UNITED STATES. 



753 



necessary for a choice. The vote for Hill was 

 111 tod for Boios 108, while Arthur P. Uorman 

 d 86, Adlai E. Stevenson 16, John G. 

 Carli-h- 14, William R. Morrison 8, Jauies E. 

 Ciiinpli.-l! -,, Robert E. Pattispn 1, William E. 

 Uu-st'll 1, and William C. Whitney 1. On June 

 ''>. Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, was nut for- 

 ward for Vice -President by Nicholas E. Wor- 

 tliington, of Illinois, and received 402 votes, 

 while Isaac P. Gray received 343, Allen B. Morse 

 St.. .Inlm L. Mitchell 45, Henry Watterson 26, 

 Bourkc Cockran 5, and Lambert Tree and 

 Horace Boios 1 each. Mr. Stevenson was then 

 nominated unanimously by acclamation. 



People's Party Convention. The People's 

 party held its National Convention at Omaha 

 on July 2. C. H. Eddington. of Georgia, was 

 chosen temporary, and H. L. Loucks, of South 

 Dakota, permanent, chairman. The platform 

 adopted on July 4 consisted of a preamble and 

 a declaration of principles running as follows : 



The conditions which surround us best justify our 

 co-operation. We meet in the midst of a nation 

 brought to the verge of moral, political, and material 

 ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the 

 legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the 

 ermine of the Bench. The people are demoralized ; 

 most of the States have been compelled to isolate 

 the voters at the polling places to prevent universal 

 intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely 

 subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, 

 business prostrated, our homes covered with mort- 

 gages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrat- 

 ing in the hands of the capitalists. The urban 

 workmen are denied the right of organization for 

 self-protection ; imported pauperized labor beats 

 down their wages ; a hireling standing army, un- 

 recognized by our laws, is established to shoot them 

 down, and they are rapidly degenerating into Euro- 

 pean conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions 

 are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a 

 few, unprecedented in the history of mankind, and 

 the possessors of these in turn despise the Republic 

 and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb 

 of governmental injustice we breed the two great 

 classes tramps and millionaires. 



The national power to create money is appropri- 

 ated to enrich bondholders ; a vast public debt, 

 payable in legal tender currency, has been funded 

 into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions to 

 the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been 

 accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been 

 demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold 

 by decreasing the value of all forms of property as 

 well as human labor, and the supply of currency is 

 purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt en- 

 terprise, and enslave industry. 



A vast conspiracy against mankind has been or- 

 ganized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking 

 possession of the world. If not met and overthrown 

 at once, it. forbodes terrible social convulsions, the 

 destruction of civilization, or the establishment of 

 an absolute despotism. We have witnessed, for 

 more than a quarter of a century, the struggles of 

 the two great political parties for power and plun- 

 der, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon 

 the suffering people. We charge that the control- 

 ling influences dominating both these parties have 

 permitted the existing dreadful conditions to de- 

 velop without serious effort to prevent or restrain 

 them. Neither do they now promise us any sub- 

 stantial reform. They have agreed together to 

 ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. 

 They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered 

 people with the uproar of a sham battle over the 

 tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national 

 banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetiza- 



VOL. xxxn. 48 A 



tion of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may 

 all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our 

 homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon ; 

 to destroy the multitude in order to secure corrup- 

 tion funds from the millionaires. 

 We declare : 



1. That the union of the labor forces of the 

 United States this day consummated shall be per- 

 miinent and perpetual ; may its spirit enter into all 

 hearts for the salvation of the Republic and the 

 uplifting of mankind. 



2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every 

 dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is 

 robbery. "If any will not work, neither shall he 

 eat." The interests of rural and civic labor are the 

 same ; their enemies are identical. 



3. We believe that the time lias come when the 

 railroad corporations will either own the people or 

 the people must own the railroads ; and should the 

 Government enter upon the work of owning and 

 managing all railroads, we should favor an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution by which all persons en- 

 gaged in the Government service shall be placed 

 under a civil service regulation of the most rigid 

 character, so as to prevent the increase of the power 

 of the National Administration by the use of such 

 additional Government employe's. 



Motiey, We demand a national currency, safe, 

 sound and flexible, issued by the General Govern- 

 ment only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and 

 private, and that without the use of banking corpo- 

 rations ; a just, equitable, and efficient meansof dis- 

 tribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed 

 2 per cent, per annum, to be provided as set forth in 

 the Sub-Treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a 

 better system ; also by payments in discharge of its 

 obligations for public improvements. 



1. We demand free and unlimited coinage of sil- 

 ver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. 



2. We demand that the amount of circulating 

 medium be speedily increased to not less than ISO 

 per capita. 



3. We demand a graduated income tax. 



4. We believe that the money of the country 

 should be kept as much as possible in the hands of 

 the people, and hence we demand that all State and 

 National revenues shall be limited to the necessary 

 expenses of the Government, economically and 

 honestly administered. 



5. We demand that postal savings banks be es- 

 tablished by the Government for the safe deposit 

 of the earnings of the people and to facilitate ex- 

 change. 



Transportation. Transportation being a means of 

 exchange and a public necessity, the Government 

 should own and operate the railroads in the interest 

 of the people. The telegraph and telephone, like the 

 post-office system, being a necessity for the trans- 

 mission of news, should be owned and operated by 

 the Government in the interest of the people. 



Land. The land, including all the natural sources 

 of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should 

 not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and 

 alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All 

 land now held by railroads and other corporations 

 in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now 

 owned by aliens, should be reclaimed by the Govern- 

 ment and held for actual settlers only. 



James B. Weaver, of Iowa, was nominated on 

 the first ballot for President, receiving 995 votes, 

 against 21)5 for James H. Kyle, of South Dakota, 

 and 3 scattering. For Vice-President. James 

 G. Field, of Virginia, received the necessary 

 majority of ballots. 



Prohibition Conventions. The National Pro- 

 hibition party held its convention in Cincinnati, 

 where its delegates assembled on June 29. On 

 June 80 the platform was adopted, In regard to 



