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THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER : JULY 28, 1896. 3 THE PEOLE'S PARTY PLATFORM. Declaration of Principles Adopted by the St. Louis Convention. -St. Louis, Mo , July 21 Following is the Populist platform as adopted: The People's party assembled in National Convention, reaffirms its al legiance to the principles declared by the founders of the Republic and also the fundamental principles of just government as enunciated in the plat form of the party in 1S92. Wo recog nize that through the connivance of the present and proceeding administra tions, the country has reached a crisis in its National life es predicted in our declaration four years ago, and that prompt and -patriotic action is the su preme duty of the hour. We realfzs that while we have political indepen dence cur flaancial and industrial in dependence is yet to b3 attained by re storing to our country the constitu tional control and exercise of the func tions necessary to a people's govern rnent, which functions have been baeely surrendered by our public servants to corporate monopolies. Tne influence of European money changers has been more potent in shaping legislation than the voice of the American people. Ex ecutive power and patronage have been used to corrupt our legislatures to de feat the will of the people, and plutoc r;icy has bieu enthroned upon the ruins of the democracy. To restore the government intended by the fath ers for the welfare and prcsperity of thi3 and future generations, wo demand the establishment of an economic and linaneial system which shall make us masters of cur own affairs, and inde pendent of European control by the adoption of the following: DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES (1) We dtmand a National money, safe and sound issued by the general government only without the inter vention of banks of issue, to be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, so that a jast equitable and efficient means of distribution may be made directly to the people and through the lawful disbursement of the government. 2) We demand the free and unre ttric:ed coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 with out waiting for the consent of foreign na'ions. (3) We demand the volume of circu lating medium be speedily increased to an amount sufficient to meet the de mands of the business people of this country and to restore the just level of prices of labor and production. (4) We denounce the sale of bonds and tl:e i-acrease of the public interest bearing bond debt made by the prcs ent administration as unnecessary and without authority of law, and that no more bonds be issued except by specific act of Congress. i')) We demand euch legal legisla tiou as will prevent the demonetization of the lawful money of the United States by private contract. (6) We demand ttnt the government in payment of its obligations shall use its options aa to the kind of lawful money in which they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and pre ceding administration for surrendering this option to the holders of govern ment obligations. 2) We demand a graduat d income tax to the end that aggregated wealth shad bear its just proportion of taxa tiou and we denounce the Supreme Court relative to tho inccma tax law, a.- a misinterpretation of tne constitu tion and an invatioa of the rightful powers of Congress over the subject of taxation. (5) We demand that postal savings bmks be established by the govern m?nt for the safe deposit of the savings of the people aud to facilitate exchange. RAILROADS (1) Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the govercm nt should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the peo pie on a non partisan basis, to the end that all may be accorded she same treatment in transportation, and that tho tyranny and political power now exercised by the great railroad corpo r itions, which results in tho impair rt if not the destruction of the po li-i -v, rights and personal liberties of tb citizens, may be destroyed. Such owrKr,hip $ j0 D0 fcC ompiished grad ually in a manner consistent with sound poli-y. The interest of the United States in tho public highways built with pub lic money 8, and the proceeds of exten sive grants of land to the Pacific rail road should never be alienated, mort giuel or sold, but guarded and pro tected for the general welfare, as pro vided by tho laws of organizing such railroads. Tne foreclosure of existing Hnos of tho United States on these roads should at once follow default in tho payment thereof of the debt of -mpanies, and the foreclosure sale of said roads the government shall pur chase the sime if it becomes necessary to protect its interest therein or if they can be purchased at a reasonable price ; and the government shall operate said railroads as public highways for the benefit of the whole people and in tho interest of the few, under suitable pro visions for protection of life and prop erty; giving to all transportation in terests and priviks and equal rates for fares and freight. (3) We denounce the present infa mous schemes for refunding these debts and dt mind that the laws now applica ble thereto be executed and adminis tered according to their true intent and spirit. (1) The telegraph, like the postdate system, being necessary for the trans mission of news should be owned and cp?rated by the government in the in terest of the people. LAND. (1) The true policy demands that the National and State legislation shall be such as will ultimately enable every prudent and industrious citizen to secure a home, and therefore the land should not be monopolized for sptcila tive