Newspaper Page Text
E
0RMER
'
.............. ~
PcBusnxr) Evert Fbidat Evening at
FORT GAINES, GA.
CHAR. H. VANDEVILLK, Fell tor.
FORT GAINES, OA. DEC* 7, 1894
Wot. Atkinson's Message.
Governor Atkinson^ recent message
to the general assembly of Georgia is an
oddity, both as to time and substance.
The more it is studied the more absurd
and redicnlous it becomes.
It would take a profit of former ages
to explain to one, not well acquainted
with existing circumstances, wlmt effect
lie intended the message should have
upon tbo legislature.
We do not propose, in this article, to
diaeusa the message in its minutivc, but
reserve that for future articles, which
will appear from day to day.
In the first place, the governor’s dis
Ms>ion of the state's affairs, and his rec¬
ommendations to the legislature, are
without precedent in tho history of the
Mate.
Bo far as we remember, no governor
heretofore has rushed to such lengths,
and so hastily, into the recommendation
role. Before the harness hud settled
well to bia shape,*hc prepared a long
winded address to tho Inwly which had
barely finished inaugurating him.
No Unusual circumstances existed,
which ribade such a message necessary.
The mcaaage itself shows dearly that
Uiero was no necessity for it.
To show the absurdity of tho govern¬
or’s address, it is only necessary to say
that it was delivered to tho legislature
just altout two weeks before its closo.
Gov. Atkinson has ulegislutivo expe¬
rience of about eight or teu years, and
he knew foil well tliat it would be almost
an utter impossibility to introduce and
l»ave passed through tho legislature any
bill in accordance with his reco'umenda
tion* before tho adjournment of that
body.
A bill oannot bo prepared, introduced
into one branch of the legislature, Rent
to a committee for insi>ection, returned
to tho honno with recommendation that
it do pass, read the second time, read the
third time, carried to the other branch,
and go through the same routine—nil in
• day.
Very rarely is it done in a week or
oven two weeks.
Mr. Atkinson knew this when he
wrote.
Then why did ho write ?
Buncombe, we suppose; or probably
it was to be heard.
Either one makes him appear silly.
The only matters mentioned in tho
message wherein tho governor could pos
aibty have hoped to influence the legis¬
lature, were the appropriations for the
military and the Georgia Normal aud
Industrial school at Milledgevilie.
We take it for granted that the gov¬
ernor realized this.
It was generally understood that it
Hot Ivw IGa il.at
it woe proposed in the legislature to give
the MiUodgeville school an extra $25,*
000 .
This school ir ono of tho governor’s
pet*. Ho devoted to it pogo after page
of hi* message.
Instead of realizing the impuvished
condition of the people and attempting
to economize, he makes the deliberate at¬
tempt to increase tho burden of taxation
by an expenditure of money useless at
the prenent tiruo.
Ho recommended liberal oxcourage
ment and aid to the militia. That meant
a useless expenditure of $25,000 of tho
people’s money.
If the governor realized that these
were tho ouly two matters wherein he
hoped to influence tho legislature, ho
most feel “sat upon,” siuce both reooui
mendationa have been ignored in the ap¬
propriation bill.—Daily Press.
Thousands starved last winter, thous¬
ands sintered, aud congress talked and
talked, Nero fiddled while Romo burn¬
ed. The people's cry for bread went up
all over the laud and Grover fished. —
If we must be reduced to a gold stan¬
dard or quit doing business with Eng¬
land, we had better let England go by
the board. We can't afford to starve
onr 'millions simply because England
•ay* we must have a certain kind of
money and no other. Our governireut
should be rutt in tue interest of onr own
people, and let England do or say what¬
ever she pleases about it.
Thousands of men who still hold to
the democratic party do so with but lit¬
tle hope of ever realizing any benefit*
from it. They are just ready hi turn
loose the “sinking ship.” Duriug the
next two years Ihere will 1 k> a hiirger ;
landslide to the People’s Party than
ever. It will be a geuitine political np
hoavaL—Our home.
What this nation vants—what the
world want*, is not >< srstcni nnde|*whieh
human Ivou^h are compelled io be,* for
a chsnoe to work, hut a system under
.
which a chance to labor, and the eujov.
ment of the fruit* of one’s labor, shall
be guaranteed of the lwric right* of ov¬
ert hnmtn being — New Charter.
Th- «lilnr ol tb. BttWilt*
my* he joined the chnrcU on Sunday
•ad on Mondav, *ix of hi* wife’s kin
folks cams to spend the summer.,
“ Wbom Lord loveth he chaeteneth. ”
\ A Great Cooa Dog.
Several enthusiastic coon hunters
the other day were discussing the
Times, “ring-tailed” chase, “Himo” says the Wabash
when Wellman, of
Urbana, came in and in a few min¬
all utes was doing more coon talk than
the balance of the put together.
