porations, 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 accomplished in a manner consistent with sound public policy. Trusts, the overshadowing evil of the age, are the result and culmination of the private ownership and control of the three great instruments of commerce-money, transportation and the means of transmission of information-which instruments 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 further 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 referendum. A majority of the people can never be corruptly 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 ail the precedents of our national life— at war with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the plain precepts of humanity. FREEDOM FOR FILIPINOS. 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 extermination by the assurance to the Filipinos of independence and protection under a stable government of their own creation. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the American flag are one and inseparable. The Island of Porto Rico is a part of the territory of the United States, and by levying special and extraordinary customs duties on the commerce of that island the administration has violated the Constitution, abandoned the fundamental principles of American liberty, and has striven to give the lie to the contention of our forefathers that there should be no taxation without representation. Out of the imperialism which would force an undesired domination on the people of the Philippines springs the un-American cry for a large standing army. Nothing in the character or purposes of our people justifies us in ignoring the plain lesson of history and putting our liberties in jeopardy by assuming the burden of militarism, which is crushing the people of the old world. We denounce the administration for its sinister efforts to substitute a standing army for the citizen soldiery, which is the best safe-guard of the republic. We extend to the brave Boers of South Africa our sympathy and moral support in their patriotic struggle for the right of self-govern ment, and we are unalterably opposed to any alliance, open or covert, between the United States and any other nation that will tend to the destruction of human liberty.. And a further manifestation of imperialism is to be found in the mining districts of Idaho. In the Coeur d'Alene soldiers have been used to overawe miners striving for a greater measure of industrial independence. And we denounce the state government of Idaho and the federal government for employing the military arm of the government to abridge the civil rights of the people, and to enforce an infamous permit system which denies to laborers their inherent liberty and compels them to forswear their manhood and their right before being permitted to seek employment. BAN ON CONTRACT LABOR. The importation of Japanese and other laborers under contract to serve monopolistic corporations is a notorious and flagrant violation of immigration laws. We demand that the federal government shall take cognizance of this menacing evil and repress it under existing laws. We further pledge ourselves to strive for the enactment of more stringent laws for the exclusion of the Mongolian and Malayan immigration. We endorse municipal ownership of public utilities and declare that the advantages which have accrued to the public under that system would be multiplied a hundred fold by its extension to natural interstate monopolies. We denounce the practice of issuing injunctions in the cases of dispute between employers and employes, making criminal acts by organizations which are not criminal when performed by individuals, and demand legislation to restrain the evil. We demand that United States senators and all other officials as far as practicable be elected by direct vote of the people. Believing that the elective franchise and untrammeled ballot are essential to a government of, for and by the people, the People's Party condemns the wholesale system of disfranchisement by coercion and intimidation adopted in some states as un-Republican and un-Democratic. And we declare it to be the duty of the several state legislatures to take such action as will secure a full, free and fair ballot, and an honest count. We favor home rule in the territories and the District of Columbia, and the early admission of the territories as states. We denounce the expensive red tape system, political favoritism, cruel and unnecessary delay and criminal evasion of the statutes in management of the pension office, and demand the simple and honest execu tion of the law, and the fulfillment by the nation of its pledges of service pension to all its honorably discharged veterans. MID-ROAD POPULIST OR PEOPLES PARTY PLATFORM. [ADOPTED IN CONVENTION AT CINCINNATI, OHIO, MAY 10, 1900.] The People's Party of the United States, assembled in national convention this 10th of May, 1900, affirming our unshaken belief in the cardinal tenets of the People's Party as set forth in the Omaha platform, and pledging ourselves anew to continued advocacy of those grand principles of human liberty until right shall triumph over might and love over greed, do adopt and proclaim this declaration of faith: I. We demand the initiative and referendum and the imperative mandate for such changes of existing fundamental and statute law as will enable the people in their sovereign capacity to propose and compel the enactment of such laws as they desire, to reject such as they deem injurious to their interests and to recall unfaithful public ser vants. We demand the public ownership and operation of those means of communication, transportation and production which the people may elect, such as railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, coal mines, etc. 3. The land, including all natural sources of wealth, is a 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. 4. A scientific and absolute paper money, based upon the entire wealth and population of the nation, not redeemable in any specific commodity, but made a full legal tender for all debts and receivable for all taxes and public dues, and issued by the government only without the intervention of banks and in sufficient quantity to meet the demands of commerce, is the best currency that can be devised, but until such a financial system is secured, which we shall press for adoption, we favor the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the legal ratio of 16 to1. 5. We demand the levy and collection of a graduated tax on incomes and inheritances and a constitutional amendment to secure the same if necessary. 6. We demand the election of President, Vice-President, Federal judges and United States senators by direct vote of the people. 7. We are opposed to trusts, and declare the contention between the old parties on the monopoly question is a sham battle, and that no solution of this mighty problem is possible without the adoption of the principles of public ownership of public utilities. STATISTICAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE. To the General Assembly: OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, COLUMBUS, OHIO, December 1, 1900.. In accordance with the requirements of law, I herewith submit my annual report for the year ending November 15, 1900. Very respectfully, CHARLES KINNEY, Secretary of State. 12 S S (177) |