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The Commoner
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 2
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The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
WlMJAM J. UnYAN
Editor and proprietor.
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THE COMMONER, L'ncoln, Neb.
give tp the fifteen million depositors of the
country protection to their savings.
We "believe that insofar as tho needs of
commerce require an emergency currency, such
currency should bo issued, controlled by the fed
eral government and loaned on adequate se
curity to national and state banks. Wo pledge
ourselves to legislation by which the national
banks shall be required to establish a guarcntee
fund for the prompt payment of the depositors
of any insolvent bank, under an equitable sys
tem which shall bo available to all state bank
ing institutions wishing to use it.
We favor a postal savings bank if the guar
antee bank can not be secured and that to be
constituted so as to keep the deposited money
in the communities where it is established. But
we condemn the policy of the republican party
in proposing postal savings banks under a plan
of conduct by -which they will seggregate tho de-
posits of rural communities and redeposit the
"same while under government charge in the
banks of Wall Street, thus depleting the cir
culating medium of the producing regions and
unjustly favoring the speculative markets.
OFFICEHOLDERS
Coincident with the enormous increase in
expenditures is a like addition to tho number
of officeholders. During the past year 23,784
wore added, costing $16,156,000 and in the past
Bix years of the republican administration the
total number of offices created aside from many
commissions has been 99,318, entailing addi
tional expenditure of nearly $70,000,000 as
against only 10,279 new offices created under
the Cleveland and McKinley administrations,
which involved an expenditure of only six mil
lion dollars. We denounce this great and grow
ing increase in the number of officeholders as
not only unnecessary and wasteful, but also as
clearly indicating a deliberate purpose on the
part of tho administration to keep the republi
can party in power at public expense by thus
increasing the number of its retainers and de
pendents. Such procedure we declare to be
no less dangerous and corrupt than the, open
purchase of votes at the polls.
MISUSE OF PATRONAGE
We condemn as a violation of tho spirit of
our institutions, the action of tho 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 scarcely less repugnant to public
sentiment than is life tenure In tlmf mn xt.
good intention on the part of ,thr aymuiHva ,i
t ) rlrtuo In tho ono selected can justify tho
establishment of a dynasty.
Tho right of tho people to freely select their
officials Is Inalienable and can not be delegated.
PHILIPPINES
Wo condemn the oxperimor!; in imperialism
as an Inexcusable blunder which has involved
us in an enormous expense, brought us 'weak
ness instead of strength, and laid our nation
open to the charge of abandoning a freedom
doctrine of self-government. Wo favor an im
mediate declaration of the nation's purpose to
recognize tho independence of the Philippine
islands as soon as a stable government, can be
established, such independence to be guaranteed
by us as wo guarantee the independence of Cuba
under tho neutralization of the islands can be
secured by treaty with other powers. In recog
nizing tho importance of the Philippines our
government should retain such land as may be
necessary for coaling stations and naval bases.
INCOME TAX
Wo favor an income tax as part of our
revenue system and -we urge the submission of
a constitutional amendment specifically author
izing congress to levy and collect a tax upon
Individual and corporate incomes t the end that
wealth may bear its proportionate share of the
burdens of the federal government.
CIVIL SERVICE
Law pertaining to the civil ssrvice should
be honestly and rigidly enforced to the end that
merit and ability should be the standard of ap
pointment and promotion rather than services
rendered to tho political party.
THE NAVY
The constitutional provision that a navy
shall bo provided and maintained means an ad
equate navy, and we believe that the interests
of this country would best be served by having
a navy sufficient to defend the coasts of this
country and protect American citizens wherever
their rights may be in jeopardy."
ASIATIC IMMIGRATION
We favor full protection by both national
and state governments within their respective
spheres, of all foreigners residing in the United
States under treaty, but we are ojpposed to. the
admission of Asiatic immigrants who can not
be amalgamated with our people or whose pres
ence among us. would raise a race issue and in
volve us in diplomatic controversies with orien
tal powers.
WATERWAYS
Water furnishes the cheapest means of
transportation and the national government hav
ing control of navigable waters should improve
them to their fullest capacity. We earnestly
favor the immediate adoption of a liberal and
comprehensive plan for improving every water
course in the United States -which is justified
by the needs of commerce and to secure that
end we favor, when practicable, the connection
of the Great Lakes with the navigable rivers
and with the Gulf through the Mississippi river
and the navigable rivers with each other and
the rivers, bays and sounds of the coast with
each other by artificial canals, with a view to
perfecting a system of Inland waterways to bo
navigated by vessels of standard draught.
