The Portland daily press., 1892-06-23
PORTLAND. THURSDAY

resumed.
Through all this, Tammanys men, in
the centre aisle, sat grim and silent,
neither kissing Cleveland nor cheering
Hill. Their self-control challenged gen
eral admiration. At 6.4S, Mr.. Villas
again resumed the reading of the plat
form, which follows:
THE PLATFORM.
Section 1.-The representatives of the Demo-
cratic party of the United States, in national
the principles of the party as formulated by
Jefferson and exemplified by a long and illustri-
GUS line of his successors in the Democratic
leadership lead from Madison 10 cleveland. We be-
principles be applied to the conduct of the fed
eral government through the power of the party
t that advocates them. we fo +h hsolemnly declare
principles of free, popular government based
on home rule and individual liberty was never
more urgent than now. Wnen the tendency to
centralize all the power at the federal capital
has become q 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
Denouncing the Federal Elections Bill.
Section 2-We warn the people of our COM
mon country, Jealous for, the preservation of
their free institutions that the policy of the fed
eral control of elections to which the Repubii-
can party has committed itself, is fraught with
grayest dangers, scarcely less momentous than
would result from revolution practically es-
tablishing monarchy on the ruins of the repub-
lie. 1t strikes at the North as well as the
South. and injuries the coored citizen even
more than the white 1t means hoard of dep
uty marshals 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 several
states, the subjugation of the colored people to
the control of the party in power and the reviv-
ing of race antagonism now happily abated OF
the utmost peril to the safety and II 'Dpiness of
all, the measure was deliberately and Justly de-
scribed by a leading Republican senator as ''the
most infamous bill that ever crossed the thresh-
old of the Senate" Such policy, if sanctioned
pertaining Oligarchy OF office holders,
and the party first entrusted
with its machinery could be
dislodged from power only by an appeal to the
reserved right of the people to resist which is
inherent in all self-governing communities. Two
years ago, this revolutionary policy was en-
phatically condemned by the people at the polls
party defantly declared in its latest authorita-
tive utterance that its success in the coming
elections will mean the enactment of the force
bill and the usurpation of despotic control over
the 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 legalized force and fraud, we
invite the support of all citizens who desire to
see the Constitution maintained in its integrity
with the laws pursuant thereto, which have
given our country one hundred years of unex-
ampled prosperity. We pledge the Democratic
party, if it be entrusted with power, not only to
the defeat of the force bill, but to relentless
opposition to the Republican policy of profit
gate expenditure which, in the short space of
two years, has Squandered an enormous sur
plus and emptied an overfoWing treasury, after
piling new burdens of taxation upon the al
ready overtaXed labor of the country.
The Tariff Plank.
Section 3.-We reiterate the oft-repeated doc
trines of the Democratic party that the neces-
sity of the government is the only justification
for taxation, and whenever a tax is unnecessary
it is unjustiiable; that when custom house tax
alton is levied uyon articles of any kind pro-
duced in this country, the difference between
the cost of labor here and labor abroad, when
Slbie benefits to labor, and the enormous addl
tonal impositions of the existing tariff fall with
crushing force. upon our farmers and working
men, and for the mere advantage of the few
whom it enrieheS, exact fl 81 labor grossly un-
just share OF the expenses of government and
we demand such revision Of the tariff as will
remove their iniquitous inequalities, tighten
their expressions and put them on a cOnStltu-
honal and equitable basis.
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, the taxes
collected at the custom house have been the
ClliCl VI l6u0Idl I6NbHuO. OuCl tucy
must continue to be. Moreover, many indus
tries have come to rely upon legislation for a
successful continuance, so that any change Of
abor I snd ss e ~ eehy I b od
OF reform must be subject in execution to this
plain dictate of Justice
We denounee the Mckinley tariff law enacted
by the F1fty-first Congress as the eliminating
atrocity of class legislation; we endorse the
efforts made by the Democrats of the present
congress to modify its most oppressive features
Of rnrx o1Cn nr,d @,n
cheaper manufacture of the goods that enter
in general consumption; we promise its repeal
as one OF the benencent results that will follow
the action of the people in entrusting power to
the Democratic party. Since the Mckinley
tariff went into operation there have been ten
reductions of the wages of laboring men to one
increase of prosperity to the country since
that tariff went into operation and we point to
the dullness and distress, wage reductions and
strikes in the iron trade as the best possible
evidence that no such prosperity has resulted
from the Mckinley act.
We call the attention of thoughtful Americans
to the fact that after the thirty years of restrc
tive taxes against the importation of foreign
wealth In exchange for our agricultural surplus,
the homes and farmeS of the country
became burdened with real estate mortgage
debt OF over two thousand, five hundred million
dollars, exclusive of all other forms of indebted
ness; that in of the chief agricultural states
OF the West there appears real estate mort
gage debt averaging 81 53 per capita Of the total
population and that similar conditions and ten
denotes are shown to exist in other agricultural
exporting states. We denounce the policy
which fosters no industry so much as it does
that of the sheriff.
A Claim to Reciprocity.
Section 4-Trade interchange on the basis of
reciprocal advantages to the countries partici-
pating is a time-honored doctrine of the Demo-
cratic faith, but we denounce the sham reci-
procity which juggles with the peoples desire
for enlarged foreign markets and freed ex-
changes by pretending to establish closer trade
relations for a country whose articles of export
are almost exclusively agricultural products
with other countries also agricultural, while
erecting a custom house barrier of prohibitive
tariff taxes against the richest countries of the
world that stand ready to take our entire sur
plus products and exchange therefor commodi-
ties which are necesSarieS and comforts of life
among our own people.
Against Trusts and Combinations.
Section 5-We recognize in trusts and combi-
nations, designed to enable capital to obtain
more than its just share of the Joint product of
capital and labor, the natural consequence of
the prohibitive taxes which prevent free compe-
tition, which is the life of honest trade. but we
believe their worst evils can be abafed by law
and we demand rigid enforcement of the laws
made to prevent and control them. together
with such further legislation in Restraint OF their
abuses as experience may show to be neces-
S3rV