Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-07-11
PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES.
Adopted by tho Democratic National
Convention June 22, 1899.

party of the United States in national conven-
ton assembled do reaffirm their allegiance to
the principles Of the party formulated by
Jefferson and exemplifed by the long and
illustrous 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 fed
eral government through accession to power
of the party that advocates them; and we SOL
emnly declare that the need of return to
these fundamental principles of free popular
government, based on home rule and individ-
ual liberty, was never more urgent than now,
when the tendency to centralize all power at
| the federal capital has become menace to the
reserved rights of the states that strikes at the
very roots of our government and under the
constitution as framed by the fathers of the
! republic.
| Sec. q We warn the people of our common
country jealous for the preservation of their
free institutions that the policy of the 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 n revolution practically es-
tablshing monarchy on the ruins of the
public. II strikes at the north well as at the
south, and Injuries the colored citizen even
more than the white; 1t means a horde of depu-
ty marshas at every polling place, armed with
federal power, returning boards appointed and
controlled by federal authority, the outrage of
the electoral rights of the people in the several
states the subjugation of the colored people to
the control Of the party in power, and the re-
viving of race antagonisms now happily abat-
ed Of the utmost peril to the safety and hap
piness Of all; measure deliberately and justly
described by leading Republican 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 Il self perpetuating oil
. garchy of ofiiceholders and the party first in
trusted with Its 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 condemned by the people at the
polls, but in contempt of that verdict the Re-
| publican party has defiantly declared In its
latest authoritative utterance that its success
| in the coming elections will mean the enact
ment of the force bill and the usurpation of
despotic control over elections In all the states
| Believing that the preservation of Republican
! government in the United States Is dependent
| upon the defeat of this policy of egalized force
| and fraud, we invite the assistance of all citi-
zens who desire TO see the constitution main
tained in its integrity with the laws pursuant
thereto which have given our country hun
dred years Of unexampled prosperity; and we
pledge the Democratic party, II 1t be intrusted
with power not only to the defeat of the force
BILL but also to relentless opposition to the Re-
publican policy of profigate expenditure, which
In the short space OF two years has squandered
ar enormous surplus and emptied an overflow
| ing treasury, after pilng new burdens of taxa
tion upon the already overtaxed labor of the
country.
| Sec. Q. We denounce the Mckinley tariff
| law enacted by the Fifty-first congress as
the eliminating atrocity of class legisla-
ton; we indorse the efforts made by the Dem
| ocrats of the present congress to modify
| Its most oppressive features in the direction of
free raw material and cheaper manufactured
/ Il, .l,I ..,As
| we promise Its repeal as one of the benetlcent
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 la
| boring men to one increase. We deny that
there has been any increase of prosperity to
the country since that tariff went into opera
ton, and we point to the dullness and distress,
the wage reductions and strikes In the iron
trade as the best possible evidence that no
such prosperity has resulted from the McKin-
ley act.
We call the attention of thoughtful Ameri-
cans to the fact that after thirty years of re-
| strictive taxation against importations of
foreign products in exchange for our agricul-
tural surplus the homes and farms of the
country have become burdened with real
estate mortgage debt of over two thousand five
hundred million dollars exclusive of all other
| forms of Indebtedness; that in one of the chief
agricultural states of the west there appears a
real estate mortgage debt averaging $l65 per
capita, and that similar conditions are shown
to exist in other agricultural exporting states.
| We denounce policy which fosters no indus
try so much as it does that of the sheriff. We
denounce Republican protection as fraud;
| robbery of the great ajority of the American
people for the benefit of the few. We declare
| it to be a fundamental principle of the Demo-
cratic party that the federal government has
! no constitutional power to enforce and collect
tariff duties except for the purpose of revenue
| only, and demand that the collection of such
taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the
government and honestly and economically
| administered.
| Sec. 4. Trade interchange on the basis of re-
| ciprocal advantage to the countries partici-
| pating Is a time honored doctrine of the DEM
ocratic faith, but we denounce the sham reci-
| procity which juggles with the peoples desire
for enlarged foreign markets and freer
changes by pretending to establish trade rela-
tions for a country whose articles of export
are almost exclusively 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 necessary and are
comforts of life among our own people.
! Sec. o. We recognize in trusts and monopo-
lies which are designed by capital to secure
more than their just share of the joint prod
uct of capital and labor natural consequence
| OF prohlDltlve taxes, which prevent the free
competition which is the life of honest trade
but we believe their worst evils can be abated
| by law, and we demand the rigid enforcement
| of laws made TO prevent and control them, to-
gether with such further legislation in re-
straint of their abuses experience may show
to be necessary.
Sec. 8. The Republican party, while profess
ing policy of reserving the public lands for
small holdings by actual settlers, has given
away the peoples heritage, until now few
railroads, nonresident aliens-individudl and
corporate-Possess larger area than that of
all our farms between the two seas. The last
Democratic administration reversed the i'm
provident and unwise policy of the Republican
party touching the public domain, and
claimed from corporations and syndicates-
alien and domestic-and restored to the people
nearly 100000 acres of valuable land to be
sacredly held homesteads for our citizens,
and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy
until every acre Of land unlawfully held
shall be reclaimed and restored to the people
Sec. T. We denounce the Republican legisla-
tion known as the Sherman act of 1890 as
cowardly makeshift, fraught with possibilities
- do l., tlnf eat, IL