UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



T17 



insincere and deceptive. This profession is con- 

 tradicted by the avowed policy of that party in 

 opposition to the spirit of the Monroe doctrine to 

 acquire and hold sovereignty over large areas of 

 territory and large numbers of people in the East- 

 ern Hemisphere. We insist on the strict main- 

 tenance of the Monroe doctrine, and in all its in- 

 tegrity, both in letter and in spirit, as necessary 

 to prevent the extension of European authority on 

 this continent and as essential to our supremacy 

 in American affairs. At the same time we declare 

 'that no American people shall ever be held by 

 force in subjection to European authority. 



" We oppose militarism, it means conquest 

 abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. 

 It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal 

 to free institutions. It is what millions of our 

 citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose 

 upon our peace-loving people a large standing 

 army, an unnecessary burden of taxation, and 

 would be a constant menace to their liberties. A 

 small standing army and a well-disciplined State 

 militia are amply sufficient in time of peace. This 

 republic has no place for a vast military estab- 

 lishment, a sure forerunner of compulsory mili- 

 tary service and conscription. When the nation 

 i>; in danger the volunteer soldier is his country's 

 best defender. The National Guard of the United 

 "States should ever be cherished in the patriotic 

 hearts of a free people. Such organizations are 

 ever an element of strength and safety. For the 

 first time in our history and coeval with the Phil- 

 ippine conquest has there been a wholesale depar- 

 ture from our time-honored and approved system 

 of volunteer organization. We denounce it as un- 

 American, undemocratic and unrepublican, and as 

 a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of 

 a free people. 



" Private monopolies are indefensible and intol- 

 erable. They destroy competition, control the 

 price of raw material and of the finished product, 

 thus robbing both producer and consumer. They 

 lessen the employment of labor and arbitrarily fix 

 the terms rnd conditions thereof; and deprive in- 

 dividual energy and small capital of their oppor- 

 tunity for betterment. They are the most efficient 

 means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of 

 industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of 

 the many, and, unless their insatiate greed is 

 checked, all wealth will be aggregated in a few 

 hands and the republic destroyed. The dishonest 

 paltering with the trust evil by the Republican 

 party in its State and national platforms is con- 

 clusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts 

 are the legitimate product of Republican policies, 

 that they are fostered by Republican laws, and 

 that^ they are protected by the Republican admin- 

 istration in return for campaign subscriptions and 

 political support. W r e pledge the Democratic party 

 to an unceasing warfare in nation, State, and city 

 against private monopoly in every form. Existing 

 laws against trusts must be enforced and more 

 stringent ones must be enacted providing for pub- 

 licity as to the affairs of corporations engaged in 

 interstate commerce and requiring all corporations 

 to show, before doing business outside of the State 

 )f their origin, that they have no water in their 

 tock, and that they have not attempted and are 

 lot attempting to monopolize any branch of busi- 

 icss or the production of any articles of merchan- 

 lise; and the whole constitutional power of Con- 



PSS over interstate commerce, the mails and all 

 modes of interstate communication shall be exer- 

 cised by the enactment of comprehensive laws upon 

 the subject of trusts. Tariff laws should be 

 i mended by putting the products of trusts upon 

 the free list, to prevent monopoly under the plea 



of protection. The failure of the present Repub- 

 lican administration, with an absolute control over 

 all the branches of the National Government, to 

 enact any legislation designed to prevent or even 

 curtail the absorbing power of trusts and illegal 

 combinations, or to enforce the antitrust laws al- 

 ready on the statute books, proves the insincerity 

 of the high-sounding phrases of the Republican 

 platform. Corporations should be protected in all 

 their rights and their legitimate interests should 

 be respected, but any attempt by corporations to 

 interfere with the public afi'airs of the people or 

 to control the sovereignty which creates them 

 should be forbidden under such penalties as will 

 make such attempts impossible. We condemn the 

 Dingley tariff law as a trust-breeding measure 

 skilfully devised to give to the few favors which 

 they do not deserve, and to place upon the many 

 burdens which they should not bear. We favor 

 such an enlargement of the scope of the interstate 

 commerce law as will enable the commission to 

 protect individuals and communities from discrim- 

 ination and the public from unjust and unfair 

 transportation rates. 



" We reaffirm and indorse the principles of the 

 national Democratic platform adopted at Chicago 

 in 1896, and we reiterate the demand of that plat- 

 form for an American financial system made by 

 the American people for themselves, which shall 

 restore and maintain a bimetallic price level, and 

 as part of such system the immediate restoration 

 of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and 

 gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without 

 waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. 

 We denounce the currency bill enacted at the 

 last session of Congress as a step forward in the 

 Republican policy which aims to discredit the sov- 

 ereign right of the National Government to issue 

 all money, whether coin or paper, and to bestow 

 upon national banks the power to issue and con- 

 trol the volume of paper money for their own 

 benefit. A permanent national bank currency, se- 

 cured by Government bonds, must have a perma- 

 nent debt to rest upon, and, if the bank currency 

 is to increase with population and business, the 

 debt must also increase. The Republican currency 

 scheme is, therefore, a scheme for fastening upon 

 the taxpayers a perpetual and growing debt for the 

 benefit of the banks. We are opposed to this pri- 

 vate corporation paper circulated as money, but 

 without legal tender qualities, and demand the re- 

 tirement of national bank notes as fast as Govern- 

 ment paper or silver certificates can be substituted 

 for them. We favor an amendment to the Federal 

 Constitution providing for the election of United 

 States Senators by direct vote of the people, and 

 we favor direct legislation wherever practicable. 

 We are opposed to government by injunction; we 

 denounce the blacklist, and favor arbitration as a 

 means of settling disputes between corporations 

 and their employees. 



" In the interest of American labor and the up- 

 building of the workingman as the corner stone of 

 the prosperity of our country, we recommend that 

 Congress create a Department of Labor, in charge 

 of a secretary, with a seat in the Cabinet, believing 

 that the elevation of the American laborer will 

 bring with it increased production and increased 

 prosperity to our country at home and to our 

 commerce abroad. We are proud of the courage 

 and fidelity of the American soldiers and sailors 

 in all our wars: we favor liberal pensions to them 

 and their dependents; and we reiterate the position 

 taken in the Chicago platform in 1896, that the 

 fact of enlistment and service shall be deemed 

 conclusive evidence against disease and disability 

 before enlistment. 