purposes. All lands now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs, should by lawful means be reclaimed by tho government and held for actual settlerj only, and pri vate land monopoly as well as alien ownership should be prohibited. (2) We condemn tho frauds by which tho land grants to tho Pacific Railroad companies have, through connivance of tho Interior Department, robbed multitudes of actual bona fide eettlers of their home?, and miners of their claims, and we demand legislation by Congress which will enforce theexemp tiou of mineral land from such grants after, as well as before patent. (3) We demand that bona fide set tiers on ail public lands be provided free homes and be provided for in the National homestead law, and that no exception be made in the case of Indian reservations when opened for settle ment, and that ali lands not now pat ented came under this demand. DIRECT LEGISLATION. (1) We favor a system of direct legis lation through the initiative and refer endum under proper constitutional safeguard". GENERAL TROPOSITL, N3. (1) We demand the election of Presi dent and Vice President and United States Senators by a direct vote of the people. (2) We tender to the patriotic peep'e of Cuba our deepest sympathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and independence, and we believe the time has come when the United States, the great Republic of the world,-should recognize that Cuba is and of right ought to be a freo and independent State. (3) We favor home rule in the Terri tories and the District of Columbia, and the early admission of Territories as States. (1) All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price of labor and its products. (5) In timos of great industrial de pression, idle labor should be employed on public works as far as practicable. (6) Tue arbitrary course of tho courts in atsamiDg to imprison cit "z 3ns for in direct contempt and ruling by injunc tion, should be prevented by proper legislation. (7) Wo favor just pensions for our disabled Union soidiers. S) B:lieving that the election fran chiee and untrammeled ballot are etecn tial to agovernment of for, and by the people, the People's party condemns the wholesale system of disfranchise ment adopted in some States as un re publican and un-democratic, and we declare it to be the duty ol the several State legislatures to take such action as will secure a full, free and fair bal lot and an honest count. PARTISANSHIP ON THE WANE. There is much that ia sign ficant in the very fact that Senator Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, seeks a nomination at the hands of the Democratic Nation al Convention. There is greater sig nificance in the fact that many old time Democrats seriously considered the availability of his candidacy. What the slavery qiestion did for the Whig and Democratic parties 40 years ago, seems about to be repeated as a result of the free silver ve. single stand con troversy now waging within both par ties. Partisanship was perhaps never at lower ebb than now, and the plain people who do not live by politics, but are the real producers of the wealth of of the nation, may take new courage from the fact. Ic is a great day in the history of a psople when the individual citizen thinks for himself and acts independ ently of all inflaences suggested by party exigences. If he make mistakes, it is better so than that he blindly, stupidly, follows another's direction and so fail to learn for himself the les son of true citizsnship. Farmers' Voice. Watch the label on your paper and enew when your subscription expire PLATFORM OF THE SILVERITES. Will Support Chicago Nominees An Address to the People Adopted by the National Silver Convention The Plat form as Reported From the Committee. St. Louis, Mo., July 23 The com mittee on resolutions of the Silver Con vention completed its work this after noon by adopting the platform and ad dress to the people which had been prepared by the sub committee. The platform and address are as follows: "The National Silver party of Amer ica, in convention assembled, hereby adops the following declaration of prin ciples : "First. The paramount issue at this time in the United States is indisputa bly the money question. It is between the British gold standard, gold bonds and bank currency, on the one side, and the bi metallic standard, no bonds, government currency (and an Ameri can policy) on the other. On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of a distinctively Ameri can financial system. We are unalter ably opposed to the single gc-d stan dard, and demand the immediate re turn to the c institutional standard of gold and eilver, by the restoration by this government, independently of any foreign power, of the unrestricted coin age at both gold and silver into a stan dard money at the ratio of 16 to 1, and upon exct equality as they existed prior to 1873; tho silver coin to be of full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts aud dues, public and private, and we demand such legislation as will prevent for the future the destruction of tho legal tender quality of any kind of money by private contract. "We hold that the power to control and regulate a paper currency is in separable from tho power to coin money ; and, hence, that all currency intended to circulate as money should be issued and its volume controlled, by the General Government only, and should be a legal tender. "We are unalterably opposed to the issue by the United States of interest bearing bonds in time of peace, and we denounce as a blunder worse than a crime, the present Treasury policy, concurred in by a Republican House, of plunging the country into debt by hundreds of millions