The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1918-03-12
NATIONAL PARTY HAS 4
COMPREHENSIVE PLATFORM

The new National party of which
William Jennings Bryan is the Of
fetal head has given quite a large
order in the way Of demands, accord
ing to dispatches.
The platform in general is grouped
under three heads, namely: Political
democracy" Industrial democracy"
and international democracy"
One plank that is regarded by party
leaders as vital one advocates labor
legislation that would result in com
plete unionization of government
work; representation of labor in all
publicly owned industries shortening
of the work days; government insur-
ance against industrial accidents; old
age pensions and scientific regulation
of industry to limit immigration to the
power of the country to assimilate it.
other planks in the platform declare
in favor of:
Abolition of property qualifications
for the franchise; extension of the
franchise opportunity to negroes and
to citizens of the District of Column
bia freedom of speech and press from
censorship not absolutely necessary to
military affairs; uniform divorce laws
and abolition of the white slave traf-
fic; municipal ownership of all pub
lie utilities comprehensive prison re-
forms; the short ballot; public own
ership of railroads, telephones, coal
and metal mines, water power, oil
wells, light and power plants, timber
lands, terminal warehouses and ele-
vators, packing plants, flour mills and
all other industries whose operations
depend on franchises or large opera
ton on a non-competitive or central
lied basis. The platform declares
against international diplomacy that
involves secret treaties and advocates
that the people be empowered to
sanction all treaties.
In criticising the scope of the de-
mands voiced allowance must be
made for the tendencies of all parties
TO extend platform demands to catch
as many voters as possible. The
Democratic party during the first adj
ministration of Woodrow Wilson
more nearly fulfilled its pledges than
any other party in the history of the
country in the same length of time.
The president indicated by clear i'm
plication the ordinary relation of
promises to performances when in his
speech of acceptance of denomination
after showing the number of platform
pledged fulfilled he said: This ex-
traordinary recital must sound like a
platform, a list of sanguine promises;
but it is not 1t is a record of prom
ises made four years ago and now act
ually redeemed in constructive legis
lation." But though many promises
were made and most of them redeem
ed, and though many of them were Of
great Importance, nevertheless the
Democratic platform of 1912 lacked in
variety and far-reaching implication,
compared with the platform of the
National party; with the platform or
so-called contract with the people" of
the Progressive party in 1912; or
with that of the Peoples party in
1892. The new party must always
draw to itself every element of discon-
tent that can possibly be attached
which does not possess within itself
attributes of positive antipathy and
repulsion, and to do this, it must in
clude planks which each hitherto de-
tached faction may be able to con-
strue as endorsing its own position.
AS the chances of being entrusted
with the responsibilities of office
grow greater. the tendency of the
party is to become more conservative
and when actually elevated to power
il becomes still more circumspect.
The new party is emphatically ma
tional" in scope as it leaves nothing
of home rule for the states. That it
has as its head Colonel Bryan who
has long been the defender of state
rights under the theory of the draft
ers of the constitution, is a striking
commentary on the drift today. The
distinction between national owner
ship of railroads engaged in interstate
commerce and the state ownership of
roads engaged in intra-state COM
merce, which distinguished the first
public ownership plan of Bryan is
thrown into the discard. Every shred
OF state regulation over the franchise
is abolished, not merely in general