Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-05
PEOPLES PARTY PLATFORM.

The New Candidate for Suffrage Claims
to Be the Only Genuine, All Others Are
Vile limitations.
OMAHA, NEs.. July 4.-The following is the
platform adopted enthusiastically to-day by
the Peoples Party Convention:
Assembled upon the one hundred and six.
teenth anniversary of the Declaration of In
dependence, the Peoples party of America,
in its first National Convention invoking
upon its action the blessing of Almighty
God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf
of the people of this country, the following
preamble and declaration Of principles:
The conditions which surround us Dest
justify our cooperation; we meet in the
midst of a nation brought to the verge o Z
moral, political and material ruin. Corrup-
tion dominates the ballot box, the Legisla-
lures, the Congress, and touches even the
ermine of the bench. The people are demor-
allied: most of the States have been COM
pelled to isolate the voters at the polling
places to prevent universal intimidation or
bribery. The newspapers are largely subsi-
died or muzzled; public opinion silenced;
business prostr ated: our homes covered
with mortgages: labor Impoverished, and
the land Concentrating in the hands of the
capitalists. The urban workmen are denied
the right of organization for self-protection;
imported pauperiZed labor beats down
d
recognized by our laws, is established to
shoot them down, and they are rapidly de-
generating into European conditions. The
fruits OF the toll OF millions are boldly stolen
to build up colossal fortunes for few, I'M
precedented in the history of mankind: and
the possessors of these. in turn, despise the
Republic and endanger liberty. From the
same prolific womb of governmental injus-
tice we breed the two great ella asses-tramps
and millionaires.
A Bitter Attack on Bondholders
The national power to create money is
appropriated to enrich bondholders; vast
public debt payable in legal tender cur
rency, has been funded into goId-bearfng
bonds, thereby adding millions to the bur-
dens of the people. silver, which has been
accepted as coin since the dawn of history,
has been demonetized to add to the pur-
chasing power of gold by Decreasing the
value of all forms of property as well as
human labor, and the supply Of currency is
purposely abridged to fatten usuries, bank
rupt enterprise and enslave industry.
vast conspiracy against mankind has
been organized on two continents, and it is
rapidly taking possession of the world. If
not met and overthrown at once, it forbodes
terrible social commissions the destruction
OF civilization or the establishment of an
absolute despotism. We have witnessed for
more than quarter of a century the strug-
giles OF the two great political parties for
power and plunder, while grievous wrongs
have been inflicted upon the suffering peO-
pie. We charge that the controlling inf1u-
ences dominating both these parties have
permitted the existing dreadful conditions
to develop without serious effort to pre-
vent or restrain them Neither do they now
promise us any substantial reform. They
have agreed together to ignore, in the COM
ing campaign, every issue but one. They
propose to drown the outcries of a plum
dered people with the uproar Of sham
battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, cor
porations, national banks, rings, trusts,
watered stock, the demonstration OF silver
be lost sight Of They propose to sacrifice
our homes, lives and children on the altar
OF Mammon, to destroy the multitude in
order to secure corruption funds from the
millionaires.
Plea for the Plain People.
Assembled on the anniversary of the
birthday Of the nation, and filed with the
spirit Of the grand generation who estab-
lished our independence, we seek to restore
the government OF the Republic to the
hands Of "the plain people," with whose
class it originated. We assert our purposes
to be identical with the purposes of the Ma
tional Constitution, to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty for ourselves and
our postertty.
We declare that this Republic can only
endure as q free Government while built
other and for the nation; that ft cannot be
pinned together by bayonets: that the civil
war is over, and that every passion and re-
sentiments which grew out OF it must die with
it, and that we must be in fact, as we are in
name, one united brotherhood of freemen.
Our country finds itself confronted by con-
ditions for which there is no precedent in
the history of the world. Our annual agr1-
cultural productions amount to billions of
dollars in value, which must, within a few
weeks or months, be exchanged for billions
OF dollars of commodities consumed in their
production; the existing currency supply is
wholly inadequate to make this exchange;
the results are falling prices, the formation
of combines and rings, the impoverishment
of the producing class. We pledge ourselves
that If given power we will labor to correct
these evils by wise and reasonable legisla-
tion in accordance with the terms of our
platform.
Expansion of Governmental Powers.
We believe that The powers Of Govern
ment-in other words, OF the people-should
be expanded (as in the case of the postal
service) as rapidly and as far as the good
sense Of an intelligent people and the teach
that oppression, injustice and poverty shall
eventually cease in the land.
While our sympathfes as party of reform
are naturally upon the side Of every proposi-
tion which will tend to make men intelli-
gent, virtuous and temperate. we neverthe-
less regard these QuestiOnS-fmp pOrtant as
they areas secondary to the great issues
now pressing for solution, and upon which
not only our individual prosperity, but the
very existence OF free institutions depend;
and we ask all men to first help us to deter
mine whether we are to have a republic to
administer, before we differ as to the condi-
tions upon which 1t is to be administered;
believing that the forces of reform this day
organized will never cease to move forward
until every wrong is remedied, and equal
rights and equal privileges securely estab-
lished IOr all the men and women of this
country.
We declare, therefore: First, That the
union Of the labor forces of the United
States this day consummated shall be per-
manent and perpetual. May its spirit sink
into all hearts for the salvation of the Re-
public and the uplifting of mankind.
econd, Wealth belongs to him who creates
it, and every dollar taken from industry,
without an equivalent, is robbery. !f any
will not work, neither shall he eat" The
interests of rural and civic labor are the
same; their enemies are identical. Third,
We believe that the time has come when the
railroad corporations will either own the
people or the people must own the railroads,
work of owning and managing all railroads
we should favor an amendment to the Con-
stttution by which all persons engaged in
the Government service shall be placed
under a civil service regulation OF the most
rigid character, SO as to prevent the IN
crease of the power Of the national admins
tration by the use of such additional Gov
employees.
Finance and transportation Planks.
We demand national currency, safe,
sound and flexible, issued by the general