that if elected it would be my ambition to give the State a "sane, efficient, and honorable administration free from taint of bossism or of servitude to any private interest."

This is my position in a nut-shell.

It will be an unbossed administration. I believe in party organization-in clean, efficient organization. I promise all members of the party fair treatment and just consideration. No individual, or group of individuals, and no private interest will be permitted to dictate my policy. I shall decide and act according to my conscience and as I believe the public interest requires.

I promise an honest administration.

It will not be necessary for anyone to pay one cent to defeat what is called "strike" legislation. There will be no excuse for the improper expenditure of money upon that ground.

On the other hand, so far as in me lies every effort to obstruct just and impartial administration, or to procure legislation or departmental action for the benefit of any individual or corporation in opposition to the public welfare, or to prevent action or legislation which the people should have, will be exposed and frustrated.

No interest, however prominent, will receive any consideration except that to which upon the merits of the case it may be entitled, when viewed in the light of the supreme interest of the people.

It will be my aim to make the administration of the government efficient and economical. I am not committed to specific measures. I promise an examination, careful and impartial, of all matters within the scope of my authority and such action as my honest judgment shall approve.

I am deeply interested in all efforts to better the condition of our working men. Every practical measure for the real benefit of labor will have my cordial support. It would be difficult to point to a more important field of legislation than that illustrated by the Acts relating to tenement-houses, to sweat-shops, to child labor, and to hours of labor. These are important contributions to the cause and their provisions should be effectively administered. I believe in the thorough enforcement of the Labor Laws, and shall favor such appropriations and such equipment as will admit of their proper execution.

I shall spare no effort to make effective the reforms in the business of life insurance so essential to the interests of policyholders.

I promise the enforcement of the law with equal severity and equal justice to all, rich and poor, corporations and individuals.

We are all members of one body politic. We could not separate our interests if we tried. We desire to preserve the opportunities for individual initiative and the rewards of ability, industry, and integrity. We desire to protect the government, with its guaranties of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, from being used by any person or combination of persons to promote a selfish interest at the expense of the other members of the community. We desire to enforce the laws we have and to enact such additional laws as may be required to secure equal privileges and opportunities and to prevent any one person or class of persons from being made the victim of oppression. We believe in open discussion and responsible criticism. But efforts to make discontent serve self-interest, to create class hatred, to distort the good and to exaggerate the evil, are subversive of free institutions and tend to anarchy.

We make our appeal to the common sense of the American people, which has never failed to express itself decisively in a great crisis. We are pledged to achieve reforms in the

American manner, in accordance with the genius of our institutions, and with love of truth and even-handed justice.

It is in this spirit and with these pledges alone that I accept the nomination.

III.

Inaugural Address, Albany, N. Y., January 1, 1907.

Fellow Citizens:-I assume the office of Governor without other ambition than to serve the people of the State. I have not coveted its powers nor do I permit myself to shrink from its responsibilities. Sensible of its magnitude and of my own limitations, I undertake the task of administration without illusion. But you do not require the impossible. You have bound me to earnest and honest endeavor in the interest of all the people according to the best of my ability and that obligation, with the help of God, I shall discharge.

We have reason to congratulate ourselves that, coincident with our prosperity, there is an emphatic assertion of popular rights and a keen resentment of public wrongs. There is no panacea in executive or legislative action for all the ills of society which spring from the