Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-07-26
Peoples Party Platform.
Adopted by the Convention, at Omaha
Nob., July A. 1899.

Adopted by the Convention at Omaha'
Nob., July A. 1899.
Assembled upon the one hundred and
sixteenth anniversary Of the declaration
of independence, the peoples party of
America, In their Arst national Oonven-
ton, invoking upon their actions the
blessing Of Almighty God, put 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 a nation brought to the verge of
moral, political and material ruin. Cor
ruption dominates the ballot box, the
Legislatures, 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 silenced, business Frustrated, our
homes covered with mortgages, labor i'm
poverished, and the land concentrating in
the hands of the capitalists. The urban
workmen are denied the right of organi-
! LAGlOu IOE 5tll- pEOUCCuAOAl AhhPOlIoO pau
perized labor beats down their wages; a
hireling 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 mil
lions are bodily stolen to build up colossal
fortunes for few, unprecedented in the
history of mankind, and the pOssessors of
these in turn despise the republic and en-
danger liberty. From the same prolific
womb of governmental injustice we breed
the two great classes - tramps and mil
liOnaires.
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-bear-
ing bonds, thereby adding millions to the
burdens of the people.
Silver, which has been accepted as coin
since the dawn of history, has been de-
monetized, to add to the purchasing 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 usurers, bankrupt en-
terprise, and enslave industry. A vast
conspiracy against mankind has been
organized on two continents, and it is
rapidly taking possession of the world.
II not met and overthTown at once, it
forebodes terrible social commissions, the
destruction of civilization, or the estab-
lishment of an absolute despotism. We
have witnessed for more than a quarter OF
a century the struggles of the two great
political parties for power and plumber,
while grievous wrongs have been inflicted
upon the suffering people. We charge
that the controlling influences dominating
both these parties have permitted the ex-
listing dreadful conditions to develop,
without serious effort to prevent or re-
strain them.
Neither do they now promise rs any
substantial reform. They have agreed to-
Qether to ignore, in the coming campaign,
every issue but one. They propose to
drown the outcries Of a plundered people
with the uproar of a sham battle over the
tariff, so that capitalists, corporations,
national banks, rings, trusts, watereo
stock, the demonstration of silver and
the expressions of the usurers may all be
lost sight of. They propose to sacrihoe
our homes, lives and children on the altar
of mammOn; to destroy the multitude II
order to secure corruption funds from thu
millionaires. Assembled on the anniver
, sary of the birthday of the nation
, and filed with the spirit of the grand
. general chief who established our in
I dependence, we seek to restore the gov