110 



CALIFORNIA. 



8. "We utterly repudiate all spirit of communism or 

 agrarianism. 



4. No land or other subsidies shall ever be granted 

 to corporations. 



5. Vested rights in property must be respected, but 

 land monopoly must be prohibited. 



6. Money, mortgages, and bonds must be taxed. 



7. The dignity of labor must be upheld, and labor 

 of male and female, when of equal value, must be 



' equally compensated. 



8. Any official who shall violate the pledges given 

 to secure his election should be punished as a felon. 



9. The contract system of labor of criminals should 

 be abolished, and criminal labor so regulated as not 

 to conflict with free labor throughout the United 

 States. 



10. All public officers shall receive fixed salaries, 

 and all fees must be accounted for as public money. 



11. That the honors and legal pay of all officials 

 should be considered equivalent; for the best services 

 they can render the State, while official jobbery, 

 bribery, or corruption must be visited by sure and 

 severe punishment. 



12. All labor on public works shall be performed 

 by the day at ruling rates, and eight hours must con- 

 stitute a day's work. 



13. A system of compulsory education for children 

 between the ages of eight and fourteen years must be 

 adopted ; education free in public schools, and all 

 books paid for by the State. That the State should 

 acquire a copyright for school text-books, which must 

 be the property of the State for ever, and the State 

 print the same at the State printing-office. 



14. We pledge this party to maintain in its purity 

 the public-school system authorized by the Constitu- 

 tionj and will, when in our power, establish in con- 

 nection therewith departments for industrial educa- 

 tion. 



15. Article XI. of the Constitution must not be con- 

 strued in favor of the appointment of public officials 

 whenever their election by the people direct is at all 

 practicable. 



16. Lobbying having been declared a felony in the 

 new Constitution, we demand that the Legislature 

 shall enforce said provision of the fundamental law 

 by the most stringent enactments. 



17. Foreigners ineligible to citizenship shall not bo 

 licensed to peddle goods or commodities of any char- 

 acter throughout the State of California. 



18. Land monopoly being contrary to the spirit of 

 republican institutions and detrimental to the progress 

 of society, and conducing to the creation of a wealthy 

 class of landholders side by side with a landless mul- 

 titude, therefore we hereby declare ourselves in favor 

 of adopting every legitimate means to prevent the 

 monopoly of the soil in a few hands. 



19. Malfeasance in a public office must be punished 

 as a felony. 



20. That the laws now existing for the punishment 

 of buying and selling votes are insufficient, in that, 

 both the buyer and seller being equally guilty, neither 

 can be obliged to give evidence of the guilt of the 

 other. We therefore favor the enactment of laws by 

 which the person bribing or attempting to bribe an 

 elector shall alone be punished. 



21. We demand that the fullest investigation be 

 had, under the authority of the ensuing Legislature, 

 into the alleged scandalous character of the opposition 

 to the adoption of the new Constitution ; and if the 

 charges prove true, that condign punishment be vis- 

 ited upon the guilty ones. 



22. The Legislature should cause to be examined 

 and prosecuted land frauds in the State of California. 



23. The same value should not be taxed twice the 

 > same year under the same system of taxation. 



24. Interest on money should not exceed 6 per cent. 

 per annum. 



25. We demand the immediate restoration to pre- 

 emption and sale of all forfeited railroad lands, and 

 that no further extensions be granted. 



26. We condemn the action of our Senators and 



Bepresentatives in Congress in depriving this State of 

 representation for one year, while her most important 

 interests are at stake, as an unwarrantable perversion 

 of their official duties, made under a false pretense of 

 economy, but really in the hope to gain a political ad- 

 vantage over the W. P. C. 



27. That we condemn the inaction of our Senators 

 and Eepresentatives in Congress not attempting to 

 have the withdrawal from preemption and sale of 

 lands illegally claimed by the defunct Atlantic and 

 Pacific Eailroad Company removed, and said lands 

 restored to the people and reopened to preemption and 

 sale. 



28. We condemn the " Desert Land Bill " and all 

 other land-grabs, under whatever name or on what- 

 ever pretense. 



29. Contracts by debtors for the payment of fees of 

 the attorneys of creditors should be prohibited. 



30. Laws should be passed providing for deductions 

 of debts due bonajide residents from unsecured credits 

 in matters of taxation. 



31. That notaries public should be elected by the 

 people, one from each county. That the best protec- 

 tion of our frontier will be a population of settlers 

 owning their own lands, and that it will be the part of 

 wisdom for the Government to expend the money now 

 squandered for such protection by settling the people 

 on the unoccupied land. 



Whereas, Great apprehension exists in the mining 

 counties that some legislation under the new Con- 

 stitution might be unfavorable to mining interests, we 

 declare that under the protection of our party tneir 

 vested rights shall be respected. 



That the President and Vice-President of the Uni- 

 ted States and United States Senators should be elect- 

 ed by direct vote of the people, and that no man 

 should be elected to the office 01 President or Vice- 

 President of the United States for two consecutive 

 terms. 



We are tired of the dreary discussion of dead issues 

 in our National Congress, while great living issues 

 are confronting the country. The people want bread 

 and not stones. We hail the awakening of the op- 

 pressed workingmen and impoverished farmers to a 

 sense of their power and the cause of their sufferings 

 as the harbinger of a new revolution in behalf of hu- 

 man rights against vicious systems and dishonest poli- 

 ticians. 



That the national bank law should be repealed, and 

 all moneys issued by the United States be a full legal 

 tender for all debts public and private. 



Congress ought to pass fare and freight bills and 

 bills to prohibit unjust discriminations and other 

 abuses in the management on the overland routes. 



That the Government of the United States should 

 establish throughout the States a system of postal sav- 

 ings banks. 



Charges for freights and fares on railroads and for 

 the use of water, gas, etc., must be so regulated that 

 there shall be no discrimination between persons and 

 places, and that capital actually invested in railroad, 

 water, and gas rights should yield no greater net in- 

 come than capital invested in farming and other pro- 

 ductive industries. The Legislature must pass laws 

 to carry into effect the police power of the State in 

 order to prevent the importation of Chinese, and Con- 

 gress should abrogate all treaties that come in conflict 

 with the nineteenth article of the new Constitution. 



We hold that the State and county tickets formed 

 under the auspices of the W. P. C. must be made up 

 of friends of the new Constitution, irrespective of 

 party predilections. To further secure the efficiency 

 of the new organic law, we will attack its opponents 

 with the most effective weapons ; but among ourselves, 

 in difference of opinion, we will allow liberal discus- 

 sion, give considerate attention, and exercise the largest 

 chanty. To these ends we invite the cooperation of 

 all the friends of the new Constitution. We must do 

 all in our power as a party to prevent any conflict be- 

 tween the interests of mining and agriculture, by just 

 laws, engineering skill, and public aid. 



