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The Commoner.
The Ohio Platform.
The platform adopted by the Ohio Demo-"
cratic state convention for 1001 is as follows:
The democrats of Ohio reaffirm their belief in
the equality of taxation and other public burdens;
their advocacy of the equal rights of all people,
"With special privileges to none; their hostility to
the monopolization of industry, with its tendency
on the one hand to crush out individual enterprise
and on the other to promote a socialistic spirit
among the people as the only refuge from oppres
sion, and their faith in that theory and practice of
constitutional government which brought the na
tion into existence and have preserved it to the
present generation.
For the promotion of those objects the demo
cratic party of Ohio makes the following declara
tion of principles and policies:
The government of municipalities of the state
should be radically reformed and wise general
laws bo enacted to correct abuses and prevent
their recurrence.
Inefficient, expensive, unbusinesslike, partisan
and corrupt, the system which has prevailed has
encouraged the interference of the state with the
government of the cities and the denial of home
rule; has fostered special legislation and the im
position of burdensome debts and taxes without
the sanction of the people, and has brought about
the corrupt employment of party leaders to secure
valuable franchises without adequate compensa
tion therefor, and to protect the owners of such
franchises from, just public demands.
For the existence and continuance of those
conditions the republican party Is responsible.
Though controlling the last general assembly and
the state administration, it defeated the "revised
municipal code" prepared by a non-partisan com
mittee and calculated to produce real and lasting
reforms.
The democratic party therefore calls upon the
people to unite with it In placing the conduct of.
municipal affairs upon a business basis, that they
may be administered by the people in the interest
of all the people on the principle of home rule.
No franchise, extension or renewal thereof ever
to be granted by any city or villago without first
submitting the same to a vote of the people.
The acceptance of free passes or other favors
from railroads by public officers or employes shall
be made adequate ground for vacating the of
fices held by them.
All public service corporations shall be re
quired by law to make sworn public reports ,and
the power and duty of visitation and public report
shall be conferred upon the proper state and local
auditing officers to the end that the true value of
the privileges held by these corporations shall be
made plain to the people.
Steam and electric railroads and other corpora
tions possessing public franchises shall be as
sessecTin the same proportion to their salable value
as are farms and city real estate.
The proceedings of the republican majority of
the state board of equalization are a scandal
Property values instead of being equalized were
increased or diminished at the dictation of political
bosses pursuant to corrupt combinations and con-
spiracles. r ,
The republican majority of the general as
sembly deserve the condemnation of the people
for its reckless extravagance and its creation of
useless offices, while it enacted no legislation for
the benefit of the people. The present republican
administration in the conduct of public affairs -and
in the management of public institutions has been
the most costly in the history of the state. Its
benevolent and penal institutions should be con
ducted upon a non-partisan and business basis.
The reserved rights of the states and people to
bo upheld. Centralization, which would destroy
them, to be condemned. A strict construction of
the constitution. The greatest individual liberty
consistent with public order and welfare.
Tariff reform, never more urgently demanded
than now, when tho production of tho country so
iar exceeds its power of consumption, that for
eign markets are a. prime condition of its con
tinued prosperity and when tho existence and
abuses of trusts have been brought about by tho
policy of protection of favored Industries. Tho
abolition of the so-called protective system and
the substitution in its placo of the traditional
democratic policy of a tariff for revenue so levied
as not to. burden ono industry for the benefit of
another.
The enactment and vigorous enforcement of
measures which shall prevent all monopolies and
combinations in restraint of trade and commerce
the matter of first importance being to prevent
the use of the government as an instrumentality
for tho creation and increase of the wealth of tho
few, while preserving intact tho right of private
property and the fullest measure of individual lib
erty of contract and assuring to every man the just
reward of superior industry and skill. We de
mand the suppression of all trusts and a return
to , industrial freedom. As a means to that end
all' trust products should be placed on the free
list and the government should exercise a more
rigid supervision of transportation lines and
abolish, in fact, all discrimination in rates.
Our merchant marine to bo restored to its
former greatness and made the ally of the pooplo
against monopoly by the repeal-of antiquated and
restricted navigation laws. But no subsidies-for
favored shipowners. ' " .
The powers granted the federal government
were not meant to bo used to conquer or hold in
subjection the people of other countries. Their
use for uch purposes not only belies our declara
tion of tho rights of man, but also unbalances 'our
system by increasing the centralization of power at
"Washington to tho ultimate overthrow of homo
rule.
The democratic party has never favored and
now opposes any extension of tho national boun
daries not meant to carry speedily to all in
habitants full equal rights with ourselves. If these
are unfitted by location, race or character to bo
formed into self-governing territories and then in
corporated into the union of states in accordance
with the historic policy of the republic they should
be permitted to work "but their own destiny.
