The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1878-05-11
The Nationals at philadelphia.

upon the principles of individual sovereign
ity and the equal civil and political rights
of all citizens, was designed to be Govern
ment "of the people, for the people and by
the people," but has become, in fact, a
Government of corporations, for the accu-
mutation and protection of property, by
politicians, national bankers, brokers, stock
gamblers, and others whose interests are
Numerically opposed to the general well
fare of the people; and
Whereas, By pollution Of the ballot box,
through fraud, bribery, perjury, and yio-
lence, the will of the people has been dis
regarded in our elections, and by the in
competence or wickedness of public servants,
unjust laws have been enacted which have
paralySed industry, destroyed confidence,
compelled idleness, pauperized the people,
antagonized races, and filled the land with
suffering, starvation and crime; and
Whereas, While both the Democratic and
Republican parties are responsible for these
evils, they neither of them appear to COM
prehend the gravity of the situation or to
offer any wise and peaceable remedy for
these wrongs, continuing to keep alive their
party organizations and to divide the people
into hostile parties for the mere purpose of a
division of the spoils Of office, thereby rem
dering a new party, organized to secure
equality of citizenship and justice to all,
an absolute necessity for the preservation OF
the republic.
Therefore, The delegates to the first Con-
venton of the National Greenback- Labor
party for the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania, assembled in Philadelphia, May 8,
1873, commend to their fellow-citizens, as
essential to the prosperity and progress of a
free people, the following
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.
First. The public lands-belonging to
all the people-should be sacredly held
In trust for the homes of American citizens !;
that the Government should furnish aid to
families desirous of settling thereupon, in
amount sufficient to enable them to culti-
vate and improve the same instead of squan-
derlng the public demain upon corporations
or private speculators.
Second. In the language Of Daniel Web
ster, "the great interests of this great coun-
try, the producing cause of all its prosperity
is labor idborI LABoRl The Government
was made to protect this industry to give
to it both encouragement and security. To
this very end, with this precise object in
view power was given TO Congress over the
currency and over the money system of the
country" And as the general Government
alone has been entrusted with the high con-
ssitutional prerogative Of determining the
money system of the nation, we demand
that this great power over the people, con-
trolling as it does their power of association
in the exchange of commodities, services
and ideas, shall no longer be delegated to
private individuals or corporations, but here
after it be exercised by the general Govern
ment alone, in accordance with the needs
and prosperity of our own citizens, rather
than conform to the financial systems of
Europe which have for centuries been used
by the few to enslave the many.
Third. That national paper money, or
greenbacks, based not alone on two metals,
silver and gold, but upon the entire wealth
and integrity of the nation, should be issu-
ed in sufficient quantities to revive our pros
trate industries, by enabling the people to
associate freely with each other in the eX-
change of services, commodities and ideas,
and thereby put an end, at once and fore
ever, to the suffering and ruin which is rend-
ing the hearts of our people and undermin-
ing our civilization. This money to be a
legal tender for all debts, public and private.
ourth. That as money represents accu-
muated labor, its annual increase or inte-
rest should be limited to the general ave-
rage yearly increase in all branches of Anne.
rican industry, which at the present time
cannot exceed three per cent. per annum.
This principle hereafter TO apply to all debts,
and every violation of it TO be punished as q
misdemeanor.
Fifth. The national debt should be paid
according TO the terms agreed upon when
the debt was contracted-bonds not payable
in coin should be paid in currency. No
more bonds should be issued, except for the
redemption of those payable in coin, and
tha, ~ 10 Ln IN, h,,f
to be of small denominations, in which the
savings of the masses may be safely invested.
Sixth. That all purely speculative trans
actions in money, Government bonds, lands,
! food, or any of the necessaries ofhuman life,
should be prohibited; and allimprovements
indispensable to the welfare of the people
should be controlled by the Government in
their interest,
Seventh. We demand a system of Just
taxation, by which the wealth of the nation,
rather than the industry of the people, shall
pay the expenses of the Government. No
! property, except what belongs to the Govern
nent, should be exempt from bearing its
share of the public burdens and that a
graduated income tax should supercede our
present unjust system ofplacing the heaviest
burdens of taxalion upon those least able TO
bear them.
Elghtn. LIaDOT-SuNlng machinery instead
of being used by capitalists to enslave the
working classes-driving them into dead
ly competition with each other, in which
the hottest ties of affection are destroyed in
a remorseless struggle for bread-should be
so controlled by Government as to bless the
whole community by lessening the hours
and cheapening the products of toll, raising
| the wages of the laborer, and thereby afford
ing time and opportunity for greater in
teilectual development and higher civil
ization.
Ninth. We demand the repeal Of all laws
which tend to oppress the industrious for the
benefit of the idle or TO enrich the few by
impoverishng the many that cooperation
in productive labor and the equitable dis
tribution of its rewards be made as practc-
able for laborers as it now is for capitalists
TO combine in order to secure the profits of
industry. And, as there can be no political
| freedom TO those economically enslaved, it
behooves our people to unite at once to secure
such legislation as will effectually check the
already rapidly increasing and dangerous
usurpations Of capitalists and corporations
and that will protect the rights of the hum
blest citizen.
Tenth. The elective franchise is the birth
right of American citizenship, and any at
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