“I’ll tell you,” said “Hime,” “Iv’e
got the best cold trailer on a coon
track that ever anyhohy owned, and
he is only eight months old. to* ! I
took tho pup out the other day just
to see if he couldjrun a track and to
give him a little exercise, and ne
hadn’t been in the woods ten minutes
until I heard him bark, and he kept
narking in snch a way as to make
me believe he had ‘treed’ his game,
and then I came to tho conclusion
that he was a ‘still hunter.’ I found
him at I he mouth of a six-inch tile
ditch ami he had pulled out one o
tiles with his teeth and was chewing
the end of it to pieces.
As ho was a young dog I did not
want him to ruin his teeth and I
pulled him away from the tile, but
as soon as I let go of him he would
jump back and tackle tho thing
again with renewed vigor. I led
him to the mouth of tho ditch and
stuck his nose in the end of the tile,
but he paid no attention to that but
ran back to the other end.
“That sort of carrying on bothered
mo and I at last led tho dog away,
remarking that he was no good on
earth, After awhile I turned him
loose once more and in less than
threo minutes he was hack at that
tile biting pieces out of it and bark¬
ing like an old-timer. As I saw tho
pun was determined to ruin himself
by breaking off his teeth, I picked
up the tile, determined to carrv it to
the house, so as to keep it out of
his reach. As I walked along look¬
ing at the marks of tne pup’s teeth I
made a startling discovery, and what
do you think it was ?”
Trio spell bound listeners of tno
strange story held their breath for a
moment and in a chorus asked:
“What ?”
“Well, right, on the inside of that
tile I saw plainly the imprint of a
,coon’s foot, which had been made
there when tho tile had been first
molded and tho clay was soft and
yielding. Tho tile had evidently been
made late in the evening and set
away through to dry and the’coon had run
it tho very same night and
mat * e Uie track. The tile, of course,
was afterward dried and burned in
tho kiln, and it has been in ‘.hat
ditch for more than six years, and I
say an eight-months-old pup that can
smell as cold a trail as that is cer¬
tainly the champion ’coon dog of the
world.”—Ex.
Ami wo may safely add that that
’coon dog’s master is the monu¬
mental liar of his district.
The Game.
The gold trusts two years ago
opened their barrels for the demo¬
crats and they swept tho countrv.
The republicans were thought by
many to be too dead to skin. If trie
trusts had aided the democrats at
this election as they did at the last,
the republican party would have
«« |>iuutivialljf Itlinuvl<>n«4 no (X na.
tional ‘party and the contest two
years hence would be between the
democrats and populists.
To keep these two old parties in
good trim the money power aids
them by turns, as tho exigencies de¬
mand. In the northern and western
states boodle was distributed to the
republicans, and in the southern
states to the democrats in the lute
election, to keep the populists in
check as much as possible. Two
years hence no doubt the Wall street
sack will bo used mainly in the in¬
terest of the democratic national
ticket so as to keep the two old par
ties “on a parity” and “interconverti¬
ble” wherever it may seem necessary
to defeat the third party and the
third cause.
So long as these two parties enn
be kept active with a hocn of suc¬
cess they are not so liable to be dis¬
integrated so as to make tho success
of the third party dangerous, And
thus reason the gold trusts, and so
long as boodle is furnished abund¬
antly to the old partis there will al¬
ways be a large class of damphools
stick to them, notwithstanding thev
are forging chains of slavery for
themselves and their posterity and
riveting them around tbeir necks
constantly.—Th 0 Silver State.
The cry is heard throughout the
eutire land that we want a monov
*r
with which to trade with foreign
nations. Our foreign trade is only
4 per cent, of the entire yeaaly
transactions ? Shall the 96 per
cent, suffer serious injury simply
oecause we are asked to cater to
the whims of persons who have
b«-en hired to change monetary
affairs so that a eeriain few may
be the gainers thereby f—Noncon
formist.
Mr N Peck—I think if any cne
is entitled to a pension, it’s me.
MftdfO—Yon were never in the
war. were you ?
Mr. N Peck—No, but the fellow
my wife was engaged to got killed
at Shiloh.
A* Alleged Conspiracy.
On several occasions a rumor has
been current that Mr. Cleveland
made an agreement with eastern
plutocracy to wreck should the democratic be elected
party in case he
again.
This rumor has been receivhd and
can democrats. be traced directly to prominent
It is claimed that the
money owners and aristocrats of the
east became alarmed at the growing
independence of democrats from the
south and west, any determined to
destroy the democratic party before
this independent element obtained
control of it
They reasoned with great force
and accuracy that the republican
party could be relied upon at all
times and under all circumstances to
serve plutocracy wherever found.