in the vain at tempt to maintain the gold standard by borrowing gold; and we demand the payment of all coin obligat ons of the United States as provided by existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, at the option of the government, and not at the option of the creditor. "The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the demand ftfr gold, enhancing its purchasing power, and lowering all prices measured by that standard ; and since that unjust and indefensible act, the prices of American products have fallen upon an average nearly 50 per cent., carry ing down with them proportionally the monoy value of ail other forms of prop erty. "Such fall of prices has destroyed the legitimate industry, injuring the producer for the benefit of tho non-producer, increasing the burden of the debtor, swelling the gains of tho cred itor, paralyzing the productive ener gies of the American people, relegat ing to idleness vast numbers of willing workers, sending the shadows of de spair into the heme of tho hon?st toiler, filling the land with tramps and pau pers and building up ollosal fortunes at the money centres. "In the f if jrfc to maintain tho geld standard the country has within the last two years, in a time of profound peace and plenty, been loaded down with 1262,000,000 of additional interest bearing debt under such circumstances as to allow a syndicate of native and foreign bankers to realize a net profit of millions on a single deal. "It stands confessed that the gold standard can only be upheld by so de pleting our paper currency as to force the prices of our products below the European and even below the Asiatic level, to enable us to a ill in foreign markets, thus aggravating the very evils of which our people so bitterly complain, degrading American labor and striking at the foundations of our civilization itself. "The advocates of the gold standard p ersistently claim that the cause of our distress is overproduction that we have produced so much that it made us poor which implies that the true remedy is to close the factory, abandon the farm, and throw a multitude of people out of employment; a doctrine that leaves us unnerved and disheart ened and absolutely without hope for the future. "We sffirm it to be unquestioned that there can be no such economic paradox as overproduction, and at the same time tens of thousands of our fel low citiz )ns remaining half clothed, and half fed, and who are piteously clamoring for the common necesities of life. "Over and above all other quer'tiots of policy, we are in favor of restoring J to the people of the United States the time honored money of the constitu tiongold and silver, not one but both the money of Washington and Ham ilton and Jefferson and Monroe and Jackson and Lincoln, to the end that t le American people may receive hon est pay for an honest product ; that the American debtor may pay his j aet ob ligations in an honest standard and not in a dishonest and unsound standard appreciated 100 per cent, in purchasing poorer, and no appreciation in debt paying power, and to the end, further, that silver standard countries may be deprived of the unjust advantage they now enjoy, in the difference in ex change between gold and silver an advantage which tariff legislation can not overcome. "We, therefore, confidently arpaal to the people of the United States to hold in obeyance all other questions, however important, and even momen tous they may appear, to sunder, if need be, all former party ties and affilia tions, and unite in one supreme effort to freo themselves and their children from the domination of the money power a power more destructive than any wbich has ever been fastened upon the civilized men of any race in any age. And upon the consummation of our df sires and efforts we evoke the aid of all patriotic American citizens and the gracious favor of Divine Provi dence. "Inasmuch as the patriotic majority of the Cuicago Convention embodied in the financial plank of its platform the principles enunciated in the platform of the American Bi metallic party, pro mulated at Washington, D C , Jan. 22, ISO 6, and therein reiterated that it is noc only the paramount, but the only real issue in the pending campaign, therefore, recognizing that their nomi n?es embody these patriotic principles, we recommend that this convention nominato Wm. J. Bryan, of Nebraska, for President, and Arthur J. Sewall, of ilaine, for Vice President. BIMETALLISM Or the Evils of Gold Monometallism, and the Benefits of Bimetallism, by Whar ton Barker, Philadelphia: Barker Pub lishing Company. Cloth, $i; Paper, 50 Cents. A most comprehensive and lucid work is that of Bimetallism, by Whar ton Birker. Bearing evidence of ex haustive research and careful compila tion, the book is written with a thor oughness and breadth of scope that makes it easily the peer of all works on bimetallism Mr. Barker makes clear that the ap preciating gold standard ia the mother of poverty, for falling prices destroy the profits of industry, check enter prise, lead to industrial stagnation, the throwing of wage earners out of work and lower waes, with resulting im poverishment and distress to the wage earning classes. Not until we check the appreciation of gold and thereby the fall in prices, will prosperity re turn, for in the face of falling prices, labor and energy spent in production entail loss on the producer. To check the appreciation of gold is therefore the first requisite to renewed prosperity, and so long as we maka use of the precious metals as money, thi3 can only be done by restoring bimetallism by opening our mint3 to the free coinage of eilver, and thereby throwing upon silver equally with gold the