Only territorial expansion demanded by tho na
tional welfare and the national safety to be at
any time favored- the objection which should have
prevented certain of our recent accessions being
that they Imperil tho national safety without pro
moting the national welfare; that they devolve
upon us enormous responsibilities we have no call
to assume; that they are certain to be unre
munerative drain upon our resources; that they
tend to embroil us with European powers; that
they weaken our claim to supremacy on the
American continent, at the same time that they
lessen our ability to make the claim good; and
that they furnish a dangerous opportunity and
temptation for the disregard of "the self-evident
truth of universal application that governments
derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed."
The obvious sympathy of the national adminis
tration with the British government in its efforts
to destroy the South African republics and the
policy which has made the ports of the United
States a basis of supply for the British army,
without which the war could not be successfully
carried on, are condemned by the democracy of
Ohio.
The Maintenance of the M'onroe doctrine as
heretofore interpreted and asserted by the national
government.
A navy commensurate with the international
importance of the United Sttes and its primacy in
the western hemisphere and adequate to the pro
tection of tho lives and property of American citi
zens tho world over,.
Tho faithful observance and wider application .
of civil servico principles, especially as regards our
diplomatic and consular representatives.
A constitutional amendment requiring the elec
tion of United States senators by the direct vote of
tho people. Hereafter until this Is passed when
ever a senator is to bo elected it shall be the duty
of the state committee to give notice in its 'call
that tbo nomination of a senator will be made at
the state convention.
No question or the right of labor to.combino
for tho assertion of Its rights and the protection of
its Interests. The burdens of tho unjust and dis
criminating laws for which tho republican party in
responsible fall chiefly on those who till the soil or
labor at othor forms of production. "All those con
stitute a large majority of our citizens; they have
never sent lobbyists to tho halls of federal or state
leg' Matures nor founded monopolies nor demanded
special privileges. They have patiently endured
the operation of these laws which keep from them
and give to others their just share of the national
wealth. Tho democratic party pledges 'its efforts
to relievo them of the burdens which class legisla
tion has laid on them.
That the republican party has always upheld
class interests and is justly chargeable with hostil
ity in both belief and practice to the above prin
ciples Is common knowledge. It cannot be trusted
to deal with evils of its own creation. Tho arro
gant assumption by that party of all credit for
everything and the threats of those who speak for
ifc and its favored interests, already too poworful
to create artificial conditions of stringency and
distress, unless the policies they advocate are sup
ported at the polls, deserve the condemnation of a
pc jple who are just and propose to remain free.
Inspired by the examples of the long lino of its
statesmen, who have applied these principles from
tho days of Thomas Jefferson to tho present time,
the democratic party pledges itself anew to their
cupport, and earnestly appeals to all patriotic men
without iegard to party names or past differences,
to unite with it on terms of perfect equality in tho
struggle to rescue our government from the grasp
of selfishness and corruption and restore it to Its
former fairness, purity and simplicity.
Ono great danger which now threatens our freo
institutions is tho widespread corruption which
menaces tho destruction of public virtue. Vast
sums of money are corruptly employed in popular
elections; official defalcations are so frequent aa
scarcely to excite attention, and political bosses
rule and rob tho people, all of which is a direct re
sult of republican policies and legislation.
We demand that all official misconduct and
corruption be vigorously punished, that public vir
tue be upheld and the want of it denounced.
' The July Disbursement.
Chicago Tribune: Commencing next week tho
July disbursements, the largest in the history of
the country, will be made. These Include pay
ments by tho government on interest account and
pension payments; dividends, new or Increased, or
unchanged, and many incidental disbursements.
While It Is not possible to determine the figures ac
curately it is the best opinion that they will ap
proximate between $125,000,000 and $150,000,000.
The greater part of this money will remain in
New York City. According to the Daily Stockhold
er's figures the payment to be made, including
railway and manufacturing companies' Interest
becomes due in July, on bonds having a par value
of $3,491,062,457, calling for the payment of $69r
333,439, against $60,949,326 last year, $63,307,137 in
1S99, $56,892,623 in 1898, and $65,061,998 in 1897.
Dividends are to be paid on railway and manufac
turing stocks having a par valuo of $2,441,818,886,
calling for the disbursement of $33,816,044, against
$38,621,252 a year ago, $33,017,578 in 1899, $27,930,
158 in 1898; and $23,060,805 in 1897. The most not
able addition to the dividend list is the United
States Steel corporation. The government dis
burses in July for interest approximately $4,500,
000 and for pension payments $13,000,000, of which
about $4,000,000 will be required to meet checks
of agents during tho first week of the month.
Hence, according to the Stockholder's figures, there
are combined Interest and dividend disbursements
of $123,149,483, against $105,570,578- last year, $94,
324,703 in 1899, $84,822,781 in 1898, and $72,122,903
in 1897.
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