REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS 
 The First 50 Years

FORT WORTH, September 10 and 11

The attendance was large, particularly that of white delegates. There was a three-cornered contest between Hawley, Lyon, and Green for the State chairmanship. The numerous contested delegations delayed the opening of the convention one day.

Officers: Chairman, pro ternpore, R. B. Hawley, of Galves ton; permanent, E. H. R. Green, of Kaufman. Secretary, Nat Q. Henderson, of Colorado.

Nominees for State Offices: Governor, George W. Burkett, of Anderson ; Treasurer, Walter Nolte, of Guadalupe.

Committee on Platform and Resolutions: 1st Congressional district L. J. Spencer, of Bowie; 2. E. B. Mentz, of Jefferson; 3. Webster Flanagan, of Rusk; 4. Cecil A. Lyon, of Grayson; 5. A. J. McCauley, of Dallas; 6. Rube Freedman, of Navarro; 7. R. B. Hawley, of Galveston; 8. H. F. McGregor, of Harris; 9. M. M. Rogers, of Fayette; 10. E. P. Wilmot, of Travis; 11. T. J. Darling, of Bell; 12. C. A. Dickson, of Johnson; 13. John B. Schmitz, of Denton; 14. C. W. Ogden, of Bexar, chairman- 15. J. J. Haynes, of Webb ; 16. J. G. Lowden, of Taylor.

PLATFORM 1

1. We, the Republicans of Texas, in convention assembled, do hereby declare and reaffirm our faith in the principles and policies of our party as set forth in the Philadelphia platform of 1900.

2. We, at this our first convention since the unfortunate, untimely, and unhappy death of our beloved and patriotic President, William McKinley, join in the expressions of sorrow for his loss and mourn for him who served his country as citizen and official so well and faithfully. His character as a man and his conduct as our chief executive won for him the love, admiration, and respect of the whole American people and the world at large. By his death the Republican party lost one of its ablest leaders and counselors and the country lost a most patriotic and useful executive.

3. We Heartily indorse the acts and policies of the present adminis tration of our National affairs under President Roosevelt. We com mend his efforts in maintaining the integrity of American territory and expanding American trade, and particularly do we indorse his policy with respect to Cuba as a matter of simple justice to her people and incalculable benefit to both countries. Pointing with pride and approval to the past and looking with hope to the future, and having the fullest confidence in his wisdom, courage, patriotism, and statesman ship, we most unqualifiedly declare here and now that Theodore Roose velt is the unanimous choice of the Republicans of Texas as our party candidate for President of the United States in 1904.

4. We believe in a continuation of the past policy of the Repub lican party, providing liberal appropriations for internal improvements, and the broad and liberal spirit in which that policy has been applied, regardless of State lines or State party affiliations. We congratulate the people of Texas upon the generous recognition given to our seaports and rivers by a Republican administration and a Republican Congress, which will result in the enlargement of our commercial relations with the world.

5. We favor action by the National and State governments for the protection of the immense river valleys of the State from destructive overflows, in accordance with established policies of the party in re lation to internal improvements.

6. The development of the oil and shipping interests in East Texas require the establishment of a port of entry adjacent thereto, and we favor the establishment of the same by Congress.

7. We demand legislation on the subject of libel and publications by the press. We declare for freedom of speech and publication, and protection for the newspapers in this State.

8. We recommend that feature of industrial education known as manual training, and recommend that the legislature make provision to introduce it into the State normal schools, the Orphans' Home, and into public free schools, as it may deem expedient.

9. We favor the enactment of legislation prohibiting the use of child labor in factories and like industrial institutions.

[10] The Republican party, proud of its past record as the sincere and consistent friend of labor, hereby renews its declaration of faith in the principle that every man who toils should receive an equitable proportion of the wealth created by his labor. By reason of the opera- tion of a just and beneficent protective tariff law, employers have been enabled to accord to labor wages liberally commensurate with the service performed. The history of the Republican party is a continua- tion of chapters of legislation enacted in the interest of labor, and as prominent examples of such legislation we refer to the enactment of our strict immigration laws and their consistent enforcement under the supervision of accredited representatives of organized labor, and the enactment of humane legislation tending to the protection and preservation of life among workingmen engaged in following hazardous occupations. We especially arraign the Democratic party of Texas for the hypocritical attitude assumed toward the cause of labor by reason of its contemptuous neglect to reconcile its platform pledges to its legislative performances, and its cowardly evasion and repudiation of its expressed promises, holding that said pledges were made for the express purpose of political expediency and with no thought toward their ultimate fulfillment.

