The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-18

spirit. I shall select an attorney gen.
eral who Will, without fear or favor,
enforce existing laws; I shall recon-
mend Such additional legislation as may
be necessary to dissolve every private
monopoly which does business outside of
the state of its origin; and, If contrary
TO my belief and hope. a constitutional
amendment is found to be necessary,
shall recommend such an amendment as
VIII, without impafring any OF the ex-
listing rights OF the states, empower con-
gress to protect the people Of all the
states from injury at the hands of in
dlviduals or corporations engaged in in
terState commerce.
The Platform accurately describes the
Dfngley tariff law, when it condemns it
as trust breeding measure, sixillfully
devised to give to the few favors which
they do not deserve, and to place upon
the many burdens which they should not
bear" Under its operation trusts can
plumber the people Of the United States,
while they successfully compete in for
eign markets with manufacturers of
other countries Even those who justify
the general policy of protection will find
it difficult to defend a tariff which en-
ables a trust to exact an exorbitant toll
from the citizen.
CORPORATIONS IN POLITICS.
The Democratic party makes no war
does 1t seek to embarraSs corporations
engaged in legitimate business, but it
does protest against corporations enter
ing politics, and attempting to assume
eminent A corporation is not organized
for political purposes. and should be
compelled to confine itself to the BUSH
ness described in its charter Honest
corporations, engaged in an honest bus
mess. will find it to their advantage to
aid in the enactment of such legislation
as will protect them from the unde-
served odium which viii be brought
upon them by those corporations which
enter the political arena.
INTERSTATE COMMERCE
The Republican party has persistently
refused to comply with the urgent re-
quest Of the interstate commerce COM
mission, for such an enlargement of the
scope of the interstate commerce law
as will enable the commission to realize
the hopes aroused by its creation. The
Democratic party is pledged to legisla-
ton which win empower the commits
sion to protect individuals and COM
public at large from unjust and unfair
transportation rates.
THE FINANCIAL PLANK
The platform reiterates the demand /
contained in the Chicago platform for
an American financial system made by |
the American people for themselves. The |
purpose of such system is TO restore |
and maintain a bimetalhc level of |
prices, and in order that there may be |
no uncertainty as to the method of re- |
storing bimetallism, the specific decIar- |
alton in favor of free and unlimited Il
at the existing ratio of Is to l. /
independent of the action of other ma /
tons is repeated. In 1886 the Republi- |
can party recognized the necessity for Il
bimetallism by pledging the party to an /
earnest effort to secure an international L
agreement for the free coinage of silver, Il
and the president, Immediately after his /
Inauguration. by authority of congress,
appointed a commission composed of 4
citizens to visit Europe
and solicit foreign aid Secretary Hay
in a letter written to Lord Aldenham
in November, 1888, and afterwards pub
iished in England, declared that at that /
time the president and a majority of his
cabinet still believed in the great desfr-
ability of an international agreement
for the restoration Of the double stand
ard, but that it did not seem opportune
TO reopen the negotiations just then-Th
financial law enacted less than year
ago contains a concluding section de-
cIarIng that the measure was not in
tended to stand in the way of the re-
OF bimetallism, whenever it
could be done by cooperation with 9TH
ar nations. The platform submitted to
the last Republican convention with the
Endorsement of the administration again |
suggested the possibility of securing
foreign aid in restoring silver.
Now the Republican party, for the
arst time, openly abandons its advocacy |
IF the double standard, and indorses the
system which it has so often
and so emphatically condemned The