The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-02


 The platform adopted by the Nebraska democratic convention September 24 lsOb follows:
 We rejoice at the increasing signs or moral awakening in the United states The various investigations have traced graft and political corruption to the rep resentatives of predatory wealth and .ald bare the interruptions methods by which they have debauChea elections and preyed upon a defenseless public through the subservient officials whom they have raised to place and power. The conscience of the nation is now awakened and must not sleep until the government is freed from the grip of those who have made 1t A business asset of the faVor-seeking corporation; it must become again a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and be administered in all it's departments according to the Jeffersonian maxim, "equal rights to all and special privileges to none."
 We heartily approve of the laws pro- hibiting the pass and the rebate. and in- sst upon further legislation, state and national, making it unlawful for any cor poration to contribute to campaign funds, and providing for publication, before the election, of all individual contributions above a reasonable minimum.
 Believing with Jefferson in "the sup port of the state governments in all their rights as the most competent administra- tions for our domestic concerns are the surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies;' and in 'the preservation or the general government in it's whole con- stitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor or our peace at home and safety abroad" we are opposed to the centralization lm- piled in the suggestions now frequeneiy made that the powers of the general gov ernment should be extended by judicial construction. While we favor the eXer- else by the general government of all It's constitutional authority for the prevention of monopoly and for the regulation or m terstate commerce, we insist that federal remedies shall be added to, and not sup- stituted for, state remedies.
 We favor the election of United states senators by direct vote of the people, and regard this reform as the gateway to all other national reforms.
 A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. We therefore favor the viz orous enforcement of the criminal law aganist trusts and trust magnates, and demand the enactment of such additional legislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private monopoly to exist in the United States. Among the additional remedies we specify three first, a law compelling corporations en- gagged in interstate commerce to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the country on the same terms, after making due al- lowance for cost of carriage; second, a law preventing the duplication of directors among competing corporations; and third, a license system which will, without abridging the right of each state to cre- ate corporations, or it's right to regulate as it will foreign corporations doing busi- ness within it's limits, make it necessary for a manufacturing or trading corpora ton engaged in interstate commerce to take out a federal license before it shall be permitted to control as much as % per cent of the product in which it deals. the license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such corporation of more than 50 per cent of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States.
 We insist upon the recognition of the distinction between the natural man and the artificial person, called cor poration, and we favor the enactment of such law as may be necessary to compel foreign corporations to submit their legal disputes to the courts of the states in which they do business, and thus place themselves upon the same footing as domestic corpora tions.
 We favor an immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duty. Articles entering into compe- tition with articles controlled by trusts should be placed upon the free list; material reductions should be made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, and reductions should be made in such other sch edules as may be necessary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis
 We favor an income tax as a part of our revenue system. and we urge the submission of a constitutional amend ment specifically auth orizing Congress to levy and collect a tax upon individ- ual and corporate incomes, to the end that wealth may bear it's proportionate share of the burdens of the federal government. We favor a national in heritance tax to reach the swollen fortunes by abolishing the privileges and favoritism upon which they are based.
 We assert the right of Congress to exercise complete control over inter- state commerce. and we assert the right of each state to exercise just as com nlete control over commerce within it's borders. We demand such an en- 1argement of the powers of national and state railway commissions as may he necessary to give full protection to ,ersons and places from discrimina- tion and extortion. We believe that both the nation and the various states sbould. first, ascertain the present va1ue of the railroads, measured by the cost of reproduction; second, prohibit 4be issue of any more watered stock or fictitious capitalization; third, prohibit tbe railroads from engaging in any business which brings them into com netition with their shippers; and fourth reduce transportation rates un- til they reach a point where they will