Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1892 — DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM

HOW THE PARTY STANDS ON IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. Republican Protection Declared to Be a Fraud on Labor to Benefit a Pew—A Tariff Tor Revenue Only—The Coinage Question. Text of tlie Resolutions. The following is the full text of the platform adopted by the National Democratic Convention at Chicago: The representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm their allegiance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jefferson and exemplified by the long and illustrious line of his successors In Democratic leadership from Madison to Cleveland. We believe the public welfare demands that these principles be applied to the conduct of the Federal Government, through the accession to power of the §arty that advooates them; and we solemnly eelare that the need of a return to these fundamental principles of a free, popular government, based on home rule and individual liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the tendenoy to centralise all power at the Federal Capital has become a menace to the reserved tights of the States that strikes at the very roots of our government under the constitution as framed by the fathers of the republic. Federal Control of Elections. We warn the people of our common country, Jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of Federal control of elections, to which the Republican par ty has committed Itself, is fraught with the gravest dangers, scarcely less momentous than would result from a revolution, practically establishing monarchy on the ruins of the republic. It strikes at the North as well as tho South, and Injures the colored citizen even moro than the white; It means a horde of deiluty marshals at every polling place armed with Federal power, returning boards appointed and controlled by Federal authority, the outrage of the eleotoral rights of tho people in the several States, the subjugation of the colored peoJSle to the control of tho party in power and the reviving of race antagonisms now happily abated, of the utmost peril to the safety and happiness of all; a measure deliberately and justly described by a leading Republican Senator as the “most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the Senate.” Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of officeholders, and the party first intrusted with its machinery oould bo dislodged from power only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people to resist oppression which is inherent in all self-governing communities. Two years ago this revolutionary policy was emphatically condemned by the people at the polls, but in contempt of that verdict the Republican party has defiantly declared in its latest authoritative utterance that its sucoess in the coming eleotlons will mean the enactment of tho force bill and the usurpation of despotic control over eleotlons in all the States. Believing that the preservation of republican government in the United is dependent upon the defeat of the polloy of legalized force and fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see tho constitution maintained in its integrity with the laws pursuant thereto which havo given our country a hundred years of unexampled prosperity, and we pledge tho Democratic party, if it be intrusted with power, not only to tho defeat of the force bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate expenditure, which in the short spaco of two years has squandered an enormous surplus and emptied an overflowing treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon tho already overtaxed labor of the country. Declaration for Tariff Reform.

We denounce Republican protection as a fraud on the labof of the great majority of the Amorioan people for the.beneflt of the few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties except for the purposes of revenue only, and we demaud that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the Government when honestly and economically administered. We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by the Fiftyfirst Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we indorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present Congress to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of free raw materials and oheaper manufactured goods that outer into general consumption, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent results that will follow tho action of the people in intrusting power to tho Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into operation there have been ten reductions of the wages of laboring men to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of ‘prosperity •to tiro country slhce that tariff went into operation, and wo point to the dullness and distress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron trade, as the best possible evidence that no such prosperity resulted from the McKinley act. We call the attention of thoughtful Americana to the fact that alter thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of foreign wealth in exchange for our agricultural surplus the homes and farms of the country have become burdened with a real-estate mortgage debt of over $2,.100,000,1)00, exclusive of all other forms of indebtedness; that in one of the chief agricultural StatoH of the West thore appears a real-estate mortgage averaging $lO5 per capita of tho total population, and that similar conditions and tendencies are shown to exist in the other agricultural exporting States. We denounce a polioy which fosters no industry so much as it does that of the Sheriff. Tire Question of Trade Reciprocity. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantages to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the Democratic faith, but we denounce the sham reciprocity which juggles with the people’s desire for enlarged foreign markets and freer exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations, for a country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agricultural products, with other countries that are also agricultural, while erecting a custom-house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes against the richest countries of the world that stand ready to take our entire surplus of products and to exchange therefor commodities which aro necessaries and comforts of life among our own peoplo. / Trusts anil Combinations, We recognize in the trusts and combinations which are designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of the joint product of capital and labor a natural consequence of the prohibitive taxes which prevent the free competition which is the life of honest trade, but we believe their worst evils can be abated by law, and we demand tho rigid enforcement of the laws made to prevent and control them, together with such further legislation in restraint of their abuses as experience may show to be necessary. Lands for Actual Settlers. The Republican party, while professing a policy of reserving the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, has given away the people’s heritage, until now a few railroad and non-resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area .than that of all onr farms between the two seas. The last Democratic administration reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the Republican party touching the public domain and reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to the people nearly one hundred million acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and restored to the people. Th# Coinage of Sliver. We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman act of 18!X) as a cowardly makeshift fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country and to the coinage of both gold and silver without discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal Intrinsic and exchangeable value or be adjusted through International agreement or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency Bhall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We Insist upon this policy as especially necessary for the protection of the faimers and laboring classes, the first most defenseless victims of unstable xnuliey and a fluctuating currency. We recommend that the prohibitory 10 per cent, tax on State-bank issues be repealed. Relorm of the Civil Service. Public office Is a public trust. We reaffirm the declaration of the Democratic National Convention of 1876 for the reform of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all laws regulating the same. The nomination of a President, asin the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely of his appointees, holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous satire upon free popular institutions and a startling illustration of the methods by which a President may gratify his ambition. We denonnoe a policy under which Federal officeholders usurp control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the Democratic party to reform these and all other abases which threaten individual liberty and local self-government The Nicaragua Canal. In support of national defense and the promotion of commerce between the States we recognize the early construction of the Nicaragua Canal and its protection against foreign control as of great Importance to the United States. An Honorable Foreign Policy. The Democratic party Is the only party that has ever glyen the country a foreign nollcy consistent and vigorous, compelling respect aiiroad and inspiring confidence at home. While avoiding entangling alliances It has aimed to cultivate friendly relations with other nations, and especially with onr neighbors on the American continent, whose destiny is cldsely linked with our own; and we view with alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation

mid blunter which in liable at any time to confront or with the alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national defense and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the oountry abroad. Oppression in ltussla and Ireland. This oountry has always been the refuge of the oppressed from every land—exiles for oonsclenoe ,sakq—and In the spirit of the founders of our government we oondemn the oppression practiced by tho Russian Government upon Its Russian and Jewish subjects, and we call upon our national government. In the interests of Justice and humanity, by all right and proper means, to use its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel persecutions in the dominion of the Czar, and to secure to the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound anil earnest sympathy to thoso lovers of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the great cause of local selfgovernment In Ireland Restriction of Immigration. We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent the United States from being used as the dumping ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigration and tho Importation of foreign workmen under oontract to degrade American labor and lessen Its wages, blit wo condemn and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the Immigration of the Industrious and worthy of foreign lands. Pensions for Soldiers and Sailors. This convention hereby renews the expression of appreciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union In the war for Its preservation, and we favor Just and liberal pensions for all disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents, but we demand that the work of the pension offloo shall be done Industriously, Impartially, and honestly. We denounoo the present administration as Incompetent, corrupt, dlsgraoeful, and dishonest. Waterway Improvements. Tho Federal Government should care for and improvo the Mississippi River and other groat waterways of the republto so as to secure for tho Interior States easy and cheap transportation to the tide-water. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient Importance to demand the aid of the Government, such aid should be extended upona doflnlte plan of continuous work until permanent Improvement Is secured. The World’s Fair. Recognising the World’s Columbian Exposition as a national undertaking of vast Importance, In which the General Government has invited the 00-operatton of all tho powers of the world, and appreciating the aooeptanoe by many of such powers of the invitation so extended and the broad and liberal efforts being mado by them to contribute to the grandeur of tho undertaking, we are of opinion that Congress should make Buoh ncoesßary financial provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national honor and public faith. Tile Common Schools. Popular eduoatlon being the only safe basis of popular suffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appropriation for the publlo schools. Free common schools are the nursery of good government, and they have always reoelved tho fostering oare of the Democratic party, which favors every moans of Increasing Intelligence. Freedom of education, being an essential of civil and religious liberty as well as a necessity for the development of intelligence, must not he interfered with under any protoxt whatever. We are opposed to State interference with parental rights and rights of consolonoe In tho education of children, as an Infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest Individual liberty consistent with the rights of otherß Insures the highest type of Amorioan citizenship and the best government. Admission of tho Territories.

We approve the action of the present House of Representatives In passing bills for the admission Into the Union as States tho Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor tho early admission of all the Territories having the neoossary population and resources to entitle them to Statehood; and while they remain Territories we hold that the official's appointed to administer tho Government of any Territory, together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should ho bona-flde residents of tho Territory or distrlot in which their duties are to bo performed. The Democratic party believes In home rnle and the control of their own affairs by the people of the vicinage. Protection of Railway Km ploy ea. We fnrvor legislation by Congress and State Legislatures to proteot the lives and limbs of railway employes and those of dtherhazardous transportation companies, and denounce the Inactivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this clasß of wage-workers. The Sweating System. We are In favor of the enaotment by the States of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract oonvlot labor and for prohibiting the employment In factories of ohlldten under IB years of age. Sumptuary Laws. We are opposed to all oumjituary laws as an interference with the Individual rights of the citizens. Upon this statement of prlnolplos and policies tho Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the Amerioan people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party, in order that thero may be a change of system and a change of methods, thus assuring the maintenance, unimpaired, of institutions under which tho ropubllo lias grown great and powerful.