They also reasoned, and correctly*,
too, that in case of the destruction
of the democratic party, the pluto¬
cratic portion would join with the
republicans, and in this manner form
a strong and controlling party based
upon tho rule of the classes as*
against the great, plain people of the
nation.
They further reasoned that long
before these scattered elements could
be concentrated, this dominant party
could entrench itself behind class
laws and judicial interpretation, and
defy all peaceful oppositions. - To
th>s end, Mr. Cleveland received the
nomination, and to accomplish this
object money flowed during the cam
paign like waters
T ■ ■ object was to giv;e democracy
complete control, and then demon
strate its inability to conduct the
government. This object was ac
cotnplished, and President Cleveland
is carrying out his part of tho con
tract to the letter. U pen no other
hypothesis can this conduct be ac
coun 0 or *
.
form, The of pH
Mteefon Gresham
premier of his cabinet uas the fii -
direct blow at his party. The extra
session and repeal of tho purchasing
clause of the Shermau act is now
known to be another.
m. 1 ho issue • ot , interest-bearing . . , , bonus ,
arbitrarily and without la w is no v
considered another. The appoint
ment of colored men as consuls to
white countries is another. In tact,
there is r.ot a single plank in the
party p atform that he has not pur
posely It and flagrantly violated.
has remained for him to finish
his work of destruction by hie vie-
10US, unmanly and unprecedented
course toward the new tariff bill,
Nothing can now save democracy.
As a political power it is dead, and
President Cleveland ha, fulfilled his
contiact.
The Solid South.
The solid south is broken, and if
the next congress does its full duty
tho infamous methods ty which it
has been kept solid will be hid bare
f o the public. With a full, fair vote
and an honest count, tbo democratic
party would not have two dozen
members from that section.
The republican party has for two
years sought to show up this condi¬
tion. It has even gone so far as to
enact election laws ami attempted to
pass a force bill so called.
Now, however, conditions havo
changed and an opportunity is pre¬
sented through which thi» wholesale
debauchery of the ballot can be ex¬
posed. The question is, will this op¬
portunity be improved? Will the
republban party take hold of this
matter, and hold up to the gaze of
the world the long series of crimes
for the suppression of an honest bal¬
lot that has continued the solid
south solid. The disclosure would
bring to light the rottenness and cor¬
ruption that reigns supreme in the
breasts of so many solemn senatois
and actuates the being of many
bright and conspicuous congressmen.
A full disclosure of this infamy at
the present time would totally anni¬
hilate the democratic party. Wo de¬
mand that such action be taken, that
these crimes be made public aud the
guilty ones punished. We believe
this is the sentiment of every popu¬
list as <vell as every other honest
citizen.—National Watchman.
The Japan plums constitute a race as
distinct from our native varieties as is
the Le Conte pear from the Bartlett.
The trees resemble somewhat our vigor¬
ous varieties of the Chickasaw type, but
the foliage is larger and quite distinct.
Some are hardy as far north as where
the wild goose succeeds, and for our
southern states they open a new era in
plum culture. Nnrserymen have fruit¬
ed many varieties of this type and found
a number of decided value for both mar
ket and home use. The I ot m typ* be
longs ^ to the hardier group, and has giv
en good , results ... in northern ., and .. western
states. Botan, Burbank and Ogon are
familar varieties of this tvpe. The
Kelsey type is leas hardy, : aud is recom- ‘...
mended , . , for sections „ _ below the ^ thirty
fourth degree of latitude north. The
Kelsey, Sat-uma and Masn are familiar
varieties of this type. '
Potatoes In North Carolina.
A North Carolinian writing to Coun¬
try Gentleman says:
We all of us adopt the two crop sys¬
tem. Our first crop is marketed in the
great northern cities from Jane 1 to 15,
and in July we plant the second crop,
which matures in October, Our second
crop has heretofore been used for seed
and home consumption exclusively, but
this year I shall be disappointed if we
do not meet your northern growers in
even terms in the city markets. I can¬
not see why it is not entirely feasible,
or why, with potatoes at $1 a barrel, it
will not be vastly more profitable to us
than erowinreorji sad caftan.
GENERAL REMARKS.
The Weather Favorable for
Gathering Crops.
COTTON'S CONTINUED DECLINE.
It Shoald Teach an Important Lcason to
tha Planter —The Crop Will Hardly
Exceed That of Cast Year —Estimate ol
Tlald of Stapla Crops in the State and
Their Market Value.
Department of Agriculture,
Atlanta, Dec. 1, 1894.
Since the November report the weath¬
er has been favorable for the gathering
and moving of crops and work has pro¬
gressed rapidly.
COTTON.
