UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



709 



President of the United States in 1896 by 271 

 to 170 electoral votes and by a plurality of 001,S.~>4 

 popular votes over William Jennings Bryan, of 

 Nebraska, was not contested in the Republican 

 party, nor was that of Mr. Bryan in the Demo- 

 cratic party except by the Gold Democrats, who 

 in 1890 either abstained from voting or supported 

 the Republican candidate or joined in the dis- 

 sentient movement of the so-called Jell'ersonian 

 Democracy, who under the name of National 

 Democrats nominated John M. Palmer, of Illinois, 

 for President. Before the great parties held their 

 national conventions in 1900 several of the inde- 

 pendent parties met to declare their principles and 

 put forward candidates. The fourth annual ses- 

 sion of the Supreme Council of the Farmers' Alli- 

 ance and Industrial Union was held in Washing- 

 ton, D. C., on Feb. G and the two following days. 

 The support of the Farmers' Alliance was pledged 

 to the candidates to be chosen by the Democratic 

 party for President and Vice-President, and the 

 following platform was approved: 



" Whereas, the Declaration of Independence, 

 as a basis of a republican form of government 

 that might be progressive and perpetual, ' that all 

 men are created equal, that they are endowed with 

 certain inalienable rights, that among these are 

 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to 

 secure these rights governments are instituted 

 among men, deriving their just powers from the 

 consent of the governed ' ; 



' We hold, therefore, that to restore and pre- 

 serve these rights under a republican form of gov- 

 ernment, private monopolies of public necessities 

 for speculative purposes, whether of the means of 

 production, distribution, or exchange, should be 

 prohibited, and whenever such public necessity 

 or utility becomes a monopoly in private hands, 

 the people of the municipality, State, or Union, 

 as the case may be, shall appropriate the same 

 by right of eminent domain, paying a just value 

 therefor, and operate them for and in the interest 

 of the whole people. We demand a national cur- 

 rency, safe, sound, and flexible ; issued by the Gen- 

 eral Government only, a full legal tender for all 

 debts and receivable for all clues, and an equitable 

 and efficient means of distribution of this cur- 

 rency, directly to the people, at the minimum of 

 expense and without the intervention of banking 

 corporations and in sufficient volume to transact 

 the business of the country on a cash basis. We 

 demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver 

 and gold at the legal ratio of 16 to 1. We de- 

 mand a graduated income tax. That our national 

 legislation shall be so framed in the future as not 

 to- build up one industry at the expense of an- 

 other. We believe that the money of the country 

 should be kept as imich as possible in the hands of 

 the people, and hence we demand that all national 

 and State revenues shall be limited to the neces- 

 sary expenses of the Government economically and 

 honestly administered. We demand that postal 

 savings banks be established by the Government 

 for the safe deposit of the savings of the people, 

 and to facilitate exchange. We are unalterably 

 opposed to the issue by the United States of in- 

 terest-bearing bonds, and demand the payment of 

 all coin obligations of the United States, as pro- 

 vided by existing laws, in either gold or silver 

 coin, at the option of the Government and not at 

 the option of the creditor. The Government shall 

 purchase or construct and operate a sufficient 

 mileage of railroads to effectually control all rates 

 of transportation on a just and equitable basis. 

 The telegraph and telephone, like the post-office 

 system, being a necessity for the transmission of 

 intelligence, should be owned and operated by the 



Government in the interest of the people. We de- 

 mand that no land shall be held by corporations 

 for speculative purposes or by railroads in excess 

 of their needs as carriers, and all lands now owned 

 by aliens should be reclaimed by the Government 

 and held for actual settlers only. We demand 

 the election of United St .tea Senators by a direct 

 vote of the people; that each State shall be di- 

 vided into two districts of nearly equal voting 

 population, and that a Senator from each shall be 

 elected by the people of the district. Relying 

 Upon the good common sense of the American peo- 

 ple, and believing that a majority of them, when 

 uninfluenced by party prejudice, will vote right 

 on all questions submitted to them on their merits; 

 and further to effectually annihilate the pernicious 

 lobby in legislation, we demand direct legislation 

 by means of the initiative referendum. We de- 

 mand free mail delivery in the rural districts. We 

 demand that the inhabitants of all the territory 

 coming to the United States as a result of the war 

 with Spain be as speedily as possible permitted to 

 organize a free government of their own, based 

 upon the consent of the governed." 



The next earliest convention was that of the 

 Social-Democrats, who on March 6, at Indianapo- 

 lis, Ind., nominated Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, 

 for President, and Job Harriman, of California, 

 for Vice-President, and on March 7 adopted the 

 following platform: 



" The Social-Democratic party of America de- 

 clares that life, liberty, and happiness depend 

 upon equal political and economic rights. In our 

 economic development an industrial revolution 

 has taken place, the individual tool of former 

 years having become the social tool of the present. 

 The individual tool was owned by the worker, 

 who employed himself and was master of his 

 product. The social tool, the machine, is owned 

 by the capitalist, and the worker is dependent 

 upon him for employment. The capitalist thus 

 becomes the master of the worker, and is able to 

 appropriate to himself a large share of the prod- 

 uct of his labor. Capitalism, the private owner- 

 ship of the means of production, is responsible 

 for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, 

 misery, and degradation of the ever-growing ma- 

 jority of our people ; but the same economic forces 

 which have produced and now intensify the capi- 

 talist system will necessitate the adoption of 

 socialism, the collective ownership of the means 

 of production for the common good and welfare. 

 The present system of social production and 

 private ownership is rapidly converting society 

 into two antagonistic classes i. e., the capitalist 

 class and the propertyless class. The middle class, 

 once the most powerful of this great nation, is dis- 

 appearing in the mill of competition. The issue 

 is now between the two classes first named. Our 

 political liberty is noAv of little value to the 

 masses unless used to acquire economic liberty. 

 Independent political action and the trade-union 

 movement are the chief emancipating factors 

 of the working class, the one representing its 

 political, the other its economic wing, and both 

 must co-operate to abolish the capitalist system. 

 Therefore, the Social-Democratic party of America 

 declares its object to be: 



" First, the organization of the working class 

 into a political party to conquer the public powers 

 now controlled by capitalists. Second, the aboli- 

 tion of wage slavery by the establishment of a 

 national system of co-operative industry, based 

 upon the social or common ownership of the 

 means of production and distribution, to be ad- 

 ministered by society in the common interest of 

 all its members, and the complete emancipation 