bur,, en of the money functions. We must use both gold and silver as money without discrimination against either metal. We must give to both metals the same privileges of mintage and legal tender, and as cur micts are now open to the free tml unlimited coinage of gold into full legal tender money, eo we must.! throw them open to silver. Only by so doing can wo restore bimetallism and thus check the appreciation of gold and the benumbing effect of falling prices. It is, therefore, our first duty to re store bimetallism and lift from the shoulders of our producing claeses the burden of falling prices that is grind ing them down to poverty and building up on their impoverishment an aris tocracy of wealth. Such in outline is the purpose and scope of Mr. Wharton Barker's work on bimetallism: Undertaken in response to the de mand for an authoritative and exhaust ive yet concise and comprehensive work on bimetallism, Mr. Baker has compiled this work, and now presents the reeult of his labor to the great body of American voters, who hold the des tiny of America in their hands in the hope that it may not fail, during the coming campaign, to be of some service and assistance to those struggling to preserve our financial and industrial, as well as political independence, and to save our producing classes from the thraldom of virtual slavery to the foreign money cliques and their allies in America, who are striving to fasten the appreciating gold standard on our country. The Barker Publishing Company, 110 South Fourth street, Pniladelphia, witl seed the above work, comprising 330 pages to any address, postage prepaid, on receipt of price Cloth, $1 ; paper, 50 cents. N. C. RAILROAD LEASE. Prof Graham Thinks the Manner of Leasing the Road Should be an Issue in the Present Campaign. Correspondence of the Progressive farmer. BlDGEWAY, N. C. The Republican and Democratic -State Conventions passed ever in silence the lease of the North Carolina Railroad to the Southern Railway Co. It is hardly probable that so icop-rt ant a matter was overlooked. The mighty power of this giant corpora tion, even thus early in the "century" of its new lease, makes the politicians tremble. The next Governor of North Caro lina, the two Supreme Court Justice? to be elected, and the incoming legisla ture will decide whether the North Carolina Railroad, built to develop North Carolina and her seaports, is to pass for a century into the hands of a foreign corporation hostile to the best interests of North Carolina. Under the thirty years lease the Richmond and Danville Railroad paid six per cent, interest on the $1 000,000 of stock of the N. C. Railroad, $3,000, 000 of which belonged to the State and $1,000,000 to the private stockholders. The N. C. Riilroad, according to the report of the Railroad Commissioners for 1895. ccst $1,975 027 50. Originally 11,000,000 of construction bonds were issued. The $975,627 50 has been ex pended out of the earnings of the road, so that the actual cash cost of the road approximates 5,000,000. Under the ninety-nine years leas?, the State of North Carolina aud the private stockholders are to receive for the first six years a rental of $260,000 per annum, and for the remaining ninety-three years of the lease $286,000 per annum. That is the State and private stockholders are to receive $6 000 and 6 J per cent, on $1,000, 000 for six years, and $6,000 and seven per cent, on $1,000,000 for ninety-three years. In addition, taxes are to be paid by the Southern Riiiway Co. It is said that this is a mcst excellent trade on the part of the State. . Let us consider whether this deal for a cen tury is any better than the thirty years' lease of unsavory memory. Allowing that the N. C. Riilroad is worth only its actual cost, to-wit, $1, 975,627 50, the Southern Railway pays 5 31 per cent, the first six years of the lease and 5 62 per cent, for ninety three years. Toe difference between the real per cent, paid on actual cost, and 6i per cent, for six years, and seven per cent, for ninety-three years on this same ac tual cost; to wit, $1 975 627.50, would amount at the expiration of the ninety nine years' lease to $6,695,829 75, and that, too, without one cent of even simple interest on the semi annual pay ments. The pretense that the State i receiv 6J per cent, and 7 per cent, on her in vestment is untenable. The aggregate value, aa taken from the Auditor's reports, of the real and personal property as listed for taxation in the fourteen counties through which the tN. C. Railroad runs was in 1871, the year of the first leae, $26,851 353 In 1895 the value of the same was $63, 851 193; an increase of $36,997 110, or 137 per cent, increase in the wealth listed for taxation. Tho population of these fourteen counties according to the census of 1870 was 232,212. In 1890 the population of the same territory was 331,735 ; allowing the same ratio of increase the population of these four teen counties approximated, in 1895, 371,555, an increase of 41 per cent. Ought not the rental of the N. C Rail road to be higher now than in 1871? In 1871 North Carolina bonds were worth forty cents in the dollar. North Carolina Railroad bonds were worth the eame. By the judgment of the United States Circuit Court in the Swasey suit, these bonds were declared a lien on the State's stock in the N. C. Railroad. This decision wasuDjusti fiable, and would have been reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal. Such appeal was withdrawn by "cocsant." and the hold era of these bonds worth only forty cents in the dollar received in their stead new six per cent, bonds now worth 130 on the market. All political parties should unite in having the lease declared invalid. The