democratic government and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.

RAILROADS, EXPRESS COMPANIES, TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE LINES.

We favor the eficient supervision and rate regulation of railroads, express companies, telegraph and telephon he lines engaged in interis end we recommend state commerce. To the the valuation of railroads, express companies, lines by the Interstate telegraph and telephone Commerce Commission, such valuation to take ysical value of the

into consideration the Phe cost of reproducproperty, the original cost, a that will render tion, and any element of valuep the valuation fair and just. will effectually We favor such legislation as prohibit the railroads, express, s. in business elegraph, and telephone companies from engaging with their which brings them into competitionthe eventing shippers or patrons, also legislation pion the overissue of stocks and bonds by iny terstate oh and railroads, express companies, telegrabov assure telephone lines, and legislation which wil such reductions in transportation rates ditions will permit, care being taken to reduction that would compel a reducti stice wages, prevent adequate service, or do injul to to legitimate investments.

BANKING LEGISLATION.

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We oppose the so-called Aldrich bill or the establishment of a central bank; and we believe the people of the country will be largely freed from panics and consequent unemployment and business depression by such a systematic revision of our banking laws as will render temporary relief in localities where such relief is needed, with protection from control or dominion by what is known as the Money Trust.

Banks exist for the accommodation of the public, and not for the control of business. All legislation on the subject of banking and currency should have for its purpose the securing of these accommodations on terms of absolute security to the public and of complete protection from the misuse of the power that wealth gives to those who possess it.

We condemn the present methods of depositing Government funds in a few favored banks,

largely situated in or controlled by Wall Street, in return for political favors, and we pledge our party to provide by law for their deposit by competitive bidding in the banking institutions of the country, national and State, without discrimination as to locality upon approved securities and subject to call by the Government.

RURAL CREDITS.

Of equal importance with the question of currency reform is the question of rural credits or agricultural finance. Therefore, we recommend that an investigation of agricultural credit societies in foreign countries be made, so that it may be ascertained whether a system of rural credits may be devised suitable to conditions in the United States; and we also favor legislation permitting national banks to loan a reasonable proportion of their funds on real estate security.

We recognize the value of vocational education, and urge Federal appropriations for such training and extension teaching in agriculture in cooperation with the several States.

WATERWAYS.

We renew the declaration in our last platform relating to the conservation of our natural resources and the development of our water1 ways. The present devastation of the lower Mississippi Valley accentuates the movement for the regulation of river flow by additional bank and levee protection below, and the diversion, storage, and control of the flood waters above, and the utilization for the beneficial purposes in the reclamation of arid and swamp fands and the development of water power instead of permitting the floods to continue, as heretofore, agents of destruction.

We hold that the control of the Mississippi River is a national problem. The preservation of the depth of its water for the purpose of navigation, the building of levees to maintain the Integrity of its channel, and the prevention of the overflow of the land and its consequent devastation, resulting in the interruption of interstate commerce, the disorganization of the mail service, and the enormous loss of life and property, impose an obligation which alone can be discharged by the General Government.

To maintain an adequate depth of water the entire year, and thereby encourage water trans

portation, is a consummation worthy of legislative attention, and presents an issue national in its character. It calls for prompt action on the part of Congress, and the Democratic Party pledges itself to the enactment of legislation leading to that end.

We favor the cooperation of the United States and the respective States in plans for the comprehensive treatment of all waterways with a cooperative plan for channel improvement, with plans for drainage of swamp and overflowed lands, and to this end we favor the appropriation by the Federal Government of sufficient funds to make surveys of such lands, to develop plans for drainage of the same, and to supervise the work of construction.

We favor the adoption of a liberal and comprehensive plan for the development and improvement of our inland waterways with economy and efficiency, so as to permit their navigation by vessels of standard draft.

POST ROADS.

We favor national aid to State and local authorities in the construction and maintenance of post roads.

RIGHTS OF LABOR.

