Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1880 — NATIONAT GREENBACK PLATFORM. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAT GREENBACK PLATFORM.

“The civil government should guarantee the divine right of every laborer to the resuits of his UiU, thus enabling the producers of wealth to provide themselves with means for physical comfort and facilities for mental, social and moral culture; and we condemn as unworthy our civilization, the barbarism which imposes upon the wealth producers a state of drudgery as the price of bare animal existenee. 'Notwithstanding the enormous increase of productive power, the universal introduction of labor-saving ma_ chinerv, and the discovery of new agents for tho increase of wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely lightened, the hours of toil are hi.t little shwrtciied, and few producers are lifted from poverty into comfort and pecuniary independeuce. The associated monopolies, the international syndicates and other income classes demand dear money and cheap labor, a strong government, and lienee a weak people. Corporate control of the volume of money has been the means of dividing society into hostile classis, of unjust distribution of the products of labor, and of the building up of monopolies < f atsdeiated capital, endowned with power to confiscate private property, it has kept money scarce, and the scarcity of money enforces debt trade, and public and corporate loans. Debt engenders usury, and usury ends in the baukrupey of the borrower. Other results are deranged markets, uncertainty in manufacturing enterprises and agriculture, .precarious and intermittent employment for the laborer, industrial war, increasing pauperism and crime and tho consequent intimidation and distranchiseinent of the producer, and a rapid declension into corporate feudalism. Therefoae we declare—-

1. That the right to make an issue money is a sovereign power to he maintained by the people for their common benefit. The delegation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring upon a subordinate and irresponsible power absolute dominion over industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic nr paper, shouldbe issued audits volume controlled | y (the government, and n 4 by or through banking corporations, and when so issued should be a Hill‘legal tender for all debts, public and private. 2. That the bonds of the United States should not he refunded, but paid es rapidly as practicable according to contract. To enable the government to meet tlieao obligations, legal tender currency should be substituted for the notes of tho National flanks, the National Banking system abolished, and the unlimitted coinage of silver as well as gold established by law. 3. That labor should be so protected by national and State authority, as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its results. The eight hour law of Congress should be enforced. The sanitary condition of industrial establishments placed under rigid control. The competition of the contract convict labor abolished. A bureau of labor statistics established. Factories, mines and workshops inspected. The employment of children under 14 years of age forbidden, and wages paid in cash. 4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap being simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs, necessarily tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore immediate steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame treaty. 5. Kailroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfillment of contract, shouldbe immediately reclaimed by the Government, and henceforth the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers. (5. It is tlie duty of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. All lines of communication should bo brought under such legislative coutrol as shall secure moderate, fair and uniform rates for passenger and freight traffic. 7. Wo denounce, as destructive to property and dangerous to liberty the action of the old parties m fostering and sustaining gigantic land, railroad and money corporations and monopolies, invested with and exercising powers belonging to tlie government, and not responsible to it for the manner of their exercise. 8. That the constitution is giving congress the power to borrow money, to dcelare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money for an interest consideration sconld be preferred to the soldiers and sailors who periled their lives and shed their blood on land and si a in defence of their country, and we condemn the cruel class legislation of the Republican party which, while professing great gratitude te the soldier, lias most unjustly discriminated against him and in favor of the bondholder. 9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation, and we demAd a graduated income tax. 10. We denounce as dangerous the effort everywhere manifest to restrict the right of suffrage. 11. arc opposed to an increase of the stand* ing army in the time of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military power under the guise of militia laws. 12. We demand absolute Democratic rules for the government of congress, placing all repregen* tatives of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than that of the president. 13. We demand a government of the people, by the people and for the people, instead of a government es the bondholder, by the bondholder and for the bondholder: and we denounce every attempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes against the people. If. In the furtherance of these ends we ask the co-opcratiqu of all fair minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, imt only against viciohs institutions.