writer has no hostility to the Southern Railway, nor to any corporation, but he believes in State control at least of its own roads. If the ninety nine years' lease is al lowed to stand, it is but a question of time when the Southern Railway Co. will own or cDntrol all the railroads in North Carolina. Already it has its covetous eve fastened upon the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley. It do:S not wish at present to absorb the entire system, but only a part of it. The C. F. & Y. V. system is next to the N.' C. Railroad and the A and N. C. neces sary for the development of North Carolina. This road was chartered and built by native North Carolinians for the development of North Carolina. The incorporators found that they un- j aided had attempted more than they could accomplish. Our State Consti tution forbade direct 8tate aid, and therefore the managers of the C. F. & Y V. resorted to a very transparent device to circumvest the constitution. They went before the State legislature, c ff ering mortgage bonds of the road in exchange for convict labor upon engi 1 eers' estimate of its worth. They ob tained all the labor they needed. At the next meeting of the legisla ture they again appeared, showing that they had fulfilled their contract, and aeking for a return of the mort gage bonds already given and another grant of convict labor to be paid for with mortgage bonds eimilar to thoeo returned. The road was gradually built westward, and such was the pop ularity of the road and euch the unan imity of the counties along the proposed lines of the road to be built that very little opposition was made to these in direct evasions of the State Constitu tion. The Richmond and Danville Railroad had already built a branch road from Greensboro to Winston. This branch road was extended ao as to tap the lino of the C. F. & Y. V. at Sedge Garden. This was done to cut eff the Yadkin Valley branch of the C. F. & Y. V. Railroad which promised to be the most productive and strongly t upport iug feeder of the C. F & Y. V. Rail road. This extension of the Richmond and Danville ey&tem ii 11 cted a severe blow on the C. F. & Y. V., and contributed as much as anything else to its final overthrow. The Southern Railway Co. has al ready fallen heir to the W. N. C. Rail road. If the ninety nine years leaso holds good, and it undoubtedly wilf, unless the people of North Carolina de mand of the various candidates for Governor, and the candidates for the legislature, regardly of party, that the validity of the lease be tested in tho courts of justice, then the Southern Railway Co will disrupt the C. F. & Y. V. system, absorb tho most valuable portion and thus fall heir to the dona tions of the State in tho uhape of con vict labor. The interests of the State will be ignored and with these North Carolina systems of railroads in the hands of foreign syndicates, North Carolina will be a strip of territory for other States to prey upon. Nearly all political corruption proceeds from rail roads. Unless the lease of the N. C. Railroad is broken up it is only a ques tion of time before the Southern Rail way will own or control all the rail roads in the State. We have no time to lose. Whiie the people are carried away in their zeal to restore silver to its proper function as money, "the Philistines will be upon Sampson." Our sister State, Tennessee, is dom inated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Hon. James Mahone in a letter to Prof. Chas. W. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, says that the President of the L. & N., in his office in Louisville, Kentucky, forbids the people of Tennessee to hold a much needed constitutional convention for fear that a clause may be inserted in the new constitution forbidding rail roads to lease or purchase parallel lines. May North Carolina never have a railroad "bos !" I regret, Mr. Editor, that the public cannot find out the profits made by the Southern Railway Co. in operating the N. C. Railroad. The semi annual pay ments made into the State treasury are not to bo regarded as gratuities from the Southern Railway Co., bat only as a small part of the profits made out of North Carolinians in the course of cusiness. I have been informed that the Southern Railway Co. pays a Geor gia railroad twelve per cent., six per cent, on stock and six per cent, on bonds. This may be an error. When as Chairman of the Alliance Committee, suit was instituted in my name to tett the validity of the ninety nine years' lease, a newspaper reporter represented Judge Walter Clark as saying, "The doors of justice have been thrown open." Those doors were shut and fastened. Will no5 the people of North Caro lina, regardless of party, see to it that the next Governor of North Carolina and his Attorney Gne: al shall open wide the gates of justice, and will they not see to it that the Sipreme Court Justices to be elected are men irre proachable in character and fearlcs3 in the discharge of their duties. John Graham. There should be no fences except those put up for temporary protection, and that can be easily taken down around the garden. If a permanent fence is built it 13 always in the way, and becomes a harbor for weeds, which will grow all the more luxuriantly be cause the garden is rich. Neither should fruit trees be planted arcucd the garden for like reason. The fruit garden ought to be by itself, and on the farm it is better to grow all the tree fruits in the main orchard, that can then be fenced in and used as a pasture for pigs.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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July 28, 1896, edition 1
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