Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1902 — INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

WE, the delegates of the Democratic party of the State of Indiana, in convention assembled, do hereby adopt the following declaration of principles, and appeal to our fellow-citizens who agree with these principles, to co-operate with us in the coming campaign. We denounce the Republican party for its surrender to and alliance with the trusts, and we favor such legislation as will suppress and destroy all trusts or combinations to control the production and the price of commodities. We denounce the Dingley tariff law as the breeder of trusts, and demand that tariff duties shall be levied for the purposes of revenue only, and limited by the needs of the government honestly and economically administered. AID TO THE TRUSTS. We condemn the Republican party for refusing to give the Interstate Commerce Commission power to enforce its decisions against discriminations in railroad rates, which discriminations have been a potent cause of the creation and maintenance of trusts, and we demand that the commission be giveu power to suppress this evil. We favor the restoration and expansion of our merchant marine. To this end we demand the reformation of oiir navigation and tariff laws which are, and have been, the chief obstacles to our ocean commerce. We denounce the ship subsidy bill recently passed by the United States Senate, with the assistance of the Senators from Indiana, as an iniquitous appropriation of public funds for private purposes, and a wasteful, illogical and useless attempt to overcome by subsidy the obstructions raised by Republican legislation to the growth and development of American commerce on the sea. OPPOSED TO FOWLER DANK BILL. We are opposed to the Fowler bank bill indorsed by the Republican leaders, which would give the people a paper currency based on bank assets of unknown value, and for which the government is not responsible; we are also opposed to its proposal of bank concentration and the formation of a great banking trust; and we are also opposed to its proposal to destroy the security of depositors in banks. We recognize as an economic fact the increase of standard money arising from the vast increased production of gold, from our own and foreign mines, and the prodigious influx of foreign gold into this country, as a result of an exceptional demand for our products, arising from foreign wars and other causes, and we point to the results consequent upon this increase of the circulating medium as a demonstration of the truth of the quantitative theory of money. PHILIPPINE POLICY. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. Therefore, we condemn and denounce the Philippine policy of the present administration. It has embroiled the republic in uu unnecessary war, sacrificed the lives of many of its noblest sons, and placed the United States, previously known and applauded throughout the world as the champion of freedom, in the false and un-American position of crushing with military force tlie efforts of our former allies to achieve liberty and self-government. The Filipinos cannot be citizens without endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjects without imperiling our form of government; and as we are not willing to surrender our civilization or to convert the republic into an empire, we favor an immediate declaration of the nation’s purpose to assist the Filipinos to establish for themselves an independent government, protecting them from outside interference, ami securing to this country such commercial and moral rights and advantages as would be just and fair and fully protect American interests. SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. We hold in reverence the valor, patriotism and services of the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and will, at all times and in all places, give our unswerving and enthusiastic support to our army and navy, which have always ami everywhere maintained the dignity, power and honor of the American people. The beautiful shaft that rises above the capital of otir commonwealth is a worthy monument to the glory of those silent victors of Indiana, who so freely offered their lives to secure the perpetuity of our free institutions. We favor liberal pensions to the soldiers and sailors Of the republic, and their dependents. We congratulate the republic of Cuba upon its entering into the family of nations. We deplore the cruel and wanton destruction of the republics of South Africa. We favor the construction and control of .in isthmian canal by the United 6tates. SENATORS BY POPULAR VOTE. We favor the election of United States Senators by popular vote. We favor freedom of debate in the legislative bodies of the State and nation. The Republican party has, by rules, made the popular branch of Congress, the House of Representatives, subject to the arbitrary control and domination of a few members, thus disfranchising constituencies in matters of vital legislation. We deplore the death of President McKinley at the hands of a self-con-fessed anarchist, whose unholy crime was committed against the whole nation. We denounce anarchy in all its forms and declare that it should not be permitted to find an abiding place in this country. CONGRESSMEN INDORSED. We indorse the course of our Democratic Representatives in Congress in standing for economy in public expenditures, for just principles of government and for the doctrines of the Democratic party. We point with pride to the long list of laws enacted by the Democratic Legislature of this State in the interest of labor, and we favor the enactment of auch further legislation as will prevent the sending or transfer of accounts or other obligations of persons out of the State for the purpose of oppressing laboring men by unjust ami expensive proceedings in attachment and garnishment. We denounce the hypocrisy of the Republican party in assuming to Itself credit for the reduction of the State debt, when it is a well-known fact that the State debt has been reduced by the operation of the Democratic tax law of ltfill, under which railroads and other corporations have been compelled to pay a more just portion of the public burdens. LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. We are in favor of the principles of local self-government and of leaving the control of local matters in the hands of the people of the counties, cities and townships of the State. We oppose granting to corporations of any other State or States the power to acquire any railroad organized and operating under the laws of this State. We are in favor of restoring to the citizens of the State the right to appeal to the Supreme and Appellate Courts in any civil ease within the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, where the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceed* SSO.

INSTITUTIONS PROSTITUTED. The wisdom, prudence and foresight of the Democracy of Indiana placed the penal and benevolent institutions of the State under humane and nonpartisan laws and administered them in harmony with the reformatory and benevolent purposes for which they were founded. The vicious and cruel prostitution of these institutions to partisan ends by the present administration merits condemnation by the people of the State. We call attention to the fnct that the last Republican Legislature of Indiana was the most reckless and dangerous in the abuse of legislative power in the history of the State. Its deeds of commission and omission should serve as a warning to the people of the State against further continuance of the Republican party in power in this commonwealth. GOV. DURBIN CONDEMNED. We condemn the Republican Governor of Indiana for his violation of the constitutions and laws of the United States and the State of Indiana ih his refusal to honor the requisition of the Governor of Kentucky upon regularly returned indictments for murder against fugitives from justice, and denounce this fin grant violation of his oath to support the constitution of the United State* and the State of Indiana as a species of official lawlessness, vicious in iself and subversive of that comity among the States which is au essential element of the union of the States.