The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-07-11
PLATFORM !. | / ADOP TED |.
Issues on Which Democrats Will
Contest Coming Campaign.
TEXT OF PRINCIPAL PLANKs

! Favor Immediate Revision Of Tariff
Modification Of the Injunction ir
Labor Disputes and Publicity o.
Campaign Contributions.
Denver, July 11.-After nearly fifty
| hours of almost continuous session the
resolutions committee of the Demo
cratic national convention submitted
it's report and it was adopted by unan
| imous vote. The platform declares
| that "Shall the people ruler" is the
overshadowing issue in all public
questions now under discussion. The
| principal planks are as follows:
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 con
trolled in recent years by the Repub-
lican party, has ceased to be de-
| Lucrative and legislative body respon-
| sive to the will of a majority Of its
members, but has come under the alb
| solute domination of the speaker, who
! has entire control Of it's deliberations
and power of legislation.
We demand that the house of repre-
| sentatives shall again become a de-
Lucrative body, controlled by ma
jority Of the peoples representatives,
and not by the speaker.
Misuse of Patronage.
We condemn, as a violation of the
| spirit of our institutions, the action of
| the present chief executive in using
| the patronage of his high Office to Sc
cure the nomination of one of his
cabinet officers. A forced succession in
the presidency is scarcely less repug-
nant to public sentiment than is life
tenure in that Office. No good inten-
ton on the part of the executive, and
no virtue in the one selected, can
justify the establishment of a dynasty.
Campaign Contribution Publicity.
We demand federal legislation for
ever terminating the partnership
which existed between corporations of
the country and the Republican party
under the expressed or implied agree
ment that in return for the contribu-
Of 0f
| with to purchase elections, they should
be allowed to continue substantially
| unmolested in their efforts to en-
croach upon the rights of the people,
We pledge the Democratic party to
the enactment of law preventing any
| corporation contributing to a cam
paign fund and any individual from
contributing an amount above a rea-
sonable minimum and providing for
the publication before election of all
such contributions.
Regarding the rights Of the states
the resolutions declare opposition to
the extension of the powers CT the
general government by judicial con-
struction and insist that federal rene
dies for the regulation of interstate
commerce and for the prevention Of
private monopoly shall be added to-,
not substituted for, state remedies.
| Tariff.
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 mate
rial reductions should be made in the
tariff upon the necessaries of life, es-
pecially upon articles competing with
such American manufactures as are
sold abroad more cheaply than at
home; and graduate reductions should
be made in such other schedules as
may be necessary to restore the tariff
to revenue basis.
We demand the immediate repeal of
the tariff on pulp, print paper, lumber,
timber and logs and that these arti-
cles be placed upon the free list.
Trusts.
A private monopoly is indefensible
and intolerable. We, therefore, favor
the vigorous enforcement of the GRIM
lnal law against guilty trust magnates
and officials, and demand the enact
ment Of such additional legislation as
may be necessary to make it lmpossf-
bic for a private monopoly to exist in
! the United States. Among the addi-
tional remedies we specify three:
First, a law preventing a duplication
Of directors among competing corpora
lions; second, a license system which
will, without abridging the right of
each state to create corporations, or
Its right to regulate as it will foreign
corporations doing business within it's
limits, make it necessary for a manu-
featuring or trading corporation en-
gagged in Interstate commerce to take
out a federal license before it shall
be permitted to control as much as
Is per cent of the product in which
it deals, the license to protect the pub
lie from watered stock and to pro-
hibit the control of such corporations
Of more than so per cent of the total
amount of any product CONSUMED in
The United States; and, third, a law
compelling such licensed corporations
to sell to all purchasers in all parts
of tho country on the same terms,
after making due allowance for cost
Of transportation.
Railroad Regulation.