The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-30
PEOPLES PLATFORM
ADOPTED By THE CONVENTION

At Omaha, Neb., July 4, 1892.
Corruption Dominates the
Ballot-Box, the Legisla-
lures. Congress.
Assembled upon the one hundred
and sixteenth anniversary of the
Declaration Of Independence, the
peoples party Of America, in their
Arst national convention, invoking
upon their action the blessing Of AL
mighty God, puts forth in the name
and on behalf of the people of the
country the following preamble and
declaration of principles:
The conditions which surround us
best justify our cooperation; we
meet in the midst of nation
brought to the verge of moral, pOlit-
1cal and material ruin. Corruption
dominates the ballot box, the legis-
latures, the congress, and touches
even the ermine on the bench. The
people are demoralized; most of the
states have been compelled to isolate
the voters at the polling places to
prevent universal intimidation or
bribery. The newspapers are largely
subsidized or muzzled public opinion
ealenced, business Frustrated, our
homes covered with mortgages, labor
impoverished, and the land concen-
trating in the hands Of the capital
ists. The urban workmen are de-
MED the right Of organization for
self-protection; imported pauperized
labor beats down their wages; a hire
ling army, unrecognized by our law,
y established to shoot them down
pnd they are rapidly degenerating
Unto European conditions. The
fruits Of the toll of millions are bod
~ stolen to build up colossal for
tunes for few, unprecedented in
the history of mankind, and the pos
SCISSORS of these in turn despise the
republic and endanger liberty. From
the same prolific womb of govern
mental injustice we breed the two
great classes-tramps and million
Hires.
The national power to create mon
~ is appropriated to enrich bond
holders: vast public debt, payable
n legal tender currency, has been
funded into gold-bearing bonds,
thereby adding millions to the bur-
lens of the people.
Silver, which has been accepted as
coin since the dawn of history, has
boon demOnetiZed to add to the pur-
fAasing power of gold, by decreasing
SAe value of all forms of property as
we'll as human labor, and the supply
Of currency is purpOsely abridged to
htten uSurerS, bankrupt enterprise,
end enSlave industry. A vast con-
piracy against mankind has been or
e2nized on two continents and it is
tapidly taking possession of the
world. II not met and OverthrOwn
ct once it forebodes terrible social
eonvulsions, the destruction of civil
txation, or the establishment of an
absolute despotism. We have wit
Aessed for more than quarter of a
century the struggles of the two
afeat political parties for power and
1under, while grievOus wrongs have
been inflicted upon the suffering peo-
re. We charge that the controlling
Influences dominating both these
DArties have permitted the existing
Dreadful conditions to develop,
without serious effort to prevent or
restrain them.
Neither do they now promise us
any substantial reform. They have
aGreed together to ignore, in the
coming campaign, every issue but
enc. They propose to drown the out
oeies of plundered people with the
pprOar Of sham battle over the tar
q, 80 that capitalists, corporations,
national banks, rings, trusts, watered
stock, the characterization of silver,
and the expressions of the usurers
nay all be lost sight of. They pro-
pose to sacrifice our homes, lives and
children on the altar of mammon; to
destroy the multitude in order to Sc
cure corruption funds from the mil
honaiers. Assembled on the anniver-
cary of the birthday Of the nation,
end filled with the spirit of the grand
eeneral in chief, who established
XQr independence, we seek to restore
Ne 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 purpose Of the national con-
Stitution, to form more perfect
paion and establish justice, insure
domestic tranquility, provide for the
summon OeIcnSe, prOmOCe Cne Rener-
Al welfare, and secure the blessings
q liberty for ourselves and our pos
terity.
We declare that this republic can
oaly endure as free government
while built upon the love of the
whole people for each other and for
the nation; that it cannot be pinned
together by bayonets, that the civil
war is over and that every passion
and resentment which grew out of it
must die with it, and that we must
~ in fact, as we are in name, one
united brotherhood. Our country
Ands itself confronted by conditions
for which there is no precedent in
the history of the world. Our
annual agricultural 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 ex-
isting currency supply is wholly in
adequate to make this exchange.
The results are falling prices, the
Xmas ~