652 



NEW YORK. 



good deal of attention for two years, was left 

 very incomplete; nothing was done for the 

 solution of the question of railroad regulation, 

 and reform in the administration of the affairs 

 of New York city was defeated. The polit- 

 ical canvass may be said to have opened at the 

 very beginning of the year, with the initial 

 movements for the reorganization of the Demo- 

 cratic party in the city of New York. The 

 defeat of the party in the State and conse- 

 quently in the nation, in 1880, was by many 

 attributed to the action of the Tammany or- 

 ganization, under the lead of Mr. John Kelly. 

 A mass- meeting was held at the Cooper Insti- 

 tute, near the end of December of that year, to 

 consider the subject of reorganization. Reso- 

 lutions were adopted in favor of such a move- 

 ment, and to carry it out a committee of fifty 

 was chosen, which was subsequently increased 

 to one hundred. A plan was reported in 

 August which provided for elections in each of 

 the Assembly districts of the city, the polling 

 to be conducted in all the separate election 

 districts, for the purpose of choosing local 

 committees and delegates to the County Com- 

 mittee. The object was to base the organiza- 

 tion on the action of the mass of the voters of 

 the party, and take it out of the control of the 

 " halls." The new organization was known as 

 the County Democracy, and prepared to con- 

 tend with both the Tammany Hall and the 

 Irving Hall factions for recognition in the 

 State Convention, and for the control of party 

 interests in the city. 



Out of the agitation for the regulation of 

 railroads sprang an association known as the 

 Anti-Monopoly League, which proposed to 

 exercise an influence over the election of mem- 

 bers of the next Legislature. A conference 

 called by its officers was held at Utica on the 

 18th of August, at which an address to the 

 people and a declaration of principles and pur- 

 poses were adopted. The address set forth the 

 evils and abuses that had sprung up in railroad 

 management and the failure of the Legislature 

 to provide a remedy for them, and was prefa- 

 tory to the following: 



"We earnestly recommend that at the next election 

 candidates for legislative office, and especially can- 

 didates for the Senate, be chosen regardless ot party 

 affiliations, and that only candidates who will pledge 

 themselves to support the following anti-monopoly 

 principles and objects should receive the suffrages of 

 the people : 



OUB PRINCIPLES. 



Anti-monopoly : we advocate, and will support and 

 defend, the rigKts of the many as against privileges 

 for the few. 



Corporations, the creations of the State, shall be 

 controlled by the State. 



Labor and capital : allies, not enemies ; justice for 

 both. 



OBJECTS. 



In accordance with these general principles we will 

 endeavor to secure, among others, the following spe- 

 cific results : 



1. Laws compelling transportation companies to 

 base charges upon cost and risk of service, instead of 

 the new theory enunciated by them, " what the traffic 

 will bear." 



2. Laws to prevent pooling and combinations. 



3. No discrimination against any citizen or any 

 class of citizens on public highways. 



4. A Board of Kailroad Commissioners for this 

 State, to give effect to the laws which are or may be 

 placed upon the statute-books. 



5. LttWS making it the duty of public law officers 

 to defend a citizen's rights against injustice by power- 

 ful corporations. 



6. Laws to prevent the further watering of stock 

 and other devices, by which a fictitious value for pub- 

 lic highways is created. 



7. Stringent laws against bribery, including the 

 prohibition of free passes. 



8. Amendments to our election laws which will 

 better secure to the people the power to select candi- 

 dates for office. 



9. A liberal policy toward our canals, which, dur- 

 ing the season of navigation, are potent in preventing 

 exorbitant charges by railroads. 



10. Laws providing for the restriction within proper 

 limits of corporate powers and privileges generally, 

 and for the protection, education, and elevation of the 

 masses. 



Resolved, That in order to give effect to and enforce 

 the observance of these principles and objects, an 

 organization of the people on a non-partisan basis is 

 absolutely necessary ; that in every Assembly district 

 farmers' alliances or anti-monopoly leagues should be 

 organized ; that we advise the voters of the State of 

 New York in the coming fall election to vote only for 

 such legislators as will openly pledge themselves to 

 vote for a Board of Eailroad Commissioners for the 

 State of New York, and also to sustain generally the 

 principles of the so-called "Hepburn bill." 



Resolved, That we make no war upon corporations 

 as such, nor upon any legitimate interest or industry, 

 but that experience has snown that such organization 

 is necessary to resist the aggressions of corporate 

 monopolies and to maintain the public rights as ex- 

 pressed in the Constitution and interpreted by the 

 Supreme Court of the United States, and for this ob- 

 ject we pledge our earnest efforts regardless of party 

 affiliations. 



Resolved^ That the discriminations of the railroads, 

 the improvement of the Mississippi Kiver, and the 

 enlargement of the Canadian canals all admonish the 

 people of this State that their canals should be mod- 

 ernized and made equal to any competition which they 

 may have to sustain ; and we therefore declare that 

 the water-ways of the State should be enlarged and 

 made free of tolls. 



Resolved, That the State, having delegated to rail- 

 road and telegraph corporations its duty of maintain- 

 ing public highways and intercommunication among 

 the people, is bound to control said corporations in 

 the interests of the public, or reassume the functions 

 so delegated ; that the direct tendency of the abuses 

 in our transportation system is to nullify the prin- 

 ciple upon which our government is founded ; that 

 instead of the distribution of wealth, they tend to 

 make a few very rich and the many poor ; that the 

 feudal! stic tendencies of the age are very marked, and 

 prompt and vigorous efforts are necessary to check 

 this rapidly growing evil. 



Resolved, That the American public, and especially 

 the people of this State, are not yet ready to acknowl- 

 edge that there is a dominant privileged class, to 

 which all the rest of the community must pay tribute ; 

 that every barrel of flour, every gallon of petroleum, 

 every ton of coal, and otner necessaries of life must 

 be depreciated to the producer or unduly enhanced to 

 the consumer, in order that the few mav live in undue 

 luxury at the expense of the many. We have faith 

 that the intelligence and patriotism of the American 

 people will be equal to the emergency of controlling 

 the creatures of their creation, and we invoke the in- 

 fluence of every good citizen, and we will organize 

 and work to this end. 



The Greenback party held a convention at 



