It was the plain purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to prevent discrimination on account of race or color in regulating the elective franchise. Devices of state governments, whether by statutory or constitutional enactment, to avoid the purpose of this amendment are revolutionary and should be condemned. PUBLIC ROADS. Public movements looking to a permanent improvement of the roads and highways of the country meet with our cordial approval, and we recommend this subject to the earnest consideration of the people and of the legislatures of the several states. RURAL FREE DELIVERY. We favor the extension of the rural free delivery service wherever its extension may be justified. LAND LEGISLATION. In further pursuance of the constant policy of the Republican Party to provide free homes on the public domain we recommend adequate national legislation to reclaim the arid lands of the United States, reserving control of the distribution of water for irrigation to the respective states and territories. NEW STATES PROPOSED. We favor home-rule for, and the early admission to statehood of, the territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. REDUCTION OF WAR TAXES. The Dingley Act, amended to provide sufficient revenue for the conduct of the war, has so well performed its work that it has been possible to reduce the war debt in the sum of $40,000,000. So ample are the government's revenues and so great is the public confidence in the integrity of its obligations, that its newly funded 2 per cent. bonds sell at a premium. The country is now justified in expecting, and it will be the policy of the Republican Party to bring about, a reduction of the war taxes. ISTHMIAN CANAL AND NEW MARKETS. We favor the construction, ownership, control, and protection of an isthmian canal by the government of the United States. New markets are necessary for the increasing surplus of our farm products. Every effort should be made to open and obtain new markets, especially in the Orient, and the administration is to be warmly commended for its successful efforts to commit all trading and colonizing nations to the policy of the open door in China. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. In the interest of our expanding commerce we recommend that Congress create a Department of Commerce and Industries, in the charge of a secretary with a seat in the cabinet. The United States consular system should be reorganized under the supervision of this new department, upon such a basis of appointment and tenure as will render it still more servicable to the nation's increasing trade. PROTECTION OF CITIZENS. The American government must protect the person and property of every citizen wherever they are wrongfully violated or placed in peril. SERVICES OF WOMEN.