UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



711 



of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 

 liquors as a beverage. We are gratified to note 

 the widespread agitation of the cigarette ques- 

 tion, and declare ourselves in favor of the enact- 

 ment of laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes or 

 tobacco in any form to minors. We declare for 

 the daily reading of the Bible in the public schools 

 and institutions of learning under control of the 

 State. We declare for the Government ownership 

 of public utilities. We declare for the election of 

 the President and Vice-President and United 

 States Senators by the direct vote of the people. 

 We declare for such amendment of the United 

 States Constitution as shall be necessary to give 

 the principles herein set forth an undeniable legal 

 basis in the fundamental law of our land. We in- 

 vite into the United Christian party every honest 

 man and woman who believes in Christ and his 

 golden rule and standard of righteousness." 



The fusion wing of the People's party held a 

 convention at Sioux Falls, S. IX, on May 10, at 

 which William J. Bryan was nominated for Pres- 

 ident by acclamation. A motion to defer the 

 nomination for Vice-President and appoint a com- 

 mittee to confer with the National Democratic 

 Convention was defeated by 492 to 462 votes. 

 Howard S. Taylor, of Illinois, J. H. Davis, of 

 Texas, E. Gerry Brown, of Massachusetts, J. W. 

 Breidenthal, of Kansas, T. T. Rhinder, of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and John J. Lentz, of Ohio, withdrew their 

 names when they were brought forward for the 

 nomination in favor of Charles A. Towne, of Min- 

 nesota, who was nominated by acclamation, and 

 who withdrew, on Aug. 8, after A. E. Stevenson 

 was nominated by the Democratic convention, and 

 on Aug. 28 the Executive Committee named Mr. 

 Stevenson as the candidate of the party. The fol- 

 lowing platform was adopted: 



" Resolved, that we denounce the act of March 

 14, 1900, as the culmination of a long series of 

 conspiracies to deprive the people of their consti- 

 tutional rights over the money of the nation and 

 relegate to a gigantic money trust the control o*f 

 the purse and hence of the people. We denounce 

 this act, first, for making all money obligations, 

 domestic and foreign, payable in gold coin or its 

 equivalent, thus enormously increasing the bur- 

 dens of the debtors and enriching the creditors. 

 Second, for refunding coin bonds not to mature 

 for years into long-time gold bonds so as to make 

 their payment improbable and our debt perpetual. 

 Third, for taking from the Treasury over $50,- 

 000,000 in a time of war and presenting it as a 

 premium to bondholders to accomplish the refund- 

 ing of bonds not due. Fourth, for doubling the 

 capital of bankers by returning them the face 

 value of their bonds in current money notes so 

 that they may draw one interest from the Gov- 

 ernment and another from- the people. Fifth, for 

 allowing banks to expand and contract their cir- 

 culation at pleasure, thus controlling prices of all 

 products. Sixth, for authorizing the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to issue new gold bonds to an un- 

 limited amount whenever he deems it necessary to 

 replenish the gold hoard, thus enabling usurers 

 to secure more bonds and more bank currency by 

 drawing gold from the Treasury, thereby creating 

 an endless chain for perpetually adding to a per- 

 petual debt. Seventh, for striking down the green- 

 back in order to force the people to borrow 

 $346,000,000 more from the banks at an annual 

 cost of over $20,000.000. While barring out the 

 money of the Constitution this law opens the 

 printing mints of the Treasury to the free coinage 

 of bank paper money, to enrich the few and im- 

 poverish the many. We pledge anew the People's 

 party never to cease the agitation until this great 



financial conspiracy is blotted from the statute 

 books, the Lincoln greenback restored, the bonds 

 all paid, and all corporation money forever retired. 

 We affirm the demand for the reopening of the 

 mints of the United States for the free and un- 

 limited coinage of silver and gold at the present 

 legal ratio of 16 to 1, the immediate increase in 

 the volume of silver coins and certificates thus 

 created to be substituted, dollar for dollar, for the 

 bank notes issued by private corporations under 

 special privilege granted by law of March 14, 1900, 

 and prior national banking laws, the remaining 

 portion of the bank notes to be replaced with full 

 legal-tender Government paper money, and its vol- 

 ume so controlled as to maintain at all times a 

 stable money market and a stable price level. We 

 demand a graduated income and inheritance tax, 

 to the end that aggregated wealth shall bear its 

 just proportion of taxation. We demand that 

 postal savings banks be established by the Gov- 

 ernment for the safe deposit of the savings of the 

 people and to facilitate exchange. With Thomas 

 Jefferson we declare the land, including all natural 

 sources of wealth, the inalienable heritage of the 

 people. Government should so act as to secure 

 homes for the people and prevent land monopoly. 

 The original homestead policy should be enforced, 

 and future settlers upon the public domain should 

 be entitled to a free homestead, while all who have 

 paid an acreage price to the Government under 

 existing laws should have their homestead rights 

 restored. Transportation being a means of ex- 

 change and a public necessity, the Government 

 should own and operate the railroads in the in- 

 terests of the people and on a nonpartisan basis, 

 to the end that all may be accorded the same 

 treatment in transportation, and that the extor- 

 tion, tyranny, and political power now exercised 

 by the great railroad corporations, which result 

 in the impairment, if not the destruction, of the 

 political rights and personal liberties of the citizen, 

 may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accom- 

 plished in a manner consistent with sound public 

 policy. Trusts, the overshadowing evil of the age, 

 are the result and culmination of the private own- 

 ership and control of the three great instruments 

 of commerce money, transportation, and the 

 means of transmission of information which in- 

 struments of commerce are public functions, and 

 which our forefathers declared in the Constitution 

 should be controlled by the people through their 

 Congress for the public welfare. The one remedy 

 for the trusts' is that the ownership and control 

 be assumed and exercised by the people. We fur- 

 ther demand that all tariffs on goods controlled 

 by a trust shall be abolished. To cope with the 

 trust evil, the people must act directly without 

 the intervention of representatives who may be 

 controlled or influenced. We therefore demand 

 direct legislation, giving the people the lawmaking 

 and veto power under the initiative and referen- 

 dum. A majority of the people can never be cor- 

 ruptly influenced". Applauding the valor of our 

 army and navy in the Spanish War, we denounce 

 the conduct of the administration in changing a 

 war for humanity into a war of conquest. The 

 action of the administration in the Philippines is 

 in conflict with all the precedents of our national 

 life; at war with the Declaration of Independence, 

 the Constitution, and the plain precepts of human- 

 ity. Murder and arson have been our response 

 to the appeals of the people who asked only to 

 establish a free government in their own land. 

 We demand a stoppage of this war of extermina- 

 tion by the assurance to the Philippines of inde- 

 pendence and the protection under a stable govern- 

 ment of their own creation. The Declaration of 



