The record-union., 1892-06-23
THE PLATFORM.
Principles Under Which the Demo-
GRATIS Hana RI W.T.

THE PLATFORM.
Principles Under Which the Demo-
Gratis Hope to Win.
CHICAGO, June 22.-The report of the
Platform Committee was as follows:
The representatives of the Democratic
party Of the United States, in convention
assembled, do reaffirm their allegiance to
the principles of the party, as formulated
oy Jefferson and exemplified by the long
llne OF successors in Democratic leader
ship from Madison to Cleveland. We be-
lieve public welfare demands that these
principles be applied to the conduct of
the Federal Government through Access
sion to power of the party that advocates
them; and we solemnly declare that the
need of the return to these fundamental
principles OF free popular government,
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 men
ace to the reserved rights of States under
the Constitution as framed by the fathers
of the Republic.
THE FORCE BILL.
We warn the people of the common
country to be jealous for the preservation
of their free institutions. That 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
a revolution practically establishing
monarchy on the ruins of a republic,
1t strikes at the North as well as the
South, and Injuries the colored citizen
more than the white 1t means hordes of
l)nnntV of
armed with Federal authority; outrages
OF the electoral rights of the people in the
States; subsection Of the colored people
to the control OF the party in power, and
renewing race antagonism, now happily
abated; OF the utmost peril to the safety
and happiness Of all; measure deliber-
ately and justly described by a leading
Republican Senator as the most infamous
bill that ever crossed the threshold of the
Senate. Such policy, if sanctioned by
law, would mean the dominance of self
perpetuating oligarchy of office holders,
and the party first intrusted with the ma
chiuery could be dislodged from power
only by an appeal to the reserved rights
OF the people to resist oppression, which
is inherent in all self-governing commu-
mites.
Two years ago this revolutionary
policy was emphatically condemned by
the people at the polls, but in contempt
OF that verdict the Republican party has
detiantly declared in the latest authorita-
tive utterances that its success at the
coming elections will mean the enact
ment OF the force bill and the usurpation
Of despotic control over elections in all
States.
believing that the preservation of a
Republican Government is dependent
upon the defeat of policy of legalized
force and fraud, we invite the support of
oil -I,SI Al.
tuition maintained in its integrity. with
laws pursuant thereto which have given
our country a hundred years of unex-
ampled prosperity, and we pledge the
Democratic party not only to defeat the
force bill, but also to a relentless oppo-
sition to the Republican policy of profli-
gate expenditure, which in the short
space of two years has squandered an
enormous surplus and emptied an over
flowing treasury, after piling new bur-
denS OF taxation upon the already over
taxed labor of the country.
THE TARIFF.
I'VE reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines
OF the Democratic party that the neces-
slty Of the Government is the only iusti-
tlcation for taxation, and whenever tax
IS unnecessary it is unjustifiable; that
when Custom-house taxation is levied
upon articles of any other kind produced
in this country the difference between the
cost of labor here and labor abroad, when
such difference exists, fully measures
any possible benefit to labor, and the
enormous additional impositions of the
existing tariff falls with crushing force
upon our farmers and working men, and
far more advantage to the few whom it
enrlcheS, and eXacts from labor grossly
unjust share of the expenses of the Gov
eminent, and we demand such revision
OF the tariff laws as will remove their
iniquitous inequalities, tighten the bur-
dens and put them on a constitutional
and equitable basis.
But in making reduction of taxes it
IS not proposed TO injure any domestic in
duStries, but rather promote a healthy
growth. From the foundation of the Gov
eminent the taxes collected at the Gus
tom-houSe have been chiefly a source of
Federal revenue. Such they must con-
tinue to be. Moreover, many industries
have come to rely upon legislation for a
successful continuance, SO 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 exc
cution to this plain dictate of Justice,
= We denouncethe Mckinley tariff law,
enacted as eliminating atrocity of class
legislation. We indorse the efforts of the
Democrats of the present Congress TO
modify it's most oppressive features. in
cheaper manufactured goods that enter
into consumption, and we promise its re-
peal as one of the beneficent 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 reductions
of wages of laboring men to one increase
The prosperity OF the country since the
tariff went into operation has diminished.
and we point to dizziness and distress of
wage reductions and strikes in the IRON
trade as the best evidence that no such
prosperity has resulted from the Nc
kinley Act.
I'VE call attention of thoughtful Amer
leans to the fact that during thirty years of
restrictive taxes againstthe importation of
foreign wealth in exchange for agricult-
ural surplus, the homes and farms
of the country have become burdened
with real estate mortgages of over s., $685.
000. 600, exclusive of all other forms of in
debtedness; that in one of the chief agri-
cultural States of the West there appears
real estate mortgages averaging Sl65 per
capita OF the total population, and that
similar conditions are shown to exist in
other agricultural exporting States. We
denounce the policy which fosters no in