Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-07-15
A PROPOSED PLATFORM.

In last weeks Advocate DR.. Shaft
niger, of st. Louis, and a delegate to
the Populist national convention, has
draft Of platform which he will sub
nit to the convention for considera-
ton. 1t covers the whole ground save
a few minor national affairs and is a
concise treatise on living issues with
out losing any of the force of the Oma-
ha platform. We have examined
many proposed platforms by different
men, but for brevity and clearness, and
at the same time capable of covering
the entire economic and political issue,
this one as yet has no equal. We re-
publish it below and commend it to our
readers as worthy of careful considera-
ton:
LEGISLATION.
Holding that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of
the governed" that the representative
should at all times be responsible to
his constituents, and that minorities
have right to voice in the councils
OF the nation, we demand direct legis-
latlon by the initiative and referendum,
the imperative mandate or right of re-
call as we'll as proportional representa-
ton. We pledge ourselves, if given the
power, to take proper steps for revis-
ion of the constitution in order to give
authority for these and other needful
legislative reforms.
FINANCE.
We demand the free and unlimited
coinage of silver and gold at the ratio
of 16 to l without waiting for the con-
sent of any other nation.
We demand a national paper curren-
cy not redeemable in specie, but based
upon the credit and resources of our
nation and full legal tender for debts,
public and private.
We demand that all money be issued
at actual cost OF direct distribution to
the people through banks of deposit,
loan and discount to be owned and ad-
mlnistered by the general government.
We demand that the circulating
medium be speedily increased to an
amount per capita sufficient to COM
pensate the contraction which has tax
en- place since 1865 and be thereafter
maintained adequate to the growth of
population and the requirements of
trade.
In order to check the appalling con-
centration of wealth which threatens
to subvert our free institutions, as well
as to place the burden of taxation upon
those best able to bear it. we demand q
discriminative inheritance tax and a
| progressive income tax.
TRANSPORTATION AND COMNIUNICA.
| TON.
We demand that the railroads, the
telegraph and the telephone be owned
by the government in the interest OF
tho people and that all persons engaged
in these or similar branches of govern
ment service be placed under civil ser
vice regulations of the most rigid char
acter.
LAND.
AS the land, including all the nat
ural sources of wealth, is the inalien
able heritage of the whole people. il
should never be allowed to become
| the exclusive property or rev no.
be permitted to be held by non-resi
dents, but actual use and occupancy
should be prerequisite to every claim
of private title to land. We demand
the enactment of laws and the adoption
of system of taxation on land such al
will prevent Its monopoly and insure {
homestead TO the citizen.
MONOPOLY.
We demand that when any industry
becomes a monopoly in the hands of q
few against the interest of the many
or otherwise a menace to the common
veal, that industry should be takeT
possession of on just terms by the gov
eTnment and managed for the benefit
of the people.