Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-08-25
THE DEMOCRATIC
PLATFORM

fAAlEUnil
I'VE, the democratic party of the United
states IN national convention assembled,
deciare It's devotion To the essential prin
eIpies OF the democratic taith which
brlnEs Us together ia party communion.
nder them local self-government and
nallonai unity and prosperity We're alike
ence, the structure Of our free republic
and every democratic extension from
Louisiana to California and Texas to Ore
gon, which preserved faithfully i'll all the
states the tie between taxation and rep
rcsentation They yet inspire the masses
9 Fights 9sr ane fuarang and Their
fraternity, peace and orderly develop
ment They remind US OF our duties and
responsiblites as citizens and impress
necessity of reform and the rescue OF the
administration of government from the
ethod Which nd
certainty and pervade the public mind
with dread, distrust and perturbation.
principles to, the living issues of the day
constitutes the first step toward the as
snted peace. safety and progress of our
eeenee and Of ol Of
the law of all citizens; the right of trial
by jury; freedom Of the person defended
personal contract untrammeled by sump--
tuary laws; the supremacy OF the civil
over military authority; a well7disejplined
taxes, that labor may be lightly bur
dened; the prompt and sacred fuitiliment
to treaties; peace and friendship with all
nations; entapgling alliances with none
absolute acquiescence In the will of the
majority. the vital principle of republics
these are doctrines which democracy has
established as proverbs of the nation
and they should be constantly invoked,
preached. resorted to and enforced.
Controlling Expenses.
81. Large reductions can readily be
made in the annual expenditures of the
government without impairing the eff
cheney of any branch of the public service,
and We shall insist upon the strictest
economy and frugality compatible with
vigorous and efficient civil, military and
naval administration as right of the
RefdP. RReHPie too clear to be denied or with
80. The enforcement of honesty in the
public service, and to that end a thorough
legislative investigation of those exccu-
tive departments of the government al
ready known to TEEN with corruption. as
well as other departments suspected of
harboring corruption, and the punishment
OF ascertained corrupttonistS without fear
or favor or regard to persons. The per-
sistent and deliberate refusal of both the
senate and house OF representa- tives to
permit such investigation to be made by
either branch of congress demonstrates
@ that only by change in the executive
complete exposure, punishment and corr
rection be obtained.
'In broader furtherance of that end the
federal government should not permit it
self to be robbed by entering into con-
tracts with convicted trusts or unlawful
combinations In restraint of interstate
in ,y3o olo<i nf lou, uTo
believe that one OF the best methods of
procuring economy and honesty in the
public Sc. service is to have public officials.
down to the lowest of them, return, as
nearly as may be. to Jeffersonian SIM
pliclty of living.
"3. We favor the nomination and elec-
the constitution, who shall set his face
sternly against executive usurpation of
legislative and judicial functions whether
that usurpation be ruled under the guise
of executive construction of existing
laws, or whether it take refuge in the
tyrants pleas Of necessity of superior
q. The democratic party has been,
and will continue to be, the consistent
opponent of that class of tariff legislation
by which certain interests have been per-
mitted, through congressional favor, to
draw d heavy tribute from the American
people. This monstrous perversion of
htical institutions We're established to Sc
cure, has caused what may once have
been infant industries to become the
greatest combinations of capital that the
world has ever known. These publicly
favored enterprises have. through trust
methods, been converted into monopolies,
petition, which was the only check upon
the eXtravagant profits made possible by
the protective system. These industrial
combinations, by the financial assistance
they can give, now control the policy OF
the republican party.
I'VE favor wise, conservative and
businessike revision and a gradual re-
duction of the tariff by the friends of the
masses and for the common veal and
not by the friends of it's abuses. its ex-
tortions and its discri1ainations, keeping
in view the ultimate end of equality of
burdens and equality OF opportunities,
and the constitutional purpose of raising
a revenue by taxation, to-Wt, the sup
port of the federal government, in all its
integrity and virility, but in simplicity;
and keeping also in view, as men of COM
mon sense should, existing conditions,
however Wrongfully, mistakenly or un
justly brouGht s.bout and the danger to
the cause of tariff reform itself of abrupt
and revolutionary reversal of policy.
I'VE should bear in mind, in short, these
two things: o. The general principle that
the sole derivation of the. power of tax
alton is the support of the federal gov
ernemnt. economically, effectively and
constitutionally administered; and (2},
the equal truth that in the assertion of
any Ultimate end, however sacred and
logically unavoidable, due regard, but
only due regard must and should be paid
to actual existing conditions.
1--WE favor The reduction Of tariff tax
alton upon trust tproduced articles to the
points whore foreign competition may en-
ter the American market whenever trusts
and combines, seeking monopoly, raise
their prices TO the American consumer
above a reasonable and just profit, by
such reduction depriving trusts and mo-
nopoies of the power to extort from the
American people, undep shelter of Amer
lean law, prices higher than those charged
foreigners for identical articles.
The ISthminn Canal.
"Our party having long and earnestly
advocated the construction of interOceanic
canal for the purpose of national defense
and commerce between the states and
with foreign nations. we favor the early
completion Of the 1sthman canal.
But while making this declaration and
accepting the results as an accomplished
and irreversible fact. We can not. toe
forcibly express. our disapproval OF the
methods by which, in disregard of the
usages and obligations of international