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 forests and other natural resources; conservation and utilization of water power for industrial purposes, under governmental authority and control; and the building of a navy adequate to the defencedefense [sic] of our coasts, an undertaking much facilitated by the connecting of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by means of the Panama Canal. These were the things for which the Republican party stood during the Roosevelt administration and these were the things which it achieved so far as it was possible to be done.

With this record, the party was well warranted in declaring in its platform in 1908 that the Roosevelt administration was an epoch in history. “In no other period since national sovereignty was won under Washington, or preserved under Lincoln,” it continued, “has there been such mighty progress in those ideals of government which make for justice, equality and fair dealing among men. The highest aspirations of the American people have found a voice.” In addition to the achievements of the administration, it was possible to point to an impressive array of beneficent Republican legislation by Congress, including an emergency currency bill, provision for' a national monetary commission, employers' and government liability laws, measures for the greater efficiency of the army and navy, a widows' pension law, an anti-child labor law, and laws for the greater safety of railroad engineers and firemen. It promised revision of the tariff to suit altered conditions and a general continuance of the enlightened and progressive policies of the Roosevelt administration. Upon this platform the party nominated William H. Taft of Ohio for President and James S. Sherman of New York for Vice-President.