We favor the co-ordination of tho various
services of the government connected with water
ways in one service for the purpose of aiding in
the completion of such a system of inland wa
terways; and we favor the creation of a fund
ample for continuous work, which shall be con
ducted under the direction of a commission of
experts to be authorized by law.
PAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS
The democratic party recognizes the impor
tance and advantage of developing close ties of
Pan-Americanshlp and commerce between the
United States and her sister nations of Latin
America and favors tho taking of such stens
consistent with democratic policies for better
acquaintance for greater mutual confidence in
trade as will bring lasting benefit not only to
the United States but to this group of American
republics having constitutional forms of cevern
ment, ambitions and interests akin to our own.
PROTECTION OF AMERICAN CITIZENS
We pledge ourselves to insist upon the iust
and lawful protection of our citizens at home
and abroad and to use all proper methods to
secure for them whether native born or natural-,
lzed and without distinction, ,of race9or qreed
tho equal protection of law and the enjoyment
of all rights and privileges open to them under
our treaty; and if, under existing treaties tho
right of travel and sojourn is denied to Ameri
can citizens is withheld from American passports
by any country on the ground of race or creed
-we favor prompt negotiations with the govern
ments of such countries to secure the removal
of these unjust discriminations.
We demand that all over the world a duly
authenticated passport issued by the govern
ment of the United States to an American citizen
shall be proof of the fact that he is an American
citizen and .shall entitle him to the treatment
duo him as such.
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
We pledge the democratic party to the en
actment of a law to regulate the rated and
services of telegraph and telephone companies
engaged in the transmision of messages ' be
tween the states under the jurisdiction of the
interstate commerce commission.
GRAZING LANDS
The establishment of laws and regulations,
if any are necessary to free grazing on public
lands outside of forest or other reservations un
til the same shall eventualy be disposed of
should be left to the people of the state respec
tively in which such lands may be situated.
ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO
The national democratic party has for the
last sixteen years labored for the admission
of New Mexico and Arizona, and recognizing that
each possesses every qualification, we favor the
admission of these teritories as separate states.
ALASKA AND PORTO RICO
Wo demand for the people of Alaska and
Porto Rico all enjoyment of the rights and privi
leges of a territorial form cf government and
the officials appointed to administer the gov
ernment of all our teritories and District of Co
lombia should be thoroughly qualified by pre
vious hntin flrlo .!-, J x
csum.uutj. ,M ,4., i
1H
OKLAHOMA
P
We welcome Oklahoma to the sisterhood.'of
states and congratulate her upon thq .auspicious
beginning of a great career. . : K
HAWAII
. ,We, ,favor the application of princirs -of
the land laws of the United States to our 'newly
acquired territory to the end that tho land"
Si SJ territory may be held and utilized for the
benefit of bona fide homesteaders. l
POPULAR ELECTION OP SENATORS
n.0e faYor hQ election of United States sen
ators by direct vote of the people and regard
Reforms m &S Ule gateway to othev national
MERCHANT MARINE
rwewi?H1,eye in thG American merchant
maiine without new or additional burdens upon
the people and without bounties from the pub
lic treasury. L
HEALTH BUREAU
We advocate the organization of all exist
ing national public health agencies into a na
tional bureau of public health which shall have
power over sanitary conditions connected with
factories, mines, tenements, child labor, and such
other subjects as are properly within the juris
diction of the federal government and do not
nnhnlfnn11 the P?wer of the states controjing
public health agencies.
NATIONAL RESOURCES
We repeat the demand for inte.nal develop
ment, and for the conservation of our natural
resources, contained in previous platforms, the '
enforcement of which Mr. Roosevelt has vainly
soirght from a reluctant party; and to that end
we insist upon tho preservation, protection and
replacement of needed forests, the preservation
of the public domain for homeseekers, the pro
tection of the natural resources, in timber, coal,
iron and oil, against monopolistic control, tho
development of our waterways for navigation
and every other useful purpose, including tho
irrigation of arid lands, the reclamation of
swamp lands, the clarification of streams, the
development of water power, and the preserva
JISJL ? Glctricity generated by this natural
mi fl ,1 S control1 of monopoly, and to such
end we urge the exercise of all powers, national,
state and municipal, both separately and in co
operation: . ltkIw. .. r
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