[11] We condemn the indifference of the Democratic party in this State in treating with the question of protection for railway employees. We demand legislation looking to the employment of safety devices, as is required by our National laws, and for providing the greatest possible protection to the life and limb of employees.

[12] We condemn the Democratic party for the enactment of un- just legislation, curtailing personal liberty of the citizen in the form of sumptuary laws, whereby the equal protection of the law is denied citizens of incorporated towns and the agitation and local dissensions constantly fomented and enmities engendered, destructive of the peace of whole communities by reason of the obnoxious character thereof.

[13] We condemn as flagrantly inefficient and vicious the Demo cratic administration of our State penal institutions, asylums, and other State institutions as disclosed by the recent report of the State Investigating Committee. We point to the recent disclosures, touching the methods which characterize the administration of our State treasury, as indisputable evidence of Democratic incompetency to govern.

[14] We further condemn the so-called Democratic party of the State and Nation for the advocacy and enactment of sumptuary and restrictive laws, for its fancied and ineffective declarations against capital and enterprise, for its opposition to the American flag in our newly acquired lands and those who maintain it there. Reversing their once cardinal virtue of expansion, they present a spectacle of vacillation and uncertainty on every vital question of the day. In the campaign of 1896 they demanded higher prices for the products of the farm and the field and the factory. In their present campaign they demand lower prices for every product of labor. They invite every ism and encourage every new thing that will bring them a vote, regardless of their country's welfare.

[15] We condemn the present use by the State of convict labor in competition with our farmers and the workingmen in our factories. We favor the use of convict labor outside of the walls of the penitentiary only on public roads and highways and especially urge their employ ment in bettering and developing a system of highways throughout the State.

[16] We are opposed to the formation and maintenance of secret political organizations intended to control county government as con trary to the spirit of American institutions, and demand that laws be enacted that will prohibit combinations for such purposes.

[17] We condemn the use of ranger forces of the State for the purpose of controlling or influencing elections.

[18] In emphasizing the tolerant and liberalizing policies of our party we invite the participation of every patriotic citizen in our State, and make especially welcome those who, abandoning their former party alignments, have contributed to our successes in the past and by their counsels and support will aid in the growth and progress of our party in the future.

[19] "The irrigation plank adopted by the Republican State con vention has been by some oversight omitted from the platform as published. In this plank the convention strongly urged National legis lation and appropriations in aid of irrigation of the arid lands of this State." Charles W. Ogden, Chairman of the Platform Committee. 

State Executive Committee: Cecil A. Lyon, of Gfayson, chairman ; 1st Senatorial district, H. G. Goree, of Cass ; 2. W. P. Harris, of Hopkins; 3. Dr. C. A. Gray, of Bonham; 4. Frank Johnson, of Grayson; 5. S. H. Cole, of Collin; 6. A. J. McCauley, of Dallas; 7. Warren Reed, of Smith; 8. H. 0. Wilson, of Harrison; 9. Henry Delhims, of Navarro; 10. J. J. Cypert, of Hill; 11. C. A. Boynton, of McLennan; 12. J. A. Myers, of Brazos; 13. Theo. Miller, of Cherokee; 14. Charles R. Bone, of Jefferson; 15. U. W. Allen, of Walker; 16. George P. Brown, of Harris; 17. A. B. Trowell, of Galveston; 18. M. M. Rodgers, of Fayette; 19. W. E. Dwyer, of Washington; 20. T. L. Wren, of Travis; 21. L. D. Simmons, of Hays; 22. Theo. Baughman, of Victoria; 23. J. 0. Luby, of Duval; 24. George H. Noonan, of Bexar; 25. J. A. Smith, of El Paso; 26. Marshall Smith, of Brown; 27. Joe E. Williams, of Hamilton; 28. Major Smith, of Haskell; 29. J. E. Lutz, of Wilbarger; 30. Andrew McCampbell, of Tarrant; 31. George A. Knight, of Montague.