Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-23
DEMOCRATIC MAXIMS
Promulgated by the Planks of the
Cleveland Platform.
SILVER QUESTIONS STRADDLED.
Promised Speedy Repeal of the Mckinley
Protective Tariff.
TIKE-w0RN PRINCIPLES REAFFIRMED

CHICAGO. june 22.AFollowing is the re.
port of the Platform Committee presented
70 the National Democratic Convention last
evening. The debate and the amendments
offered and adopted will be found in the
account of the proceedings:
SECTION 1.-The Representatives OF the
Democratic party of the United States in
National Convention assembled, do reaff1rm
their allegiance to the principles OF the
party as formulated and exemplified py the
long and illustrfous line of its predecessors
in Democratic leadership from Madison. to
Cleveland; we believe the public welfare
demands that these principles be applied to
the conduct of the Federal Government
through the accession to power of the party
that advocates them; and we solemnly de-
clare that the need OF a return to these
fundamental principles of a free popular
government, based on home rule and indi-
vidual liberty, was never more urgent than
now, when the tendency to centralize all
power at the Federal capital has become a
menace TO the reserved rights of the States
that strikes at the very roots of our Govern
ment under the Constitution as framed by
the fathers of the Republic.
SECTION 2-We warn the people OF our COM
mon country, jealous for the preservation
OF their free 1nstitu tions, that the policy of
Federal control of elections to which the
Republican party has committed itself is
fraught with the gravest dangers, scarcely
less nomentous than would result from a
revolution practically establishing mon
archy on the ruins of the Republic. 1t
strikes at the North as well as the South,
and Injuries the colored citizen even more
than white; 1t means q horde of deputy
marshals at every polling place, armed with
Federal power, returning boards appointed
and controlled by that authority, the out
rage of the electoral rights of the people in
the several States. the subjugation of the
colored people to the party in power, and
the reviying of race antagonisms now lap-
PLY abated, of the utmost peril to safety
and happiness of all: a measure deliberately
and justly described by a leading Repub-
ican Senator as ''the most infamous bill
that ever crossed the threshold of the
Senate"
The Force Bill Strongly Denounced.
Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would
mean the dominance of a self perpetuating
oligarchy of officeholders, and the party first
entrusted with its machinery could be dis
lodged fIom power only by an appeal to the
right of the people to resist oppression
which is inherent in all self COVER ming com
munlties. Two years ago this revolutionary
policy was emphatioally condemned by the
p6Ople al Tue Polls, out IN contempt OF that
verdict the Republican party has deflantly
declared In its latest authoritative utterance
that its success in the coming elections will
mean the enactment Of the force" bill and
the usurpatiOn of despotic control over
elections in all the States
Believing that the preservation of Repub-
l1can government in the United States is de- |
pendent upon the defeat of this policy of |
fegalized force and fraud, we invite the sun
port OF all citizens who desire to see the |
Constitution maintained in its integrity |
with the laws pursuant thereto which have |
given our country 100 years of unexampled |
prosperity: and we pledge the Democra tic |
party, if it be entrusted with power not |
only TO defeat the force" bill, but also to |
policy OF prof1isate expenditure which, in |
TIE snort space OF twoyears has SQuapdered |
an enormous surplus and emptied an over
flowing treasury, after piling new burdens
Ia Dor of the country,
SECTION S-We reiterate the oft-repeated
doctrines of the Democratic party that the
necessity of the Governments is the only
justification for taxation, and whenever a
tax is unnecessary it is unjustifable: that
when Custom House ta Iation is levied upon |
articles OF any kind produced in this coun-
try, the difference between the cost of labor |
here and labor abroad, when such a differ |
ence exists, fully measures any possible |
dement's TO labor, and the enormous addi-
tlonal impositions of the existing tariff with |
crushing force upon our farmers and work
ingmen, and tor 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 re-
vision of the tariff as will remove these in |
iQuitous inequalities, tighten their oppres-
slons and put them on constitutional and
basis.
Promised Repeal of Mckinley's Law
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 unon |
legislation for successful continuance so
that any change of law must be at every
step regardful of the labor and capital TINS
lnSolNed Ihe process OF reform must be
subject in the execution of this plain die
tate OF justice.
The minority report on the tariff plank.
which strikes ont all the foregoing from
section 3, is as follows, reading between
The brackets:
We denounce the Republican protection |
policy as a fraud-the labor of the great |
majority of the American people for the
benefit OF the lew. We declare il to be a |
principle of the Democratic |
party that the Federal Government has no |
power to impose and collect |
tariff duties except for the purpose of rev. |
enue only, and we demand that the collec- |
ion of such taxes shall be limited to the |
necessities of the Government when hon
sstly and economically administered
We denounce the Mckinley tariff law
'nacted by the Fifty-first Congress as the ;
atrocty of class legislation |
We appreciate the efforts of the present
congress to abate some OF its most pernicious |
Effects in the direction of free raw materials ,
md cheaper manufactured goods that enter
nto general consumption; and we promise
Is repeal as one OF the beneficent results
hat will follow the action OF the peonle in .
power to the Democratic party
since the Mckinley tariff went into opera
ion there have been ten reductions Of the
wages of the laboring men to one increase
We deny that there has cen any increase of
prosperity to the country since the tariff ! /;
vent into operation, and we point to the
lullness and distress, of the wage reductions
nd strikes in the iron trade as the best
'oeslole evidence that no such prosperity
as resulted from the Mckinley act. I
We call the attention OF thoughtful Amer- I
cans to the fact that after 30 years of re-
trictive taxes against the importation of
oreign wealth, i'll exchange for our agricul-
ural surplus, the homes and farms of the
ountry have become Durdened with n real
state mortgage debt of over 81 800 900 600 ex
lusive or ali other forms of indebUetiness.
nat in one OF the Chief agricultural States i
{ the West there appears real estate mort
age debt averaging sl65 per capita of the
olal populations: and that similar condi-
ions and tendencies are shown to exist in I
he other agricultural exporting States We
enounce a policy which fosters no indus i
ry SO much as 1t does that OF the Sheriff.
Reciprocity Comes in for Its share /.
Section 4-Trade Interchange on the basis I
{ reciprocal advantages to the countries
is a time-honored doctrine of {
he Democratic faith. but we denounce the
ham reciprocity which juggles with the | :
eople's desire for enlarged foreign markets I
nd freer exchanges by pretending to estab- c
sh closer trade relations for a country {
hose articles of export are almost exciu- '
vely agricultural products with other !