Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-08-25
FULL TEXT OF ILLINOIS DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM

exhorted from the people by means o.
! Legislation enacted in their favor fol
the purpose of corruption and debauch
ing the electorate and thus attempt
ing to buy executive, legislative, and
I judicial favor from the party that ben
efits by such corruption. And we fur
Their denOunce those great corporations
organized for their positive embezzle-
ment of the funds of those benefici
aries to buy the election of a republi-
can president and a republican con
gress. and we remind the people that
republican congress refused law to
prohibit such contributions.
1t should be remembered that the
democratic party was first to reorgan-
ize and denounce in its platform those
various trusts and combinations FORM
ed for the purpose of enabling greedy
corporations to obtain more than a
fair share of the products of capital
and labor, and secure eXorbitant and
unreasonable prices from the consum-
er. and we renew our solemn pledge to
favor the enactment and enforcement
of such legislation as will ultimately
and make way for a fair and healthy
competition in all classes of business.
We congratulate our party that a re-
publican president has at last discov-
cred that there are such things as bad
trusts in this country and has proceed
ed in a halfhearted way at last to
prosecute a few of them. and we re-
joice that some of the great principles
of reform heretofore advocated by Mr.
Bryan and other distinguished demo
Gratis have been recognized as sound
by republican president and that he
has made some effort to secure from
an unfriendly republican congress
some legislation in accord with such
principles.
We denounce the republican con-
gress for its shameful surrender to the
railroads. the Standard OIL octopus.
and the meat trust in its boosted leg
islatiOn designated to regulate the
great. merciless corporations.
SHIP SUBSIDY SCHEME RAPED.
We denounce the proposed ship sub
sidy legislation now pending in the
national congress and we declare that
a scheme to take money out of the
national treasury and pay it to few
favored ship owners as undemocratic,
unAmerican. and unjust to the masses
of the people.
We are opposed to large standing
armies in time of peace. but we regard
that volunteer soldiers. who ever are
ready TO take up arms, not as pro-
fession, but as protectors of home and
country, as a real guardian of our
country, and we favor liberal pen
sions to those who gave their services
10 their country.
VIEWS ON WAGE AND LABOR CUES
TIONS.
We believe in liberal wages. reason
able hours, and the best possible con-
dition of employment for men and wo-
men who toll in the mines and shops.
and the factories, and on the railroads
of our state and country. and we fur
thermore believe that the inalienable
right to petition the representatives of
the people in congress and in the legis-
lature should be zealously guarded and
eternally preserved, and that they
should be protected against insolence
and insults when engaged in this sa-
cred right, and that in its last analysis
this right includes the right to ask
questions on problems affecting the
welfare of candidates for public Office |
and offering instructions and exacting
pledges regarding the same.
Humanity demands that there should |
be a rigid child labor legislation and
that such laws should be consistently |
enforced The restricted measures
which organized labor has demanded |
against the disastrous and fatal COM
petition of Chinese coolies and the |
cheap south European emigrant labor
are both reasonable and just and de-
serve to be made statutory and carried |
put to the letter for the maintenance
Of the highest standard of life of our