Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-07-12
ationa1 Platform Adopted by the Convention at ST.
Economy of Administration.

Economy Of Administration.
Large reductions can easily be
maze IN the annual expenditure OF the
government without impairing the et'
hclency Of any branch of the public
service, and we shall insist upon the
strlctest economy and frugality COM
patiole with VIGOROUS and etiiclent
CIVIL military and naval administra'
Ilon as right Of the people, too clear
10 pc denied or withheld.
q, we favor honesty in the public
service. The enforcement of honesty
IN the public service, and to that end
a thorough legislative investigation of
those executive departments of the
government already known to TEEN
with corruption, as well as other de-
partments suspected of harboring cor
ruption, and the punishment of ascer-
tanned corruptionists without fear or
FAVOR or regard to persons. The per-
slstent and deliberate refusal of both
the senate and the house of represen-
tatlves to permit such investigation to
be made demonstrates that only by
change in the executive and in the
legislative departments can complete
exposure, punishment and correction
be obtained.
Federal Government Contract With
Trusts.
We condemn the action of the re-
publican party in congress in refus-
ing to prohibit an executive depart
ment from entering into contracts
with convicted trusts or unlawful COM
binations in restraint of interstate
trade. We believe that one of the
best methods of procuring economy
and honesty in the public service is to
have public officials, from the occu
pant of the White House down to the
lowest of them, returned as nearly as
may be to Jeffersonian simplicity of
living.
Executive Usurpation.
3. We favor the nomination and
election of president imbued with
the principles of the constitution, who
will set his face sternly against exc.
cutive usurpation of legislative and
judicial functions, whether that usur-
patton be yelled under the guise of
executive construction of existing
laws or whether it take refuge in the
tyrant's pleas of necessity or super.
ior wisdom.
Imperialism.
We favor the preservation, SO far
as we can, of an open door for the
worlds commerce in the orient, with
out an unnecessary ENHANCEMENT in
oriental and European affairs, and
without arbitrary, unlimited, irrespon-
sible and absolute government any
where within our jurisdiction. We op.
pose, as fervently as did George Wash.
ington himself, an indefinite, irrespon.
sible, discretionary and vague absolut-
ism and policy of colonial exploita-
ton, no matter where or by whom
invoked or exercised; we believe with
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams,
that no government has right to
make one set of laws for those "at
home" and another and different set
of laws, absolute in their character,
for those Gin the colonies" All men
under the American flag are entitled
to the protection of the institutions
whose emblem the flag is; If they are
inherently unfit for those institutions,
then they are inherently unfit to be
members of the American body poll.
tic. Wherever there may exist PEG.
pie incapable of being governed under
American laws, in consonance with
the American constitution. that people
ought not to be part OF the American
domain.
We insist that we ought to do for
the Filipinos what we have done al
ready for the Cubans, and it is our
duty to make that promise now, and
upon suitable guarantees of protec
ton to citizens of our own and other
countries resident there at the time OF
our withdrawal. set the Filipino PEG
Pile upon their feet, free and indepen
dent to work out their own destiny
The eadeayor of the secretary OF
war, by pledgiug the governments in
dorsement for promoters" in the
Philippine islands to make the United
States partner in speculative legis
lation Of the archipelago, which was
only temporarily held up by the oppo
sition of the democratic senators in
the last session, will, if successful
lead to entanglements from which il
will be difficult to escape.
The democratic party has been, and
will continue to be, the consistent OBJ
ponent Of that class of tariff legisla