MISSOURI. 



577 



000 fell due in 187T, and $490,000 in 1878. 

 Provision had been made by law for funding 

 the former, and they were accordingly fund- 

 ed. There was no law providing for the fund- 

 ing of the bonds which matured in 1878. The 

 State interest fund consists of a tax of one fifth 

 of one per cent, per annum levied and collect- 

 ed on all property subject to taxation. By the 

 provisions of the Constitution the proceeds of 

 the tax must be applied to the payment of the 

 interest on the bonded debt of the State as it 

 shall mature, and the surplus, if any, must be 

 paid into the sinking fund and thereafter be 

 applied to the redemption of the bonded in- 

 debtedness of the State. It is also provided 

 that the amount paid into the sinking fund 

 shall be at least $250,000 annually. Besides 

 the interest accruing, there has been paid out 

 of the sinking fund in the last two years $535,- 

 000 for the redemption of the public debt. The 

 indebtedness of the State on the 1st of Janu- 

 ary 1879, was $16,758,000, not including the 

 contingent liability of the State on account 

 of $3,000,000 of bonds loaned to the Hanni- 

 bal and St. Joseph Railroad Company. This 

 amount does not include the temporary loan 

 of $250,000 which falls due in 1879. From 

 now until 1886 only $442,000 of the bonds of 

 the State will become due, and the larger part 

 of the amount to be placed in the sinking fund 

 will be applied to the purchase of bonds before 

 they shall have matured. 



The political campaign of the year was opened 

 by the assembling of the " National Labor 

 Greenback" State Convention at Sedalia on 

 June 19th, when A. L. Gilstrap was nominated 

 for Supreme Judge, Ivers Hayden for Railroad 

 Commissioner, and A. H. St. John for Regis- 

 ter of Lands. The following resolutions were 

 adopted: 



1. Wo demand the unconditional repeal of the spe- 

 cie resumption act and national banking laws, with 

 all amendments thereto. 



2. We demand the issue of absolute money in green- 

 backs equal to gold and silver, to be full legal tenders 

 for all purposes whatsoever. 



3. We demand that all bonds now subject to re- 

 demption, or that may become subject to redemption 

 hereafter, shall be redeemed immediately in absolute 

 money. We demand that all bonds now due or pay- 

 able shall be purchased by the Treasury as rapidly 

 as possible, at market rates, and canceled. 



4. We recommend that provisions be made by law 

 for the issue of absolute money by the United States 

 under proper restrictions, to be loaned to States, coun- 

 ties, and cities at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum, 

 upon certain safe and satisfactory security, to be usea 

 to pay their bonded indebtedness and relieve the peo- 

 ple from their present burdens of taxation. 



5. We demand that the Federal Constitution be 

 amended so as to limit and restrain Congress from 

 exempting any property, stock, bonds, or credit from 

 taxation; from granting public lands to any corpo- 

 ration or association ; from making the United Stages 

 a party to any corporation or association for any pur- 

 pose ; from granting, transferring, pledging, assum- 

 ing, or in any way conveying public money, credits, 

 franchises, powers, or sovereignty of government to 

 any person or corporation ; from creating any corpo- 

 ration except such as may be necessary to carry out 

 and execute the power of the Government itself; and 



VOL. XVIIL 37 A 



from issuing any interest-bearing bonds of the United 

 States in future for any purpose. 



6. We regard the exemption of United States bonds 

 from taxation as the most anti-democratic law ever 

 passed by Congress, and in order to return to a just 

 and equitable system of taxation we advocate the es- 

 tablishment of an income tax on all descriptions of 

 property, rights, credits, and effects, and all kinds 

 of incomes, annuities, and gains by interest, dis- 

 counts, or otherwise, as the only just and economi- 

 cal mode of levying taxes, exempting from income 

 tax all products of trade, earnings ot labor, wages, 

 rents, and annuities to the amount of $1,000 for each 

 person. 



7. We oppose all double taxation on debts secured 

 by mortgages or otherwise. We are opposed to the 

 system of internal revenue taxation, to all licenses 

 upon merchants, traders, or manufacturers, for goods 

 or stock on hand, that operate as a double or extra 

 tax. 



8. We demand the repeal of the eviction law passed 

 by the last State Legislature, whereby a man is de- 

 prived of any means of redemption of his lands sold 

 for taxes or costs. 



9. We demand that the salaries of officers of States 

 and counties and cities who receive more than $1,000 

 per annum be reduced one half for all salaries above 

 that amount. 



10. We demand the eight-hour law, so called, 

 wherever it may be applicable to labor, and the pas- 

 sage of laws to enforce it. We demand the abolition 

 of the system of letting out by contract the labor of 

 convicts in our prisons and reformatory institutions. 



12. We demand thorough reform in the system of 

 public school education, so as to establish agricul- 

 tural, mechanical, and commercial schools in addi- 

 tion to common schools ; to prevent other schools 

 being established or sustained out of public school 

 funds, or such funds being used for other than school 

 purposes ; to prevent oft-repeated changes and mo- 

 nopoly in the sale of text-books being forced upon 

 the people, as well as other measures which will in- 

 sure a good common school education for the poor- 

 est in the State at the least possible expense. 



13. We favor the improvement of all navigable 

 Western waters by the General Government ; also 

 that the Government build, own, and control a St. 

 Louis and San Francisco railroad. 



14. That each sex shall receive equal pay for equal 

 work. 



15. The abrogation of all laws that do not bear 

 equally upon capital and labor ; the removal of un- 

 just technicalities, delays, and discrimination in the 

 administration of justice ; and adoption of measures 

 providing for the health and safety of those engaged 

 in mining, manufacturing, or building pursuits. 



16. We are opposed to tne introduction of Chinese 

 servile labor. 



17. We are opposed to strikes, revolutions, and all 

 violent measures for the relief of labor, and favor ar- 

 bitration to settle all difficulties between employees 

 and employers. 



18. We favor the enactment of laws giving mechan- 

 ics and laborers a first lien on all descriptions of their 

 work for their full wages. 



19. We demand that all public lands remaining un- 

 sold in the United States or territories be reserved 

 from sale for homesteads of citizens as actual settlers 

 on tracts of forty acres each, excepting nine sections 

 of land which should be granted to public schools in 

 each township for the support of such schools for 

 ever, to be inalienable and free from taxation, and 

 to make the schools self-supporting. 



20. We favor reduction of the standing army to 

 10,000 men. 



21. We cordially invite all patriotic and free citi- 

 zens of this State who may subscribe to the forego- 

 ing resolutions to abandon old parties and unite with 

 us in establishing a new party of the people, to de- 

 liver them from slavery to money and corporate des- 



