Part 19 (2/2)

For the first time in our history and co-evil with the Philippine conquest has there been a wholesale departure from our time-honored and approved system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as un-American, un-Democratic, and un-Republican, and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.

TRUSTS DENOUNCED.

Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They destroy compet.i.tion, control the price of all material, and of the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment of labor and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof, and deprive individual energy and small capital of their opportunity for betterment. They are the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and unless their insatiate greed is checked all wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the republic destroyed.

The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the Republican party in state and national platforms is conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are the legitimate product of Republican policies; that they are fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by the Republican administration in return for campaign subscriptions and political support.

We pledge the Democratic party to an increasing warfare in nation, state, and city against private monopoly in every form. Existing laws against trusts must be enforced and more stringent ones must be enacted providing for publicity as to the affairs of corporations engaged in interstate commerce and requiring all corporations to show, before doing business outside the state of their origin, that they have no water in their stock and that they have not attempted and are not attempting, to monopolize any branch of business or the production of any articles of merchandise, and the whole const.i.tutional power of Congress over interstate commerce, the mails, and all modes of interstate communication shall be exercised by the enactment of comprehensive laws upon the subject of trusts.

Tariff laws should be amended by putting the products of trusts upon the free list to prevent monopoly under the plea of protection.

The failure of the present Republican administration, with an absolute control over all the branches of the national government, to enact any legislation designed to prevent or even curtail the absorbing power of trusts and illegal combinations, or to enforce the anti-trust laws already on the statute books, proves the insincerity of the high-sounding phrases of the Republican platform.

Corporations should be protected in all their rights and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations to interfere with the public affairs of the people or to control the sovereignity which creates them should be forbidden under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible.

We condemn the Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding measure, skillfully devised to give the few favors which they do not deserve and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW.

We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the interstate commerce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminations and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.

DECLARATION FOR 16 TO 1.

We reaffirm and indorse the principles of the national Democratic platform adopted at Chicago in 1896, and we reiterate the demand of that platform for an American financial system, made by the American people for themselves, which shall restore and maintain a bimetalic level, and as part of such system the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation.

CURRENCY LAW DENOUNCED.

We denounce the currency bill enacted at the last session of Congress as a step forward in the Republican policy which aims to discredit the sovereign right of the national government to issue all money, whether coin or paper, and to bestow upon national banks the power to issue and control the volume of paper money for their own benefit.

A permanent national bank currency, secured by government bonds, must have a permanent debt to rest upon, and if the bank currency is to increase with population and business the debt must also increase. The Republican currency scheme is therefore a scheme for fastening upon taxpayers a perpetual and growing debt for the benefit of the banks.

We are opposed to this private corporation paper circulated as money, but without legal-tender qualities, and demand the retirement of the national bank notes as fast as government paper or silver certificates can be subst.i.tuted for them.

SENATORS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE.

We favor an amendment to the Federal const.i.tution providing for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, and we favor direct legislation wherever practicable.

GOVERNMENT BY INJUNCTION.

We are opposed to government by injunction; we denounce the blacklist, and favor arbitration as a means of settling disputes between corporations and their employes.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

In the interest of American labor and the uplifting of the workingmen, as the cornerstone of the prosperity of our country, we recommend that Congress create a department of labor, in charge of a secretary, with a seat in the Cabinet, believing that the elevation of the American labor will bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to our country at home and to our commerce abroad.

PENSIONS.

We are proud of the courage and fidelity of the American soldier and sailors in all our wars; we favor liberal pensions to them and their dependents, and we reiterate the position taken in the Chicago platform in 1896, that the fact of enlistment and service shall be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.

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