UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



719 



\ve favor an amendment to the Constitution. We 

 believe that United States Senators ought to 

 be elected by direct vote of the people, and we 

 favor such amendment of the Constitution and 

 such legislation as may be necessary to that end. 

 We favor the maintenance and the extension 

 wherever practicable of the merit system in the 

 public service, appointments to be made according 

 to iitness, competitively ascertained, and public 

 servants to be retained in office only so long as 

 shall be compatible with the efficiency of the 

 service. Combinations, trusts, and monopolies con- 

 trived and arranged for the purpose of controlling 

 the prices and quantity of articles supplied to the 

 public are unjust, unlawful, and oppressive. Not 

 only do these unlawful conspiracies fix the prices 

 of commodities in many cases, but they invade 

 every branch of the State and National Govern- 

 ment with their polluting influence and control 

 the actions of their employees and dependents in 

 private life until their influence actually imperils 

 society and the liberty of the citizen. We declare 

 against them. We demand the most stringent laws 

 for their destruction and the most severe punish- 

 ment of their promoters and maintainers and the 

 energetic enforcement of such laws by the courts. 

 We believe the Monroe doctrine to be sound in 

 principle and a wise national policy, and we de- 

 mand a firm adherence thereto. We condemn acts 

 inconsistent with it and that tend to make us 

 parties to the interests and to involve us in the 

 controversies of European nations and to recogni- 

 tion by pending treaty of the right of England to 

 be considered in the construction of an interoceanic 

 canal. We declare that such canal, when con- 

 structed, ought to be controlled by the United 

 States in the interests of American nations. We 

 observe with anxiety and regard with disapproval 

 the increasing ownership of American lands by 

 aliens ai.d their growing control over our inter- 

 national transportation, natural resources, and 

 public utilities. We demand legislation to protect 

 our public domain, our natural resources, our 

 franchises, and our internal commerce, and to keep 

 them free and maintain their independence of all 

 foreign monopolies, institutions, and influences, 

 and we declare our opposition to the leasing of the 

 public lands of the United States whereby corpora- 

 tions and syndicates will be able to secure control 

 thereof and thus monopolize the public domain, the 

 heritage of the people. We are in favor of the prin- 

 ciples of direct legislation. In view of the great 

 sacrifice made and patriotic services rendered we 

 are in favor of liberal pensions to deserving sol- 

 diers, their widows, orphans, and other dependents. 

 We believe that enlistment and service should be 

 accepted as conclusive proof that the soldier was 

 free from disease and disability at the time of his 

 enlistment. We condemn the present administra- 

 tion of the pension laws. We tender to the pa- 

 triotic people of the South African republics our 

 sympathy, and express our admiration for them 

 in their heroic struggle to preserve their political 

 freedom and maintain their national existence. 

 We declare the destruction of these republics and 

 the subjugation of their people to be a crime 

 against civilization. We believe this sympathy 

 should have been voiced by the American Con- 

 gress, as was done in the case of the French, 

 Greeks. Hungarians, Poles, Armenians, and the 

 ' ibans, and as the traditions of this country 

 rould have dictated. We declare the Porto 

 liean tariff law to be not only a serious but a 

 langerous departure from the principles of our 

 form of government. We believe in the republican 

 form of government; and we are opposed to mon- 

 irchy. and to the whole theory of imperialistic 



control. We believe in self-government, a govern- 

 ment by the consent of the governed; and are un- 

 alterably opposed to a government based upon 

 force. It is incontrovertible that the inhabitants 

 of the Philippine archipelago can not be made 

 citizens of the United States without endangering 

 our civilization. We are therefore in favor of ap- 

 plying to the Philippines the principle we are sol- 

 emnly and publicly pledged to observe in the case 

 of Cuba. We demand that our nation's promise 

 to Cuba shall be fulfilled in every particular. 

 There being no longer any necessity tor collect- 

 ing war taxes, we demand relief from the taxes 

 levied to carry on the war with Spain. We favor 

 the immediate admission into the Union of States 

 of the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and 

 Oklahoma. We believe the National Government 

 should lend encouragement and assistance toward 

 the reclamation of the arid lands of the United 

 States; and to that end, we are in favor of a 

 comprehensive survey thereof, and an immediate 

 ascertainment of the water -supply available for 

 such reclamation, and we believe it to be the 

 duty of the General Government to provide for the 

 construction of storage reservoirs and irrigation 

 works so that the water supply of the arid region 

 may be utilized to the greatest possible extent in 

 the interest of the people, while preserving all 

 rights of the States. Transportation is a public 

 necessity, and the means and methods of it are 

 matters of public concern. Transportation com- 

 panies exercise an unwarranted power over indus- 

 tries, business, and commerce, and should be made 

 to serve the public interests without making un- 

 reasonable charges or unjust discriminations. 

 We observe with satisfaction the growing senti- 

 ment among the people in favor of the public 

 ownership and operation of public utilities. We 

 are in favor of expanding our commerce in the 

 interest of American labor and for the benefit of 

 all our people by every honest and peaceful 

 means. We are opposed to the importation of 

 Asiatic laborers in competition with American 

 labor; and favor a more rigid enforcement of the 

 laws relating thereto. Our creed and our history 

 justify the nations of the earth in expecting that, 

 wherever the American flag is unfurled in au- 

 thority, there human liberty and political freedom 

 shall be found. We protest against the adoption 

 of any policy that will change, in the thought of 

 the world, the meaning of our flag. We insist 

 that it shall never float over any ship or wave at 

 the head of any column directed against the po- 

 litical independence of any people of any race or 

 in any clime. The Silver Republican party of the 

 United States, in the foregoing principles, seeks 

 to perpetuate the spirit, and to adhere to the 

 teachings of Abraham Lincoln." 



The national committee of the Gold Democracy 

 adopted the following resolutions at Indianapolis 

 on July 25: 



" Resolved. That in the opinion of this com- 

 mittee the nomination of candidates by the na- 

 tional Democratic party for the offices of President 

 and Viop-President is unwise and inexpedient. 



" Second, that we reaffirm the Indianapolis plat- 

 form of 1SOC.. 



" Third, we recommend the State committees in 

 their respective States to preserve their organiza- 

 tions and take such steps as in their opinion may 

 best subserve the principles of our party, especially 

 in the maintenance of a sound currency, the right 

 of private contract, the independence of the judi- 

 ciary, and the authority of the President to en- 

 force Federal laws, a covert attack on which is 

 made under the guise of the denunciation of gov- 

 ernment by injunction. 



