The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-10
COMMITTEE WINDS
 UP PLATFORM WORK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

to the further fact that during years of | uninterrupted power no action whatever has been taken by the republican Congress tc correct the admittedly existing tariff ,niquities
 We favor immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duties. Articles entering into competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reduc- tions should be made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life. especially upon articles competing with such American manufacturers as are sold abroad mora cheaply than at home, and graduate re- auctions should be made in such other schedules as may be necessary to re- store the tariff to a revenue basis. Existing duties have given to the manu- facturers of paper a shelter behind which i rney have organized combinations to raise
 the price of pulp and of paper, thus | imposing a tax upon the spread of knowl- edge.
 We demand the immediate repeal of the tariff on pulp print paper, lumber, timber and logs, and that these articles be placed upon the free list
 Home Rule.
 We assert our confidence and admira- ton for the wisdom of our fathers in so
 organizing the federal government as to secure home rule for the people of each
 state. and we pledge ourselves to combat with uneeasing vigilance the efforts of those who are striving by usurpation to
 seize the powers of the people of the | states for exploitation by the federal gov ernment
 Believing with Jefferson in the sup
 port of the state governments in all their rights as the most competent administra- ton for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwark against anti-repub1can tendencies" and in "the preservation of 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 im- piled in the suggestions. now frequently made, that the powers of the general government should be extended by execu- tive and legislative action and by judicial construction. There is no twilight zone between the nation and the state in which exploiting interests can take refuge from both. and it is as necessary that the fed eral government shall exercise the pow
 CTS delegated to it as it is that the state governments shall use the authority re- served to them, but we insist that the federal remedies for the regulation of the interstate commerce and for the proven tion of private monopoly shall be added to, not substituted for state remedies.
 Banking.
 The panic of 1907, coming without any legitimate excuse. when the republican
 party had for a decade been in complete control of the federal government, fur nishes additional proof that it is either
 unwilling or incompetent to protect the
 interests of the general public. It has so linked the country to Wall street that the
 sins of the spectators are visited upon the whole people. While refusing to res cue wealth producers from sploiation at the hands of the stock gamblers and spec ulators in farm products, it has deposited treasury bonds. without interest and with out compensation, in favorite banks. It has used an emergency for which it is largely responsible to force through Con- gress a bill changing the basis of bank
 currency and living market manipula- tion and has failed to give to the 15,0o0,- O0O depositors of the country protection in | their savings.
 l We believe that insofar as the needs of 1 commerce require an emergency cur | renew such currency should be issued | controlled by the federal government and | loaned on adequate security to national | and state banks. We pledge ourselves to | legislation under which the national bank
 
 fund for the prompt payment of the de- | positors of any nsolvent national bank,
 under an equitable system which shall be available to all state banking institutions wishing to use 1t.
 We favor a postal savings bank If the guarantee in the bank cannot be secured, and that it be constituted so as to keep the deposited money in the communities where it is established. But we con- demn the policy of the republican party in providing postal savings banks under plan of conduct by which they will aggregate the deposits of rural communi-
 ties and redeposit the same while under
 government charge in the banks of Wall street. thus depicting the circulating medium of the producing regions and unjustly favoring the speculative mal- | kets.
 Arbitrary Power of Speaker. The House of Representatives was
 designed by the fathers of the consti
 tuition to be the popular branch of our government, responsive to the public will.
 | The House of Representatives, as | controlled in recent years by the re- publican party, has ceased to be de- 1 Lucrative and legislative body, re- | sponsive to the will of a mhjority of | it's members, but has come under the absolute domination of the speaker
 who has entire control of it's deliber-
 ations and powers of legislation | We have observed with amazement l the popular branch of our federal gov l ernment helpless to obtain either the 1 consideration or enactment of meas
 ures, desired by majority of its mem
 bers.
 1 Legislative government becomes | failure when one member in the per | son of the speaker, is more powerful 1 than the entire body.
 | We demand that the House of Rep 1 resentatives shall again become a de- | Lucrative body, controlled by ma
 jority of the peoples representatives. and not by the speaker, and we pledge | ourselves to adopt such rules and regu- 1 la ations to govern the House of Repro
 sentatives as will enable majority
 of it's members to direct it's delibera 1 tions and control Legislation. Pensions. We favor a generous pension policy. | both as a matter of justice to the survlv- 1 ing veterans and their dependents, and | because it tends to relieve the country
 of the necessity of maintaining a larger standing army