We believe that the powers of government-in other words, of the people should be expanded (as in the case of the postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify to the end that oppression, injustice and poverty shail eventually cease in the land.

While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelligent, virtuous, and temperate we nevertheless regard these questions-important as they are as secondary to the great issues now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individual prosperity, but the very existence of free institutions depend, and we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are to have a Republic to administer, before we differ as to the conditions upon which it is to be administered, believing that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country.

We declare, therefore,

Platform.

1. That the union of the labor forces of the United States this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual; may its spirits enter into all hearts for the salvation of the Republic and the uplifting of mankind.

2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. "If any will not work neither shall he eat." The interests of rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS.

3. We believe that the time has come when the railroad corporations will either own the people or the people must own the railroads, and should the Government enter upon the work of owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amendment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the Government service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of the power of the National administration by the use of such additional Government employes.

FINANCE.

We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the general Government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable and efficient means of distribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed two per cent. per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.

We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present ratio of sixteen to one.

We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita.

We demand a graduated income tax.

We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all State and national issues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the Government, economically and honestly administered.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

We demand that postal savings banks be established by the Government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange.

Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people.

The telegraph, telephone, like the post-office system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the interest of the people.

LAND LAWS.

The land, including all the natural sources of wealth is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be

prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs and all lands now owned by aliens should be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only..

Resolutions of Sentiment Adopted.

Resolved, 1. That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections, and pledge' ourselves to secure it to every legal voter without Federal intervention through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian secret ballot system.

INCOME TAX.

Resolved, 2. That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation now levied upon the domestic industries of this country.

Resolved, 3. That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pensions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.

Resolved, 4. That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world and crowds out our wage-earners, and we denounce the present ineffective law against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable emigration.

EIGHT-HOUR LAW.

Resolved, 5. That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand a rigid enforcement of the existing eight-hour law on Government work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law.

Resolved, 6. That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition, and we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by Federal officers.

Resolved, 7. That we commend to the favorable consideration of the people and the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.

Resolved, 8. That we favor a constitutional provision limiting the office of President and Vice-President to one term, and providing for the election of the Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people.

Resolved, 9. That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose.

1896

REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their representatives in national convention, appealing for the popular and historical justification of their claims to the matchless achievements of the thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience, and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration of facts and principles:

DEMOCRATIC DISASTER.

For the first time since the civil war the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Democratic control of the Government. It has been a record of unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster. In administrative management it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results of successful Republican rule.

In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted enterprise, and crippled American production while stimulating foreign production for the American market. Every consideration for public safety and individual interest demands that the Government shall be rescued from the hands of those who have shown themselves incapable to conduct it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it with unequaled success