommended the employment of all Federal convicts in manufacturing pursuits in Federal prisons and the use by the Government of the product of their labor. WILL HONEST WORKINGMEN VOTE TO BRING THEIR LABOR INTO COMPETITION WITH THAT OF CONVICTS? Grover Cleveland has thus written himself the ConvictLabor Candidate. There is no mistaking his intention or that of his party. The Democrats will repeal the McKinley bill if it is entrusted with power. The product of foreign convict labor will then come into our ports freely, and prisons will be built by the Federal Government, while convicts will be employed in the manufacturing industries, the Government realizing the profits of their labor. Do the workingmen of the United States desire to have this programme carried out? If they do, they will vote for Cleveland and Stevenson, the convict-labor candidates on a convict-labor platform; if they do not, they will vote for Harrison and Reid, and they will sustain the Republican law which forbids the entry of the products of convict labor in competition with the production of American citizens. Presidents and Vice-Presidents. Presidents. Vice-Presidents. Term of Office. 1789-1797. George Washington. John Adams Andrew Jackson John C. Calhoun... 1829-1833. Martin Van Buren. 1833-1837. Wiliam Henry Har rison John Tyler.... 1841-1845-3 years 11 mos. James K. Polk....... George M. Dallas.. Zachary Taylor.. J. C. Breckenridge.. 1857-1861. Abraham Lincoln.... Hannibal Hamlin.... 1861-1865. Abraham Lincoln.... Andrew Johnson... Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce.. James Buchanan Ulysses S. Grant. Schuyler Colfax. Ulysses S. Grant.... Henry Wilson.. Rutherford B. Hayes William A. Wheeler. 1877-1881. James A. Garfield... Chester A. Arthur.. Chester A. Arthur Grover Cleveland.... T. A. Hendricks. Benjamin Harrison. Levi P. Morton.... |