People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1893-12-08
PEOPLES PARTY PLATFORM.
Adopted at the Omaha Conference OF
LabOring People, July 4, 1892.

LaDOF1ng He0pl6s July 4, 1887
Assembled upon the one hundred and
sixteenth anniversary of the declaration
Of independence, the Peoples party of
America, in their first national conven~
ton, invoking upon their 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 best
justify our cooperation. We meet in
the midst Of nation brought to the
verge of moral, political and material
ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot.
box, the legislatures, the congress, and
! touches even the ernline Of the bench.
The people are demoralized. Most Of
the States have been compelled TO isolate
the voters at the polling places to pre-
vent universal intimidation or bribery.
The newspapers are largely subsidized Or
muzzled, public opinion silenced, bust
ness Frustrated, Our homes covered with
mortgages, labor impoverished, and the
land concentrating in the hands of the
capitalists. The urban workmen are de-
MED the right Of organization for self
protection imported pauperized labor
beats down their wages ; a hireling
standing army, unrecognized by our
laws, is established to shoot them down,
and they are rapidly degenerating into
European conditions. The fruits of the
toll of millions are boldly stolen to build
up colossal fortunes for few, unprece-
dented in the history Of mankind, and
the posSessors Of these, in turn, despl6e
the republic and endanger liberty. From
the same prolific mode Of governmental
! injustice we breed the two great Clas-
ees-tramps and millionaires.
The national power to create money is
appropriated to enrich bondholders. A
vast public debt payable in legal tender
currency has been funded into gold
bearing bonds, thereby adding millions
to the burdens OF the people.
THE OLD PARTIES ARRAIGNED.
Silver, which has been accepted as
coin since the dawn of history, has been
demOnetized to add to the purchasing
power CT gold by decreasing the value Of
!
labor, and the supply of currency is pur-
posely abridged to fatten usurer5, bank
rupt enterprises and enslave industry. A
vast conspiracy against mankind has
been organized on two continents and is
rapidly taking possession Of the world.
| II not met and 0verthrOwn at once it
fOrebodes terrible social commissions, the
destruction Of civilization, or the estab~
liehment Of an absolute despotism.
We have witnessed for more than q
century the struggles of the two great
political parties for power and plumber,
while grievous wrongs have been in
fiicted upon the suffering people. We
charge tnaI the controlling Influences
dominating both these parties have per-
nlitted the exising 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 one.
| They propose to drown the Outcries of
! plundered people with the uproar of q
sham battle over the trriff. 80 that CAPT.
talists, corporations, national banks,
rings, trusts, watered stock, the demOne-
tiZatiOn of silver and the expressions of
| the usurers may all be lost sight of.
| They propose to sacrifice our homes.
wives and children on the altar Of Nam
mon; to destroy the multitude in order
/ to secure corruption funds from the mil
| ionaires.
Assembled on the anniversary of the
| birthday Of the nation, and filled with
the spirit of the grand generation who
| established our independence, we seek to
restore The government of the republic
TO the hands Of ''the plain people, " with
which class it originated.
THE WAR IS OVER.
We assert our purposes to be identical
with the purposes Of the national con-
| stitution - ITO form more perfect
union, establish Justice, insure domes-
tic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare
and secure the blessings Of liberty for
| ourselves and our posterity." We de-
clare that this republic can only endure
/ as a free government while built ,Don
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 be in
| fact, as we are in name, one united
| brotherhood Of freemen.
! Our country finds itself confronted by
| conditions for which there is no prece-
| dent in the history of the world-our
annual agricultural productions amount
! TO billions of dollars in value, which
must within few weeks or months be
/ exchanged for billions of dollars of COM
/ nnodities 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 and the impov-
erishment Of the producing classes. We
! pledge ourselves that if given power we
will labor to correct these evils By wise
/ and reasonable legislation in accordance
with the terms of our platform.
! We believe that the powers of govern
| ment-in other words, Of the people
! should be expanded (as in the case
! the postal service) as rapidly and
as far as the good sense Of an intelligent
I people and the teachings of experience
shall justify, TO the end that oppression.
! injustice and poverty shall eventually
! cease in the land.
/ TEREEFOLD DECLARATION.
While our sympaties as a party of re-
| form are naturally upon the side of
every proposition which will tend 70
make men intelligent, virtuous and tenn.
! perate, we nevertheless regard these
! questions, important as they are, as
secondary to the great issues now pres
| sing for solution, and upon which not
only our individual PROSPERITY but the
very existence of free institutions de-