Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-07-01
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
Position of the Party on Questions Of
National Importance.

National Importance.
Section /. The representatives of the Demo-
cratic party Of the United States in national
convention assembled do re-afiirm their ale
glance to the principles of the party as formu-
lated by Jefferson and exemplified by the long
and illustrious list of 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 government through the accession to
power of the party that adopted them and we
solemnly declare that the need of a return to
these fundamental principles of free popular
government based on home rule and individ-
nal liberty was never more urgent than now.
when the tendency to centralize all power at
the federal capital has becomes menace to the
reserved rights of the states, that strikes at
the very roots of our government, under the
constitution as framed by the fathers Of the
republic.
Force Bill Denounced.
Sec. 2. We warn the people of our common
country to be jealous of the preservation Of
their free institutions: that the policy of the
federal control of elections to which the RE.
publican party has committed itself IL frA01ht
with the gravest dangers, scarcely less mo.
mentous than would result from = revolution
practically establishing monarchy IN the
ruins of the republic. 1t strikes at the North
as well as the South. and Injuries the colored
citizens even more than the white; creates a
hoard of deputy marshals at every polling
place, armed with federal power: a measure
deliberately and justly described by q leading
Republican senator as "the most Infamous bill
that ever crossed the threshold of the senate"
Such IL policy. ii sanctioned by the law. would
mean. the dominance of a self-perpetuated
oligarchy of officeholders. and the party first
entrusted with its machinery could he dis
lodged from power only by an appeal to the
reserved right of the people to resist oppres-
sion, which is inherent in all self-gOverning
communities. Two years ago the revolution
airy policy was emphatically condemned by
the people at the polls. but in contempt Of
their V. rdict the Republican party has def
ansly declared in Its latest authoritative utter
auce that its success in the coming elections
will msan the enactment of the force bill and
the usurpatiOn of despotic control vera,the
elections i'll all the states.
Believing hat the preservation of t. ~
publican government in the United Stalts is
dependent on the defeat OF this policy OF legal
lied force and fraud We invite the assistance
OF all citizens who desire to see the constitu-
ton maintained d in its integrity with tn. laws
pursuant thereto which have given our coun-
try a hundred years of uneXampled prosperity
and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be
entrusted with power, not only to the defeat
of the force bill but also to opposition of the
Republican party's policy of prOi1igate eX-
penditure, which in the short space OF two
years las sQuandercd an enormous surplus
and emptied al overflowing treasury litter
putting new burdens of.taxution upon the al
ready overtaxed labor of the country.
Taxation for Revenue.
Sec. 8. We reiterate the oft repeated declar-
atoms Of the party hat the necessity of the
moment is the only justification for taxation
and whenever a tax is unnecessary it is un-
jus,iflnlc. That when custom house taxa
ton is levied upon any article produced in the
United State: the difference between the cost
Of labor here and abroad, when su h differ
ence exists, fu ly measures any possible bene-
fits to labor and the enormous additional inn
positions of the existing tariff fall
with crushing force upon our farmers
and wor kingluen, and for the mere advantage
of the few Whom it enriches, exucts from the
laborer Il grossly unjust shale OF the expenses
of the government, and we demand such a re-
duction OF the tariff laws that will remove the
inequalities, tighten their oppression and put
them in a constitutional and equitable bust
ness. In making reductions 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 tho
chief source of federal revenue. Such they
must continue to be. Moreover, many indus
tries have come to rely upon legislation tor
successful continuance, SO that any change of
law must be at every step regardful of the la
Dor and the capital thus involved. The pro-
cess of reform must be subject to the execu-
ton of this plain dictate of justice.
We denounce the Mckinley tariff law en-
acted by the Fifty-frst congress as the cul-
minating atrocity of class legislation. We en-
dorse the efforts made by the, Democrats of
the present congress to modify its oppressive
features in the direction of free raw materials
and cheaper manufactured goods that enter
into home consumption, and we propose its re-
peal as one Of the beneticient results that will
follow the action Of the people in entrusting
power to the Democratic party. Since the Nc
kinley tariff went into operation there have
been ten reductions of wages Of laboring men
to one increase. We deny hat there has been
any increase of property to the country since
the tariff went into operation, and we point to
the dullness and distress, the wage reductions
and strikes in the iron trade as the best posi-
BILE evidence that no such prosperity has re-
suited from the Mckinley act. We call the
attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact
that after thirty years of restrictive taxation
against importations of foreign products in
exchange for our agricultural products the
homes and farms of the country have become
burdened with q real estate mortgage of over
81. J0,0JO,O 900 exclusive of all other forms of in
debtedneSs.
Reciprocity.
Sec. 4. Trade interchange, on the basis Of
" sAS pAk
ticipating, is Il time honored doctrine of the
Democratic faitu, but We denounce the sham
reciprocity which juggles with the peoples de-
sire for enlarged foreign markets and freer
exchanges by pretending to establish trade re-
lations for a country whose articles of export
are, almost exclusively agricultural, while
erecting e barrier of protective tariff taxation
against the richest countries of the world that
stand ready to take our entire surplus of prod
ucts, and. to exchange therefor commodities
which are necessary and are comforts of life
among our own people.
Trusts Denounced.
Sec. 5. 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, a natural consequence
of prohibitive taxes which prevent the free
competition which is the life of honest trade,
but we believe their worst evil can be abated
by law, and we demand the rigid enforcement
| of 1--WE made to prevent and control them
together with such further legislation in re-
straint of their abuses as experience may
how to be necessary.
Public Lands.
Sec. 6. The Republican party, while pro.
Tossing a policy of reserving the public lands
for small holdings by actual settlers, has give1
away the peoples heritage until now a few
railroads and nonresident aliens, individual
and corporate, possess a larger acreage than