People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1895 — People's Party Platform. [ARTICLE]

People's Party Platform.

FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES. i • First. —That the union of the labor forces of the United States this day consummated ' shall be permanent and perpetual; may itsspirit enter into ail hearts for the salvation I of the republic and the uplifting of man- I kind. Second.—Wealth belongs to him who creates it. and every dollar taken from industry . without an equivalent is robbery. ‘Tf any will not work, neither shall he eat.” The interests of civic and rural labor are the same; their interests are identical. Third—We believe that the time has come when the railroad corporations will eitherown the people or the people must own the railroads, and should the government enter upon the work of owning and managing any or al! railroads, we should favor'an amendment to the constitution by which all persons engaged in the government service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent an increase of the powerof the national administration by the use of such additional government employes. FINANCE First—We demand a national currency, safe, sound and flexible, issued by the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts public and private, and that without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable and efficient means of distribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed 2 percent, per annum to l>e provided as set forth in the suit-treasury plan of the Farmers’Alliance or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements. We demand free and unlimited coinage of sliver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than SSO per capita. We demand a graduated income tax. We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we demand thatall state and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and honestly administered. We demand that postal savings bank be. established by the government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange.

TRANSPORTATION SECOND—Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the government should own and operate the railroads in the interests of the people. The telegraph and telephone, like the postoftiee system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the Interest of the people. LANDS Third—The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All lands now held by railroads and other corporations in «xcess of their actual needs and ail la nds now owned by aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only. SUPPLEMENTARY RESOLUTIONS. Whereas. Other questions have been presented for our consideration, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the platform of the People’s Party, but as resolutions expressive of the convention. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count-in ail elections and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter without federal intervention through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system. Resolved. That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should lie applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation, now levied upon the domestic industries of this country. Resolved, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pensions loex-Union soldiers and sailors. Resolved. That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the presentsystem. which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal sol the world and crowds out our wage earners; and we denounce the present Inelieclive laws against contract labor and demand the further restriction of undesirable immigration. Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workmen to shorten the hours of tailor and demand a rigid enforcement of the existing eight hour law on government work and ask that a penally clause tie added to the suit! law. Resolved. That we regard rhe maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries. known as the Pinkerton sjsteni. asa meuacv to our liberties, and we demand its abolition aud we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by federal officers. Resolved. That we commend to the thoughtful cottsiderarion of tin- people and the reform press the. legislative system known as the initiative and referendum. Resolved. That we favor a Constitutional provision limiting the office of President and Vice President to one term and providing for the election of senators of the United states by a direct vote of the people. Resolved. That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corpoiation for any purnose.

Nearly every reader of the Pilot has a friend some where who would like to hear from Jasper county. It cos’s but 2c a week to send them all the news, beautifully printed; why not do it? 7 wenty-flve cents for three months including Coin’s Financial School.

Starvation is the true educator of the wealth-producer in political science. The New York Herald advises the Republican legislature of New Jersey topass a law providing for the Initiation and the Referendum after the Swiss model: which that paper claims is the source of the present happiness of the Swiss people. As the clock hand moves, though with motion unperceived, and in full time reaches the index of the hour, so surely will liberty and fraternity reach the standpoint of their distant power. provided only, we keep the springs of action closely wound. Christ never owned anything during his earthly stay. His cradle and His grave were borrowed. Every fig He ate was from some one else’s tree. Every drop of water He drank was from some one else’s well. To pay his personal tax, wh'ch was very small—3l| cents —He bad to perform a miracle and make a fish pay it. All the heightsand depths and lengths and breadths of poverty Christ measured in His earthly experience. The Anarchist would destroy I the existing order of things by one world-splitting bomb. Upon the ruins he would start again the struggles of individuality. Wrong! Opposed to the Anarchist idea, the nationalist would build up instead of tearing down. Law’ would lighten the burden of production and equalize distribution. Poverty and vice w’ould disappear; the weak w’ould become strong; the gates of a new Eden w’ould open for oppressed humanity.

No blister draws sharper than interest on money. It works day and night; in fair weather and foul. It gnaws at a man’s substance with invisable teeth. It binds industry with its film, as a fly is bound with a spider’s web. Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang on the fatal mesh till the long-legged interest devours him. One had better make his bed of Canada thistles than attempt to lie at ease upon interest. Along about election time some “leading citizen” belonging to one of the old parties will be around asking you to stick to the party one more year to beat the “Dimmycrats” just this time, or maybe the “leading citizen” will be a Democrat wanting you to help beat “them Republicans” just once more. After the election they will not know you. Spot them, the money power buys up such men like sheep in the shambles. Under the lead of such creatures the money power has already a despotism in this country and a monarchy in all but the name.

Of a total of 12,936 ballots cast in The Chicago Record’s test vote on the silver question, excluding the few fradulent and duplicate votes, 8,028 were in favor of the immediate free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. without regard toother nations, and 4.908 were against the proposition. In other words, more than 62 per cent of the voters favor and less than 38 per cent oppose the free coinage of silver at the proposed ratio. Silver wins by a majority of 3.120 votes as confined to the legal voters of the municipality of Chicago. This ratio will be more than car ried out when it comes to a vote of the whole nation.

The Scenic Railway, which will be one of the features of the Midway Heights at the Cotton States and International Exposition. was formally opened last week. The railway will be operated during the summer and will be one of the attractions at Piedmont Park for the thousands of Visitors who go ut to the Exposition grounds everyday to witness the progress of the work of construction. The Scenic Railway will be one of the great attractions on the Midway Heights. Visiiors to the Exposition will find lhe Scenic Railway one of the features of the Midway. As the cars dash through the tunnel, the dazzling effects of the electric light show hundreds of scintillating points, icicles, stalagmites, and further on. a reflection from the sunlight in the deep gorge of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The Apeciacle is made all the more effective by the instantaneous ness with which it confronts the eye.

Suburban rates from Atlanta have been put on a basis of about three-fourths of a cent a mile, so that, for twenty-five or thirty cents, visitors can go out to some of the suburban towns and return to the city next morning by the time the gates are open. This will expand the accommodations by probably 20 per cen\ and will greatly relieve the pressure on the city. There is a cordon of suburban towns from five to twenty miles from Atlanta on all of the radiating roads, and many of these are equipped to accommodate visitors in good style, and will do so at reasona ble rates. Among these towns are Marietta, Sweetwater Park, Salt Springs, Manchester, East Point, Hopeville, Fairburn, Palmetto, Decatur. Stone Mountain. Lithonia, Clarkston and Jonesboro.