Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-09-20

mana tne repeal OI re-dOJuSLIueHt OI
all such tariff taxes to enable them
to extort from the people exorbitant
prices for the products they control.
The Democratic party of this State
demands an appropriation by the
General Government of sufficient
funds to speedily open the great
Columbia river to navigation from one
end to the other, and pledges its Rep
resentative in Congress, if elected, to
labor to that end, and condemns the
dilatory and wasteful course of the
Republican party with respect thereto.
We demand the improvement by the
General Government OF Gray's Harbor
and other harbors and waterways of
the State and the early establishment
of all necessary coast defenses.
We condemn the policy inaugurated
under Republican rule by which vast
areas OF the public DOMAIN, the heri-
tage of the people, was granted to cor
porations and landed monopolies,
thereby established. We demand that
all such grants heretofore made, not
earned in strict accordance with the
granting acts, be restored to the pub
lie domain, and that they be opened to
entry and settlement in small holdings
by actual settlers under the public
laws of the United States, confirming,
however, to actual residents of the
State, the title to lands purchased by
them in good faith; and we heartily
indorse the action to that end taken
by the Democratic majority in the
House of Representatives, and we de-
nounce the obstructive action of the
Republican Senate in defeating the
righteous measures of the Democratic
House, and we especially arraign the
Republican party of this Territory for
its vacillating, inconsistent and insin-
cere course upon this subject.
The allotment of lands in severality
to Indians is Democratic policy, and,
properly pursued will result in the
opening of large tracts now embraced
in Indian reservations in this State,
and we pledge our representatives in
Congress to the support of such a policy,
and the speedy restoration of all un-
necessary portions of such lands to
settlement under the land laws of the
United States.
We favor the passage of Just laws in
conformity with and for the purpose
of carrying into effect the provisions
of section Is of article XII of the pro-
posed State Constitution in relation to
charges for passengers and freight, and
that such laws shall fully protect the
people from oppression and discrimi-
: nation, and be at the same time just
and fair to the capital invested in
transportation enterprises, and provide
for the speedy adjustment of all differ
ences between such corporations and
the people.
While we recognize the patriotism
and devotion to public duty of the great
mass of the Republican voters, we de-
clare that the Republican party Of the
State is controlled and dominated by
professional politicians and ex-Federal
officers, intent on gaining Office to such
an extent as to imperil the best in
terests of the State in its formative pc
riod and inimical to the most perfect
and safe management of the States
SaAuouiO PAOpCity 1lAO VtAlcE autcIcSto.
We demand the enactment by the
legislature of rigid laws by which the
secrecy and purity of the ballot may be
secured and maintained.
We denounce as unworthy the rep
resentations of party processing to be
respectable, the Justification of history
contained in the first declaration of
the Republican State platform, con-
cerning the admission Of the State of
Washington into the Union, and we
call on the people to repudiate a party
whose representatives deliberately go
before them with wilfully false state
ment in their platform. We declare
that it is insulting to the intelligence
of the people to make such declama-
ton in the face of the facts
that Washington was wrested from
British possessions by Democratic cour-
age, craftsmanship and diplomacy that
it was first organized as q political div
ision by Democratic Administration !;
that the bill for the admission of all
the new States was formulated by q
J Democratic Committee, passed by q
Democratic house and promptly signed
by Democrati Presdment.