Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-07-09

government We hold that the most efficient
way of protecting American labor is to pre-.
vent the importation of foreign pauper labor
to compete with it in the home market, aud
that the value of the home market to our
American farmers and artisans is greatly re-
duced by q vicious monetary system, which
depresses the prices of their products below
the cost of production and thus deprives them
of the means of purchasing the products OF
our home manufacturers.
The absorption of wealth by the few, the
consolidation of our leading railroads system,
and the formation of trusts and pools require
stricter control by the federal government
of these arteries of commerce. We demand
the enlargement of the interstate commerce
commission, and such restrictions and guaran-
tees in the control of railroads as will protect
the people from robbery and oppression.
We denounce the profigate waste OF the
money wrung from the people by oppressive
taxation and the lavish appropriation OF re-
cent republican congresses, which have Kept
taxes high while the labor that pays them is
unemployed and the products of the peoples
toll are depressed in price till they no longer
repay the cost of production. We demand
return to that simplicity and economy which
best BELTS democratic government and ne
duction in the number Of useless officers, the
salaries of which drain the substance OF the
people.
We denounce tho arbitrary interference BY
federal authorities in local affairs as viola
ton of the constitution of the United States
and crime against free institutions, and We
especially object to government by Injunction
as new and highly dangerous form OF op.
preston by which federal judges, in contempt
of the laws of tho States and rights Of citizens
become at once legislators. judges and execu-
TONERS; and We approve the bill passed at the
last session of the United States Senate and
now pending in the House relative to con-
tempts in federal courts and providing for
trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.
No discrimination should be INDUCED in by
the government of the United States in favor
of any of its debtors. We approve of the re-
fusal Of the fifty-third Congress to PISS the
Pacific railroad funding bill; denounce the
effort of the present republican Congress to
enact similar measure.
Recognizing the just claims of deserving
union soldiers, we heartily endorse the rule
of the present commissioner of pen,ions that
no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from
the pension roll and the fact of enlistment
and service should be deemed conclusive evil
dence against disease and disability before en-.
listment.
We favor the admission OF the territories of
New Mexico and Arizona into the union as
States, and we favor the early admission of
all the territories having the necessary pOpu-
lation and resource to entitle them to State
hood, and while they remain territories. we
hold that the officials appointed to admins
ter the government of any territory, together
with the District of Columbia and Alaska
should be bona fde residents of the territory
or district in which the duties are to be per-
formed.
The democratic party believes in home rule,
and that all public lands of the United States
should be appropriated to the establishment
Of free homes for American citizens.
We recommend that the territory of Alaska
be granted delegate in Congress, and that
the general lard and timber laws of the
United States be extended to said territory.
We extend our sympathy to the people of
Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and
independence
We are opposed to life tenure in the public
service. We favor appointments based upon
merit; fixed terms of Office, and such an ad
ministration of civil service laws as will
afford equal opportunities to all citizens of as
certained fitness.
We decl re it to be the unwritten law of
this republic, established by custom and
usage of one hundred years, and sanctioned
by the examples of the greatest and the
wisest of those who founded and have main
tanned our government, that no man should
be eligible for third term of the presidential
Office.
The federal government should care for
and improve the Mississippi river and other
great waterways of the republic 80 as to SO.
cure for the interior State easy and cheap
transportation to tidewater. When any
waterway of the republic is of sufficient i'm.
portance to demand aid of the government,
such aid should be extended upon definite
plan of continuous work until permanent i'm
provement is secured
Confding in the justice of our cause and
the necessity of it's success at the polls, we
submit the foregoing declaration of principles
and purposes to the consderato judgment of
the American people. We invite the support
of sll citizens who approve them, and who
desire to have them made effective through
legislation for the relief of the people and the
restoration of the country's prosperity.