574 



MISSOURI. 



own citizens and their property, and not de- 

 pend upon either the Federal Government or 

 other State governments for our safety.' To 

 this end, such a military organization is essen- 

 tial. The two most glaring imperfections in 

 the present law have been illustrated within 

 the last two years. The imperfections alluded 

 to are: First, absence of any provision for 

 paying the soldiers when in the service of the 

 State, or even to meet the expense necessarily 

 incurred in their movements when on duty ; 

 and, second, absence of proper and efficient 

 methods of enforcing discipline at all times 

 when discipline is needed. The inconvenience 

 and injustice resulting from the first of these 

 deficiencies in the law were made apparent when 

 the military was called upon by me during the 

 strike of March, 1885. The necessary and 

 proper expense incurred in its movements was 

 paid by me out of an appropriation, subject to 

 my order, for a similar purpose but much too 

 small for even that purpose and the fair, rea- 

 sonable, and legitimate pay of the soldiers, 

 amounting to $2,360.28, is yet unpaid. The 

 existence of the second defect alluded to was 

 developed in a trial in one of the circuit courts 

 for Jackson County, the court holding that a 

 court-martial ordered for the trial of an officer 

 was without lawful authority because the stat- 

 ute upon which it rested was unconstitutional.'" 



Charitable Institutions. The State supports a 

 school for the deaf and dumb, a school for the 

 blind, and three lunatic asylums (at Fulton, 

 St. Joseph, and Nevada). 



Political. The Democratic State Convention 

 met in St. Louis on August 19, and nominated 

 Theodore Brace for Judge of the Supreme 

 Court, William E. Coleman for Superintend- 

 ent of Public Instruction, and John B. Breath- 

 itt for Railroad Commissioner. The following 

 platform was adopted : 



The Democratic party of Missouri congratulate the 

 country upon the fact that after the most thorough 

 and practical test of the fundamental principles of the 

 Democratic party, upon which Grover Cleveland was 

 elected, it can now declare its renewed faith in those 

 principles and most heartily indorse the firm and con- 

 scientious manner in which President Cleveland has 

 g^iven to the country a wise and patriotic administra- 

 tion, reforming the glaring abuses that had crept into 

 the administration of the public service under his Re- 

 publican predecessors. 



We indorse the wise and economical administration 

 of Gov. Marmaduke, and we refer with pride to the 

 fact that in this State, which has been traduced, for 

 political purposes by its enemies as "the Robber 

 State," that nowhere are the rights of the citizen more 

 sacredly guarded, as the best refutation of such slan- 

 ders, and, it' additional evidence is needed, it is fur- 

 nished by the fact that our bonds bearing 3i per cent, 

 interest command in the money markets a premium 

 of 3 per cent. 



We, therefore, with confidence present the follow- 

 ing declaration of principles : 



1. In accordance with the time-honored principles 

 of the Democratic party, we declare that the Federal 

 Government is one of limited power, that the powers 

 not delegated by the Constitution to the United States, 

 nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 

 States respectively or the people ; that the mainte- 

 nance of this just equilibrium as to the powers dele- 



gated and those reserved is essential to the perpetuity 

 of our dual form of State and Federal Governments, 

 and that Congress in the exercise of its functions 

 should confine its actions strictly within the limits of 

 the constitutional grant ; that the authority to levy 

 and collect taxes and duties on imports was intended 

 to vest in the General Government the power of rais- 

 ing the money necessary to meet its expenses, and is, 

 by the express terms of the Constitution, limited to 

 the purposes of paying the expenses and obligations 

 of the Government. We therefore deprecate the pros- 

 titution of the taxing power, under any pretext or 

 guise whatever, to objects and purposes other than the 

 raising of revenue, or to the purpose of effecting in- 

 directly legislation as to subjects over which Con- 

 gress has no control, as such legislation tends inevi- 

 tably to consolidation and a destruction of the reserved 

 rights of the States, and that the building up of one 

 industry by a tax on or at the expense of another, is 

 foreign to the true aims of a free government, in which 

 all the people, as to their legal rights, stand on an ab- 

 solutely equal footing. 



2. We believe in honest money, the gold and silver 

 coinage of the Constitution and a circulating medium 

 convertible into such money without loss ; and we 

 demand at the hands of Congress the free and unlim- 

 ited coinage of both gold and silver. 



3. We demand that all surplus money in the treas- 

 ury shall be applied to the payment o*f the interest- 

 bearing debt. 



4. We approve the action of the Democratic House 

 of Congress in forfeiting and restoring to the public 

 domain, for homesteads for actual settlers nearly n 

 hundred million acres of unearned lands heretofore 

 granted by Republican Congresses to railroad corpo- 

 rations, and we also approve the act preventing alien 

 ownership to large tracts of public lands in the United 

 States. 



5. It is the deliberate judgment of the Democratic 

 party of Missouri that in their very nature, as well as 

 by the provisions of our jState Constitution, the rail- 

 roads of the State are public highways, many of 

 which were built by public taxation ; that both the 

 right and duty of the State to regulate and control 

 these highways is clear and can never be abrogated; 

 that the'wise provisions of our Constitution as to dis- 

 crimination in freight and passenger rates by rail- 

 roads ; against competing lines being under one man- 

 agement'; against the giving of lower or reduced 

 rates to public officers ; against such corporations en- 

 gaging in other business and their officers furnishing 

 supplies to such railroadSj together with other re- 

 quirements of our Constitution, shall be supplemented 

 by stringent laws carrying them into effect; and we 

 demand of the next General Assembly the passage of 

 all such necessary laws, with such penalties as will 

 insure their due observance. We further declare that 

 rates should be so adjusted on freights as to give the 

 railroads a fair and just remuneration on the service 

 performed and the money actually invested, exclusive 

 of watered or fictitious stock ; that our Board of Rail- 

 road Commissioners should reduce all present rates 

 to such standard, and if the powers of the board are 

 inadequate to that end, that such further authority 

 be given it ; that we demand that our present laws 

 be so amended as to give the board the power to en- 

 force such rates when fixed, and the shipper also a 

 clear remedy for all wrongs ; we further favor neces- 

 sary legislation for the speedy and equitable settle- 

 ment of all disputes or differences that may arise be- 

 tween railroad companies and their employes. 



6. The Democratic party, which originated the pub- 

 lic-school system in Missouri, stands pledged to main- 

 tain popular education in the State. 



7. We heartily sympathize with the Irish people in 

 their heroic efforts against oppression, and to secure 

 to themselves a local government, free from the op- 

 pression of landlordism, a relic of feudalism. 



The Republican State Convention met at 

 Sedalia on September 1, and nominated John 



