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ministration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful and dishonest.

WATERWAYS.-"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 States easy and cheap transWhen any portation to the tidewater. waterway of the public is of sufficient importance to demand the aid of the Government-that such aid should be extended, a definite plan of continuous work, until permanent improvement is secured. NICARAGUA CANAL.-"For purposes of National defence, 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.

WORLD'S FAIR. — - "Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a National undertaking of vast importance, in which the General Government has invited the co-operation of all the powers of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the invitation so extended, and the broadest liberal efforts being made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary finanshall be requisite cial provisions to the maintenance of the National honor and public faith.

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PUBLIC SCHOOLS.-"Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appropriations for the public schools. Free common schools are the nursery of good government, and they have always received the fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means 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 be interfered with under We are opposed any pretext whatever.

to State interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of a fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government.

TERRITORIES.-"We approve the action of the present House of Representatives in passing bills for the admission into the Union as States of the Territories of New-Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having necessary population and resources to admit 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 believe in home rule and the control of their own affairs by the people of the vicinage.

LABOR.-"We favor legislation by Congress and State Legislatures to protect the lives and limbs of railway employes and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inactivity of

the Republican party, particularly the Republican Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this class of wage-workers. We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract convict labor and for prohibiting the employment in factories of children under fifteen years of age.

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MISCELLANEOUS.-"We are opposed to all sumptuary law as an interference of the the individual rights citizen. Upon this statement of principles and policies the Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party, in order that there might be a change of system and a change of methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institutions under which the Republic has grown great and powerful.'

The Platform, as reported from the Committee on Resolutions, contained this declaration, as the first paragraph of Section 3, with the heading "Revenue Tariffs":

"We reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines of the Democratic party that the necessity of the Government is the only justification for taxation, and whenever a tax is unnecessary it is unjustifiable; that when custom-house taxation is levied upon articles of any kind produced in this country, the difference between the cost of labor here and labor abroad, when such a difference exists, fully measures any possible benefits to labor, and the enormous additional impositions of the existing tariff fall with crushing force upon our farmers and workingmen, and for the mere advantage of the few whom it enriches, exact from labor a grossly unjust share of the expenses of the Government, and we demand such a revision of the tariff laws as will remove their iniquitous inequalities, lighten their oppressions and put them on a constitutional and equitable basis. But in making reduction in taxes it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of this Government taxes collected at the Custom House have been the chief source of Federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process of reform must be subject in the execution of this plain dictate of justice."

On motion of Lawrence T. Neal, of struck Ohio, the above paragraph was from the Platform and the following substituted:

"We denounce Republican Protection as a fraud, a robbery on the great majority of the American people for the benefit 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 to collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue only, and we demand that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the Government when honestly and economically administered."

The vote on striking out was-Yeas 564, nays 342, as follows:

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There was a minority of 15 nays in Illinois, 5 yeas in Minnesota, and 15 nays in Pennsylvania, whose Votes were counted, under the unit rule, with the majority of the delegations from those States.

Mr. Patterson, of Colorado, moved to insert the word "free" before "coinage of both gold and silver,' in the Silver Plank, but was voted down.

DEMOCRATIC NOMINATIONS FOR PRESIDENT.

Governor Leon Abbett, of New-Jersey, presented the name of Grover Cleveland, of New-York, for President; Wm. C. DeWitt, of Brooklyn, that of David B. Hill, of New-York, and John F. Dunscombe, of Iowa, that of Horace Boies, of Iowa. Mr. Cleveland was nominated on the first ballot, which resulted as follows:

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"The conditions which surround us best justify our co-operation. We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the Bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind, and the possessors of these in turn despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes-tramps and millionaires.

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"The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders; a vast public debt, payable in legal tender currency, has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions to the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as human labor, and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise and enslave industry.

"A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and overthrown at cnce, it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism. We have witnessed, for more than a quarter of a century, the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influences de minating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious

effort to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, National banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives and children on the altar of Mammon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires.

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"Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the Nation, and filled with the spirit of the grand general and chieftain who established our independence, we seek to restore the Government of the Republic to the hands of the 'plain people' with whose class it originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the purposes of the National Constitution, form a more perfect union, and establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. We declare that this Republic can only endure as a free government while built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the Nation; that it cannot be pinned together by bayonets; that the Civil War is over, and that every passion and resentment which grew out of it must die with it, and that we must be in fact, as we are in name, one united brotherhood of freedom.

"Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there is no precedent in the history of the world; our annual agricultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which must within a few weeks or months be exchanged for billions of dollars' worth of commodities consumed in their production: the existing currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange; the results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves that, if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise and reasonable legislation, in accordance with the terms of cur platform. We believe that the powers of Government-in other words, of the people-should be expanded (as in the case of the postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the end that cppression, injustice and poverty shall eventually cease in the land.

"While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelligent, virtuous and temperate, we nevertheless regard these questions-important as they are-as secondary to the great issues now pressing for solution, and upon which not only cur individual prosperity, but the very existence of free institutions depends; and we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are to have a Republic to administer, before we differ as to the conditions upon which it is to be administered; believing that the forces of re

form this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted, and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country. We declare, therefore,

"1. 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.

2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. 'If any will not work, neither shall he eat.' The interests of rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical. "3. We believe that the time has come when the railroad corporations will either own the people or the people must cwn the railroads; and should the Government enter upon the work of owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amendment to the Constitution hy 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 the increase of the power of the National Administration by the use of such additional Government employes.

MONEY.-"1. We demand a National currency, safe, sound and flexible, issued by the General Govern.nent 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 per cent per annum, to be provided as set forth in the Sub-Treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.

(A) We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1.

(B) We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita.

"(C) We demand a graduated income tax.

"(D) 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 that all State and National revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the Government, economically and honestly administered.

"(E) We demand that Postal Savings Banks be established by the Government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange. TRANSPORTATION.—“ 2. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people. The telegraph and telephone, like the postoffice system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the interests of the people.

LAND.-3. 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 land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by

aliens, should be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only."

The following supplementary resolutions, not to be incorporated in the platform, came from the Committee on Resolutions and were adopted, as follows:

"Whereas, Other questions having 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 sentiment of this convention:

ELECTIONS.-"1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and fair count at all 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.

TAXATION.-"2. That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation now resting upon the domestic industries of this country.

PENSIONS.-"3. That we pledge oursupport to fair and liberal pensions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.

IMMIGRATION.-"4. 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 cur wage-earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable immigration.

EIGHT-HOUR LAW.-5. That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor and 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. PINKERTON MEN.-'6. That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries, krown as the Pinkerton system, as а menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition; and we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by Federal officials.

MISCELLANEOUS.—"7. That we commend to the favorable consideration of the people and to the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.

"8. 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.

9. That we oppose any subsidy or rational aid to any private corporation for any purpose.

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"10. That this convention sympathizes with the Knights of Labor and righteous contest with the tyrannical combine of clothing manufacturers of Rochester, and declares it to be the duty of all who hate tyranny and oppression to refuse to purchase the goods made by the said manufacturers, or to patronize any merchants who sell such goods."

THE NOMINATIONS.

The following were placed in nomination for President: James B. Weaver, of Iowa; James H. Kyle, South Dakota;

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THE PLATFORM.

"The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all true government, and His law as the standard to which human enactments must conform to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity, presents the following declaration of principles:

LIQUOR.-"1. The liquor traffic is a foe to civilization, the arch-enemy of popular government, and a public nuisance. It is the citadel of the forces that corrupt politics, promote poverty and crime, degrade the Nation's home life, thwart the will of the people, and deliver our country into the hands of rapacious class interests. All laws that, under the guise of regulation, legalize and protect this traffic or make the Government share in its ill-gotten gains, are 'vicious in principle and powerless as a remedy.' We declare anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, importation, exportation and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a beverage by Federal and State legislation, and the full powers of Government should be exerted to secure this result. No party that fails to recognize the dominant nature of this issue in American politics is deserving of the support of the people.

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WOMAN SUFFRAGE.-''2. should be denied the right to vote on account of sex, and equal labor should receive equal wages, without regard to sex.

MONEY.-‘3. The money of the country should consist of gold, silver and paper, and be issued by the General Government only, and in sufficient quantity to meet the demands of business and give full opportunity for the employment of labor. To this end an increase in the volume of money is demanded. No individual or corporation should be allowed to make any profit through its issue. It should be made a legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. Its volume should be fixed at a definite sum per capita, and made to increase with our increase in population.

SILVER.-"4. We favor the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver. (This plank was stricken out by the convention by a vote of 335 for to 596 against it.)

TARIFF.-"5. Tariff should be levied only as a defence against foreign Governments which levy tarif upon or bar out our products from their markets, revenues being incidental. The residue of means necessary to an economical administra

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