People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1895 — People’ll Party Platform. [ARTICLE]

People’ll Party Platform.

FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES. First.—That the union of the labor forces of the United States this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual; may its spirit enter into all hearts for the salvation of the republic and the uplifting of mankind. Second.—Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from’industry without an equivalent is robbery. ‘‘lf 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 either own the people or the people must own the railroads, and should the government enter upon the work of owning and managing any or all railroads, we should favor an amendment to the constitution by which all persons engaged in the government service ■hall be placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent an increase of the power of the national administration by the use of such additional government employes. FINANCE First—We demand a natianai currency, ■afe. 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 lie provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmees’Alliance or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.

We demand free and unlimited coinage of ellver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than 150 per capita. We demand a graduated income tax. We tielieve that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we d emand that all state and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and honestly administered. ■ I We demand that postal savings bank lie established by the government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange. TRANSPORTATION fBCOXD— 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 pteioffiee system, lading a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the Interest of the people. LAX DS Third—Tbe land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people. and should not tie monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should lie prohibited. All lands now held by railroads and other corporations in txcess of their actual needs and all lands 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. a.s a part of the platform of the People’s Party.but as resolutions expressive of the convention. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot *nd a fair count in all elections and pledge ourselves to secure it to everv legal voter without federal intervention through the adoption by the Slates of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system. Resolved. That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be 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 toex-llDion soldiers and sailors. Resolved. That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system. which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world and Crowds out Our wage earners; and denounce the present ineffective laws against Contract labor and demand the further restriction of undesirable immigration.

Resolved. Thai we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workmen io shorten the hours of labor anti demand a rigid enforcement of the existing eight hour law on government work and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law. Resolved. That we regard the mainieuance of a large standing army of mercenaries, known as the I'inkerton system, asa menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition ancL we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by federal officers. Resolved. That we coin mend to the thoughtful consideration of the people and the reform press ' the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum. Resolved. That we favor st Constitutional provision limiting the office of President and Vice President to one term and providing for the election of seiiaiors of the United states by a direct vote of the people. Resolved. That we oppose any subsidy or DationaLaid 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 costs but 2c a week to send them all the news, beautifully printed; why not do it? 7 wenty-five cents for three months including Coin’s Financial School.

Will wonders never cease? That highest of high-class magazines, The Cosmopolitan, has reduced its price to ten cents per copy. It is said that there are in Kansas twenty eight well-built towns without a single inhabitant. Saratoga. in that state, has a #30.000 opera house, a large brick hotel, a #20,000 school house and a number of fine business houses, and yet there is not a single person to claim that city as his home. At Fargo a herder and his family constitute the sole population of what was once an incorporated city.—Lowell Tribune. How can this be? It was understood that “bleeding Kansas’’ had been “redeemed” and that the only thing the matter with thestate was that it had a few terrible populists.

Farmers who are harvesting thirtv-five bnshels of wheat per acre on land in Dakota worth S2O an acre cannot be persuaded that even 60-cent wheat is an unmitigated democraticcalamity. —Fowler Review For the last ten years the farmers of Dakota have not harvested an average of twelve bushels of wheat per acre. A farm of 160 acres —IOO under cultivation, with two wells, house, barn and other improvements—was offered the writer, last winter while in Bismark, for #2OO. While it is true that the prospects so far are bright for the north-west this year, the seasons are not reliable enough to insure a regular crop. The trouble with the plute press is that it is continually pointing out farmers at a distance who are getting rich.