Crawford avalanche., 1892-06-30
DISQUALIFICATION
HOW THE PARTY STANDS ON
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS.
Republican Protection Declared 20 he a
Fraud ON Labor to benefit a Few--A
Tariff for Revenue Only-The Coinage
Question.
Text of the Revolutions.

| mo loloWiuB 10 Tic iull teXt OF tQe
platform adopted by the National Dem
ocratic Convention at Chicago:
The representatives of the Democratic party
| or the United States, in national convention
assembled do resfirm their allegfance to the
principles or the party as formulated by Jeffer-
son and exemplihed by the long and illustrious
| line OF his successors In Democratic leadership
from Madison to Cleveland. We believe the
| public welfare demands that these principles
be applied to the conduct OF the Federal Gov
ernment, through the accession to power of the
declare % that the need Of return % t@ e tsese fn
damental principles of a free, popular govern
ment, based on home rule and individual lib
| erty, 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
constitution as framed by the fathers of the
republic:
We warn the people of our common country.
jealous for the preservation of their free insti-
| tutions, that the policy of Federal control of
elections, to which the Republican party has
committed itself, is fraught with the gravest
dangers, scarcely less momentous than would
| result from revolution, practically establish
ing monarchy on the ruins Of the republic. It
strikes at the North as well as the South, and
Injuries the colored citizen even more than the
white; It means horde Of deputy marshals at
every polling place armed with Federal power,
| Federal authority the outrage of the electoral
rights OF the people In the several States. the
|
troll Of the party In power and the re-
| vivfng OF race antagonisms now happily
abated, OF the utmost peril to the safety
| and happiness of all; measure deliber-
ateiy and justly described by leading Repub-
lican Senator as the most Infamous bill that
| ever crossed the threshold of the Senate" Such
| policy, II sanctioned by law, would mean the
dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of
| officeholders. and the party first intrusted with
| It's machinery could be dislodged from power
only by an appeal to the reserved right OF the
people to resist oppression which is Inherent in
all self-governing communities. Two years ago
THIS revolutionary policy was emphatically con-
| demned by the people at the polls but In con-
tempt of that verdict the Republican party has
defiantly declared in its latest authoritative Mt
terance 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
| or republican government in the United
| Is dependent upon the defeat of the policy of
legalized force and fraud we invite the support
| OF all citizens who desire to see the constitu-
tion maintained in its integrity with the laws
| pursuant thereto which have given our country
a hundred years Of unexampled prosperity,
and we pledge the Democratic party, If IL be
! lntrusted with power, not only to the defeat of
the force bill, but also to relentless opposition
nerdlt 10 dhe HepnPiean policy OF proiiigate ex-
years has squandered an enormous surplus and
elnptied an overhowing treasury, after pilipe
81 5e the
| Declaration for Tariff Reform.
| We denounce Republican protection as a
| fraud on the labor of the great majority of the
| American people for the benefit of the few. We
| declare 1t to be a fundamental principle OF
| the Democratic party that the Federal Govern
ment has no constitutional power to impose
| and collect tariff duties except for the purposes
| of revenue only, and we demand that the col
| lection of such taxes shall be limited to the
| necessities of the Government when honestly
| and economically administered. We denounce
| the Mckinley tariff law enacted by the Fifty
| first Congress as the eliminating atrocity OF
| class legislation; we indorse the efforts made
| Democrats present Congress-
| modify its most oppressive features in the
| direction of free raw materials and cheaper
| manufactured goods that enter into general
| consumption and we promise its repeal as one
| of the benefcent results that will follow the
action Of the people In intrusting power to the
| Democratic party. Since the Mckinley tariff
| went into operation there have been ten reduc-
| lions of the wages of laboring men to
one increase. We deny that there has
| country since that tarin went into opera
| ton, and we point to the dullness and
| distress, the wage reductions and strikes in
that tl. no eaoh HTosperity resulted from the Nc
full Americans to the fact that after thirty
| years of restrictive taxes against the importa-
tion of foreign wealth in exchange for our
| agricultural surplus the homes and farms of
| the country have become burdened with a
rea-estate mortgage debt of over s. SOC, 900 900,
exclusive of all other forms of indebtedness;
| that in one of the chief agricultural States of
| the West there appears al-estate mortgage
| averaging S105 per capita of the total popula-
|
| cies are shown TO exist in the other, agricul-
! tural exporting States. We denounce policy
| which fosters no industry so much as 1t does
| that OF the Sheriff.
The Question of Trade Reciprocity.
Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal
| advantages to the countries participating is q
| time-honored doctrine OF the Democratic faith,
| but we denounce the sham reciprocity which
| Juggles with the peoples desire for enlarged
| foreign markets and freer exchanges by pre-
| tending to establish closer trade relations, for
| a country whose articles of export almost
| exclusively agricultural products, with other
| countries that are also agricultural, while
| erecting custom-house barrier of prohibitive
! tariff taxes against the richest countries of
| the world that stand ready to take our entire
| surplus of products and to exchange therefor
commodities which are necessaries and com-
| forts OF life among our own people.
| Trusts and Combinations.
We recognize in the trusts and combinations
| which are designed to enable capital to secure
more than its just share of the joint product of
| prohibitive taxes which prevent the free COM
| petition which is the life of honest trade, but
| law, and we demand the rigid enforcement of
the laws made to prevent and control them,
together with such further legislation in re-
/ straint of their abuses as experience may
show to be necessary
Lands for Actual Settlers.
The Republican party. while protesting a
| policy of reserving the public land for small
| holdings by actual settlers, has given away
/ the peoples heritage, until now a Few railroad
and nonresident aliens individual and cor
| porate, possess a larger area than that of all
| our farms between the two seas The last
| Democratic administration reversed the inn
| provident and unwise policy of the Repub-
| lican party touching the public domain and
reclaimed from corporations and syndicates,
| alien and domestic, and restored to the people
nearly one hundred million acres of valuable
| land to be sacredly held homesteads for
our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to con-
| tinue this policy until every acre of land so
| unlawfully held shall be reclaimed aud re-
stored to the people.
The Coinage OF silver.
We denounce the Republican legislation
known as the Sherman act of 1890 as a cow
danger in the future which should make all Of
| its supporters, as well as its author, anxious
| for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of
| both gold and silver as the standard money OF
i the country and to the coinage of both gold
| and silver without discriminating against
| either metal or charge for mintaes, but the dol
| lar unit of coinage of both metals must be of
| equal intrinsic and exchangeable value OF be
| adjusted through international agreement or
| by such safeguards of legislation shall in
sure the maintenance of the parity of the two
| metals and the equal power of every dollar at
| all times in the markets and In the payment of
debts; and we demand that all paper currency
shall be kept at par with and redeemable in
| such coin. We insist upon this policy as espe-
cially necessary for the protection Of the farm
| ers and laboring classes, the first and most de-
/ fenseless victims of unstable money and q
| fiuctuating currency. We recommend that the
| prohibitory 10 per cent. tax on State-bank is
sues be repealed.
/ Reform of the Civil Service.
Public office is a public trust. We reaf-
| firm the declaration of the Democratic Ma
| tional Convention OF 1876 for the reform of the
| civil service, and we call for the honest en-
forcement OF all laws regulating the same.
| Republican convention. by delegations COM
posed largely OF his appointees. holding office
Srea ,o,suier instftutions and n startItng tIina