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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1908)
"V-T UrflfwrHV JULY 17, 1908 The Commoner. DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 23,784 were added, costing $16,156,000, and in the past six years of the republican administration the total number of new offices creat ed, aside from many commissions, has been 99,319, entailing an addi tional expenditure of nearly $70,000,000, as against 10,279 new offices created under the Cleveland and McKinley administrations, which involved an expenditure of only $6,000,000. We denounce this growing increase in the number of officeholders as not only unneces sary and wasteful, but also as clearly indicating a deliberate pur pose on the part of the administration to keep the republican party in power at public expense by thus increasing the number of its retainers and dependents. Such procedure we declare to be no less dangerous and corrupt than the open purchase of votes at the polls. . REPUBLICAN PLATFORM ? "' .' t, v Economy in Administration DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM REPUBLICAN PLATFORM The republican congress, in the session just ended, has made appropriations amounting to $1,008,000,000, exceeding the total expenditures of the past fiscal year by $90,000,000, and leaving a deficit of more than $60,000,000 for the fiscal year. We denounce the heedless waste of the people's money which has resulted in this appalling increase as a shameful violation of all prudent con ditions of government, and as no less than a crime against the mil lions of working women and men from whose earnings the great proportion of these colossal sums must be extorted through exces sive tariff exactions and other indirect methods It is not surprising that in the face of this shocking record the republican platform contains no reference to economical administration or promise thereof in the future. We demand that a stop be put to this fright ful extravagance and insist upon the strictest economy in every department compatible with frugal and efficient administration. ". . T W4& ..tf.TV- JK'W v a Arbitrary Power of Speaker DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM The house of representatives was designed by the fathers of the constitution to be the popular branch of our government, respon sive to the public will. The house of representatives, as controlled in recent years by the republican party, has ceased to be a deliberate and legislative body, responsive to the will of a majority of its members, but has come under the absolute domination of the speaker, who has entire control of its deliberations, and powers of legislation. We have observed with amazement the popular branch of our federal government helpless to obtain either the consideration or enactment of measures desired by a majority of its members. . Legislative government becomes a failure when one member, in the person of the speaker, is more powerful than the entire body. We demand that the house of representatives shall again be come a deliberate body, controlled by a majority of the peoples' representatives and not by the speaker, and we pledge ourselves to adopt .such rules and regulations of its members to direct its delib erations and control legislation. REPUBLICAN PLATFORM .& ' r y j." -jht '-iX. .'S - ,J".3 ' tg : A ,' X V' C -v DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM Misuse of Patronage REPUBLICAN PLATFORM We condemn, as a violation of the spirit of our institutions, the action of the present chief executive in using the patronage of his high office to secure the nomination of one of his cabinet officers. A forced succession in the presidency is scarce less repugnant to public sentiment than is life tenure in that office. No good inten tion on the part of the executive, and no virtue in the one selected, nan incsHf-o- t.lifi establishment of a dvnastv. The right of the ueoDle to freely select their officials is inalienable and can not be delegated. DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM sWe demand federal legislation terminating the partnership which has existed between corporations- of the country and the re publican party under the expressed or implied agreement that in return for the contribution of great sums of money wherewith to purchase elections, they should be allowed to continue substantially ""unmolested in their efforts to encroach upon the rights of the people. Any reasonable doubt as to the existence of this relation has been forever dispelled by the sworn testimony of witnesses exam ined in the insurance investigation in New York, and the open ad missionunchallenged by the republican national committee of & single individual, that he himself, at-the personal request of the Publicity of Campaign Contributions REPUBLICAN PLATFORM ' L tt,',t. i " ,' "" ' " -' t , f- ;-f V, 4 ' ifci . --jA.yf(aji'VJYjMrf(i .AiJU; Ptt-aflg-g c --riZS HJuJ