We repeat our declarations of the platform of 1908, as follows:

"The courts of justice are the bulwark of our liberties, and we yield to none in our purpose to maintain their dignity. Our party has given to the bench a long line of distinguished justices, who have added to the respect and confidence in which this department must be jealously maintained. We resent the attempt of the Republican Party to raise a false issue respecting the judiciary. It is an unjust reflection upon a great body of our citizens to assume that they lack respect for the courts.

"It is the function of the courts to interpret the laws which the people enact, and if the laws appear to work economic, social, or political injustice, it is our duty to change them. The only basis upon which the integrity of our courts can stand is that of unswerving justice and protection of life, personal liberty, and property. As judicial processes may be abused, we should guard them against abuse.

"Experience has proved the necessity of a modification of the law relating to injunction,

and we reiterate the pledges of our platforms of 1896 and 1904 in favor of a measure which passed the United States Senate in 1896, relating to contempt in Federal courts, and providing for trial by jury in cases of indirect contempt.

"Questions of judicial practice have arisen, especially in connection with industrial disputes. We believe that the parties to all judicial proceedings should be treated with rigid impartiality, and that injunctions should not be issued in any case in which an injunction would not issue if no industrial disputes were involved.

"The expanding organization of industry makes it essential that there should be no abridgement of the right of the wage earners and producers to organize for the protection of wages and the improvement of labor conditions, to the end that such labor organizations, and their members, should not be regarded as illegal combinations in restraint of trade.

"We pledge the Democratic Party to the enactment of a law creating a department of labor, represented separately in the President's Cabinet, in which department shall be included the subject of mines and mining."

We pledge the Democratic Party, so far as the Federal jurisdiction extends, to an employees' compensation law providing adequate indemnity for injury to body or loss of life.

CONSERVATION.

We believe in the conservation and the development, for the use of all the people, of the natural resources of the country. Our forests, our sources of water supply, our arable and our mineral lands, our navigable streams, and all the other material resources with which our country has been so lavishly endowed, constitute the foundation of our national wealth. Such additional legislation as may be necessary to prevent their being wasted or absorbed by special or privileged interests should be enacted and the policy of their conservation should be rigidly adhered to.

The public domain should be administered and disposed of with due regard to the general welfare. Reservations should be limited to the purposes which they purport to serve and not extended to include land wholly unsuited therefor. The unnecessary withdrawal from sale and settlement of enormous tracts of public

land, upon which tree growth never existed and can not be promoted, tends only to retard development, create discontent, and bring reproach upon the policy of conservation.

The public-land faws should be administered in a spirit of the broadest liberality toward the settler exhibiting a bona fide purpose to comply therewith, to the end that the invitation of this Government to the landless should be as attractive as possible; and the plain provisions of the forest-reserve act permitting homestead entries to be made within the national forest should not be nullified by administrative regulations which amount to a withdrawal of great areas of the same from settlement.

Immediate action should be taken by Congress to make available the vast and valuable coal deposits of Alaska under conditions that will be a perfect guaranty against their falling into the hands of monopolizing corporations, associations, or interests.

We rejoice in the inheritance of mineral resources unequaled in extent, variety, or value, and in the development of a mining industry unequaled in its magnitude and importance. We honor the men who, in their hazardous toil underground, daily risk their lives in extracting and preparing for our use the products of the mine, so essential to the industries, the commerce, and the comfort of the people of this country. And we pledge ourselves to the extension of the work of the Bureau of Mines in every way appropriate for national legislation with a view of safeguarding the lives of miners, lessening the waste of essential resources, and promoting the economic development of mining, which, along with agriculture, must in the future, even more than in the past, serve as the very foundation of our national prosperity and welfare, and our international commerce.

We believe in encouraging the development of a modern system of agriculture and a syste matic effort to improve the conditions of trade in farm products so as to benefit both the consumers and producers. And as an efficient means to this end we favor the enactment by Congress of legislation that will suppress the pernicious practice of gambling in agricultural products by organized exchanges or others.