Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1900 — ELECTION OF 1900. [ARTICLE]

ELECTION OF 1900.

Democratic Platform Adopted at Kansas City, July 4, 1900. The Party (Democratic) Stands Where It Did in 1896 on the Money Question.—William J. Bryan at Zanesville, Ohio, Sept. 4, 1900. Nominated; For President—WlLLlAM J. BRYAN of Nebraska. Vice-President—ADLAl E. STEVENSON of Illinois. PLATFORM. We, the Democrats of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential principles of justice and liberty upon Which our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic party has advocated from Jefferson’s time to our own —freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights, the equality off all citizens before the law, and the faitful observance of constitutional limitations.

State Rights. During all these the Democratic party has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual scheme of government established by the founders of this republic or republics. Under its guidance and teachings the great principle of local self-government has found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of the States and in its assertion of (he necessity of confining the general government to the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United States. The Money Question. Recognizing that the money system is paramount to ail others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Federal Constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and first coinage law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver dollar the monetary unit, and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dollar unit. We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fail in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private: the enrichment of the money lending classes at home and abroad; prostration of industry and impoverishment of the people. We are unalterably opposed to gold monometallism, which has locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American, but anti-American, and it can be fastened on the United States only by the stifling of that Spirit and lo.ve of liberty which proclaimed out independence in 1776 and won it in the war of the Revolution. Free Bitver. We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally With gold, for all debts, public and private, and ’we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind #’ legaltender money by private contract.. We are opposed to the policy and’ practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by law to the government of redeeming such obligations iu either silver coin or gold coin.

Bond Issues. We are opposed to the issuing of inter-est-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal treasury with gold to maintuin the policy of gold monometallism. Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore demand that the power to issue notes to circulate as money be taken from the national banks, and that all paper money shall be issued directly by the Treasury Department, be redeemable in coin, and receivable for all debts, public and private. Tariff for Revenue. We hold that the tariff duties should be levied for purposes of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country and not discriminate between class or section, and that taxation should be limited by the needs of the government honestly and economically administered. We denouncs, as disturbing to business, the Republican threat to restore the McKinley law, which has been twice condemned by the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the false plea of protection to home industry, proved u prolific breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of many, restricted trade and 4eprived the producers of the great American staples of access to their natural markets. Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agitation for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are necessary to make the deficit In revenue caused by the adverse decision of the Supreme Court; on the Income tax. The Income Tax. There would be no deficit in the revenue but for the annulment by the Supreme Court of a law passed by a Democratic Congress In .trict pursnance of the uniform decisions of that court for nearly one hundred, years, ******”*?*“** ing sustained constltutionalobjectlonsto its enactment which had been < overruled by the ablest Judges who have on that bench. We declare that it la the

duty off Congress to nse all the conatltn tional power which remains after that decision, or which may come by its reversal by the court, as it may hereafter be constituted, so that , the .burdens of taxation may be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may bear ita due proportion of the expenses of the government. Immigration. We hold that the most efficient way to protect American Tabor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly reduced by a vicious monetary system, which depresses the price of their products below the cost of production, and thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manufacture. Congressional Appropriations. We denounce the profligate waste off the money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high, while the labor that pays them is unemployed, and the products of the people’s toil are depressed in price until ihey no longer repay the cost of production. Wo demand a return to that simplicity and economy which best befit a Democratic government and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people. Federal Interference. We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression, by which Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges and executioners, and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House, relative to contempts in Federal courts, and providing for trials by jury iu certain cases of contempt.

Pacific Funding Bill. No discrimination should be indulged by the government of the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific Railroad funding bill, and denounce the effort of the present Republican Congress to enact a similar measure. Pensions. Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we heartily indorse the rule of the-present Commissioner of Pensions that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the pension roll, and the fact of an enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive evidence against disease or disability before enlistment. Cuba. We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and independence. The Civil Service. We are opposed to life tenure in the public service. We favor appointments based on merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the civil service laws as will afford equal opportunities of all citizens of ascertained fitness. No Third Term. We declare it to be the unwritten law of this republic, established by custom and usage of one hundred years, and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our government, that no man should be eligible for a third term of the presidential office.

Corporate Wealth. The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our leading railroad systems, and formation of trusts and pools require a stricter control by the ■ Federal government of those arteries of commerce. We demand the enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and such restrictions and guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people from robbery and oppression. Admission of Territories. We favor the admission of the territories of New Mexico and Arizona into the Union as States, and we favor the early admissiou of all the territories giving the necessary population and resources to entitle them to statehood, and while they remain territories we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any territory, together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the territory or district in which their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party believes in hopio rule and that all public lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establishment of free homes for American citizens. We recommend that the territory of Alaska be granted a delegate in Congress, and that the general land and timber laws of the United States be extended to said territory. Mississippi River Improvements. The Federal government should care for and improve the Mississippi river and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the interior people easy and cheap transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured. Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of principles and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American people. We invite the support of all citizens who approve them, and who desire to have them made effective through legislation for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country’s prosperity. Webster Darla on McKinley. “Listen, my Democratic friends and neighbors, for I have friends and neighbors in this city, which is my home; listen to what I am about to say. When the Democratic party antagonises and attacks the administration of President McKinley, upon fta policy in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS CAMPING IN THE GRAVEYARD OF DEAD ISSUES.”—From a speech delivered by the Hon. Webster Davis in October, 1808, to the Republicans of Kansas City, Mo„ when the first meeting was held In the first convention hall that was only partially completed.