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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1908)
ft. Rfr',..avg ffllJ.'ilW 'JrUflfW rJlf.i, i))JlfMl!jp!'m4$ hi 1 . r The Commoner. YOLTJHO'.'S, "NUMBER t ' DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM republican candidate for the presidency, raised over a quarter of a million of dollars to bo used in a single state during the closing hours of the last campaign. In order that this practice shall he stopped for all time, we demand the passage of a statute punishing with imprisonment any officer of a corporation who shall either contribute on behalf of, or consent to the contribution by a corporation of any money or thing of valuo to be used in furthering the election of a president or vice president of the United States or of any member of the congress thereof. ,,. , We denounce the action of the republican party having com plete control of the federal government, for its failure to pass the bill, introduced in the last congress, to compel the publication of the names of contributors and the amounts contributed toward cam paign funds and point to the evidence of their insincerity, when they sought by an absolutely irrelevant and impossible amendment to defeat the passage of the bill. As a further evidence of their in tention to conduct their campaign in the coming contest with vast sums of money wrested from favor-seeking corporations, we call attention to the fact that the recent republican national convention at Chicago refused, when the issue was presented to it, to declare against such practices. We pledge the democratic party to the enactment of a law pro hibiting any corporation from contributing to a campaign fund and any individual from contributing an amount above a reasonable minimum and providing for the publication before election of all such contributions above a reasonable minimum. REPUBLICAN PLATFORM tS)i, t. :'' V Rights of States b, DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM Believing with Jefferson, in "The support of the state govern ments in all their rights as the most competent administration for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies ; and in the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional rigor as the sheet anchor of pur peace at home and the safety abroad," we are opposed to the centralization implied in theFe suggestions, now frequently made, that the power of the general government should be extended by judicial construc tion. There is no twilight zone between the nation and the, state by which exploiting interests can take refuge from both; and it is necessary the federal government shall exercise the powers del- gated to it, that the state governments shall use the authority re served to them, but we insist that federal remedies for the regula tion of interstate commerce and for the prevention of private mon opoly shall be added to, not substituted for, state remedies. : Tariff DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM We welcome the belated promise of tariff reform now offered ty the republican party in tardy recognition of the righteousness of the democratic position on this question; but the people can not safely entrust the execution of this important work to a party which is so deeply obligated to the highly protected interests as is the republican party. We call attention to the significant fact that the promised relief was postponed until after the coming election an election to succeed in which the republican party must have the same support from the beneficiaries of the high protective tariff as it has always heretofore received from them; and to the further faot that during years of uninterrupted power, no action whatever has been taken by the republican congress to correct the admitted ly existing tariff iniquities. We favor immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duties. Articles entering into competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list and material reductions should be made in the tariff upon the necessities of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufac tures as are sold abroad more cheaply than at home ; and graduate reductions should be made m such other schedules as may be neces sary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis. Existing duties have given the manufacturers of paper a shelter behind which they have organized combinations to raise the price of pulp and paper, thus imposing a tax upon the spread of knowledge. We demand the i immediate repeal of the tariff on wood puip; print paper, lumber, timber and logs, and that these articles be dWVf'l lM'U .' ' , t '- V ' .-. . - 4 ' . . '"''in ';. "-r 'C !. . - ... ' -. . ' , ... 7. .yar jpcvffi5 w' l. " . ;.- J. ,-.-.. - y .Mi.JK&'BiaBSW?- 5$ ;,-:- .' REPUBLICAN PLATFORM; alm-. y lv ; fiSPKiHW,? t l -l .-'" X" :. i.' . f- vsfrmrWiiiESHBBiGiB (. I a- - ....-.. --, --'.- l I III IIM IB 1 1 1 I I I i'V-ci ;- ,v j;; i i 'v.' i rjJSdSSHfflHte' '.. ' I ' r"- '. jH.")i .Hj pjflii v i1. i Hgri: L$u&v-f&i. ?. i i :: ,.; iU-j.v ;VJ- , iilffi'. '.''. ; ;. iitf.i 1 &-. v. .' sj-n- ' .r ?-.' ;-j ' :?. .s. ify- r re' REPUBLICAN PLATFORM The republican party declares unequivocally for a revision of the tariff by a special session of congress immediately following the inauguration of the next president and commends the steps al ready taken to this end in the work assigned to the appropriate committees of congress which are now investigating the operation and effect of existing schedules. In all tariff legislation the true principle of protection is best maintained by the imposition of such duties as will equal the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad, together with a reasonable profit to American industries. We favor the establishment of maximum and minimum tates to be administered by the president under limitations fixed in the law, the maximum to be available to meet discriminations by foreign countries against American goods entering their markets and the minimum to represent the normal measure of protection at home: the aim and purpose of the republican policy being not only to preserve, without excessive duties, that security against foreign com petition to which American manufacturers, farmers and producers are entitled, but also to maintain the high standard of living of the wage earners of this country, who are the most direct beneficiaries ox the protective system. n frewethe Ullited Siates and the Philippines we believe in n ni,0 erchan?S Priduct3 with such limitations as to sugar and tobacco as will afford adequate protection to domestic interests. v. (' .'V fc" :ik H piacea upon tne tree list. i