Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-07-10
session and ballotting will probably
not begin until tomorrow.
THE PLATFORM.

we, LuO Deu1OCIdtb OI Lu6 OllI6O
States, in National Convention assem-.
: bled, do reaffirm our allegiance to
these great essential principles of jus.
tice and liberty upon which our insti.
tutions are founded, and which the
Democratic party has maintained from
Jefferson's time to our own-freedom
of speech, freedom of the press, free
dom of conscience, the preservation
Of personal rights, the equality of all
citizens before the law and the faith
full observance of constitutional limit
atoms.
During all these years the Demo
cratic party has resisted the tendency
of selfish interests to the centraliza-
ton of governmental power and
steadfastly maintained the integrity
Of the dual scheme Of government
established by the founders of this
republic of republics. Under its
guidance the great principle of local
self government has found its best
expression in the maintenance OF the
rights of the States and in its asser-
ton of the necessity of combining the
General Government to the exercise
OF the powers granted by the Consti-
tuition of the United States.
FINANCIAL system. - Recognizing
that the money system is paramount
to all others at the present time, we
invite attention to the fact that the
Federal Constitution names silver and
gold together as the money metals of
the United States, and that the first
coinage law passed by Congress I'M
der the Constitution made the silver
dollar the monetary unit and admit
ted gold to free coinage at a ratio
based upon the silver dollar unit.
ACT OF 1873.--We declare that the
act of 1873, demonetizing silver with
out the knowledge and approval of
the American people, has resulted in
the appreciation of gold and a cor
responding fall in the prices of COM
modities produced by the people;
heavy increase in the burden of tax
alton and of all debts, public and pri-
vate; the enrichment OF the money
lending class at home and abroad;
prostration of industry and impover-
ishmeut of the people.
| MoNoMETALLIsM DENOUNCED. - We
are uualterably oppos, d to the mono
metallism which has locked fast the
prosperity of an industrial people in
the paral ysis of hard times Gold
monometallism is British policy and
its adoption has brought other nations
into financial servitude to London. It
is not onl ~ un-American, but anti
4 H.. g..
the United States only by the sitting
OF that spirit and love of liberty
which proclaimed our political indie
pendence in l776. and won it in the
war of the Revolution.
FREE COINAGE AT 16 TO I've de-
mand the free and unlimited coinage
of both gold and silver at the present
ratio of 16 to |, without waiting for
the aid or consent of any other nation.
We demand that the standard silver
dollar shall be full legal tender,
equally with gold, for all debts, pub
lie and private, aud we favor such
legislation as will prevent for the fu-
ture the decentralization of any kind
OF legal-tender money by private
contract.
Option TO BONDHOLDERS.-We are
opposed to the policy and practice of
surrendering to the holders of the OBJ
legations of the United States the OPP
tion reserved by law to the Govern
ment of redeeming such obligations
in either silver coin or gold coin.
BOND IssUEs.-We are opposed to
the issuing of interest bearing bonds
OF the United States time of peace
and condemn the trafficking with
banking syndicates, which, in ex.
change for bonds and at an enormous
profit to themselves, supply the Fed
eral Treasury with gold to maintain
the policy of gold recommendation.
NATIONAL BANK ISsUEs.-CongTess
alone has the power to coin aud issue
money, and President jackson de-
clared that this power could not be
delegated to corporations or individ-
,uals. We, therefore, demand that the
power to issue notes be taken from
the national banks and that all our
money shall be iss ued directly by the
Treasury Department, be redeemable
in coin and receivable for all debts
public and private.
The TARlFF.-We hold that tariff
duties should be levied for purposes
of revenue, such duties to be so adj
justed as to operate equally through
out the country and not discriminate
between class or section, and that
taxation should be limited by needs
of the Governm ent honestly and econ
omically administered. We denounce
as disturbing to business the Repub-
lican threat to restore the Mckinley
law, which has been twice condemn
ed by the people in national elections
and which, enacted under the false
plea of protection to home industry,
proved a prolific breeder of trusts and
monopolies, enriched the few at the
of the many, restricted trade
and deprived the producers Of the
great American sta Piles of access to
their natural markets. Until the