The continued decline in the price of
our great staple crop upon which we
have reiied implicitly for the puymeut
<Sf obligations to tho factor and supply
merchant, is necessarily a cause for de¬
pression. But as stated in our last issue
wo should learn a lesson, and whatever
influonoesj may be affecting tho market,
be certain, by a proper policy, that no
part of tho fault rests with us.
With the picking of the crop we see
no reason to change our former osti¬
tes of the yield and adhere to the opin¬
ion that it will little, if any, exceed
that of last year.- £
/ *'*fi?ost.
Frost during the mouth came too late
to damage the crop in Middle and South
Georgia, but the fanner in North Geor
gia, who had put his low lands in cot -
ton, suffered materially, and even on
uplands where the land was rloh and
the plant thrifty, the injury was severe
Especially was this the case where lands
had been-replanted late in the spring or
the growth groatly retarded on account
“Tr “rr ? ,hat ,
several plant marked;features. Soon after the
had begun to jprow a cold spell
with frost came, which seemed through
I?* 1 6 North Uoorgla and portions even of
.
^ th f T* *
most beyond repair. If illustrations of
the remarkable recuperative powers of
the plant were wanted none better could
he found.
t ‘ 1 ^ P^Bod the prospect in the
department. the &
On contrary, south
ern Georgia, With a fair stand, gave
promise of a good yield. With sunshine
®j low ® r » however, SSSTitBPS in North Geor
even month the after most propitious season, and
month brought reports of
ftU improved prospect throughout that
se ^ io !V
., _ ._ SSlS* .
various Cn
vicissitude* of weather, plant
disease and destructive insects, wit¬
nessing tion each l^outh a decline in condi¬
until at the close of tho season of
growth for largo and picking began the outlook
favorable. a yield could not be regarded
fts
OTHER CROPS.
As various other crops upon which
we and partially rely to support our farms
families and in some instances for
moneV, found have matured we have at least
some comfort has in the fact that the
yield per aore in not been below and
nas been many instances above an
average and that the general result in¬
dicates that wo are fast progressing to
t.Lo koo( 1 of southern agricultural inde
penaanoe if not prosperity.
Were each and every individual land
owner aud tenant to resolve upon and
carry out a policy that would render his
farm self sustaining it would go far,
without agreed co-operation towards
the solution ^ of the much vexed and all
important problem the reduction of the
cotton acreage.
COTTONSEED.
We have often in these reports dealt
with the question as to when it pays
the farmer to sell his cottonseed and
buy meal. Various conditions of price
effect the decision at which we should
arrive.
We have no hesitancy in stating that
at tne present pridft of cottonseed $8.00
a ton, and of cottonseed meal $17.00 to
$18.00 aud even $20.00 when sold to the
fertilizer farmer; it is better to keep them as a
and for oompostmg than to
sell and purchase meal, etc.
CROP ESTIMATES,
The department from carefully com¬
piled the information yield gives the following in as
estimated of staple crops
the state with their market value:
^, r q 0
Cotton..950,000 Cotton.. 40.000, bales, “ s. staple..$25,650,000 ,r
Corn....40,000,000 bushels, .. 0,400.000
Oats.,...6,000.000 " .. 20,000,000
Rye..... 100,000 “ .. 2,400,000
Wheat.. .. 75.000
R. Rug..159)000 2,000.000 lbs. “ ... 1,200,000
8. Cane. 8,500,000 gal. syrup .. 1,095.000
Sorg’m.. 8. Peta.. 2,030,000 “ “ .. 400,000
I. Pota.. 6,000,000 bushels .. 2,400.000
1,000.000 “ .. 760,000
Hay..... i60;000 tons .. 800,000
SEED.
► -
On the sried sent out by the depart¬
ment and on .the policy of the depart¬
ment following in the future in m the this regard) the
appears report to the
governor: i.*»J *? . *’
‘'Following the department the precedent of former
years, >ut out number of select during the year
bracing -' a and seed, em
some new untried varieties.
I he advisability of a general seed dis¬
tribntion is, however, in our opinion, to
be questioned, and we are convinced
t ^ at more satisfactory results are to be
fr ° m P^cations
than from such distribution. The policy
of the department, therefore, for the
coming year will be to only send out
snch seed which, not only in variety,
but in character, have hitherto not re¬
ceived sufficient investigation in the
state. The work of the experiment farm
has largely done away with the necessi¬
ty of general seed distribution, as here
variety test can be made with painstak¬
ing care, which, by application, can be
had in the bulletins of the station.”
May God grant that the eyes of the
men who are assisting plutocracy by
their yote, to bind the poor of this coun¬
try in slavery, l>e opened before it is too
late, so they may be enabled to see that
they arc assisting to forge the very
chains with which plutocracy is binding
tbeir own hands.—Populist, Trenton, j
Tenn.
STATE PLATFORM
Of tlie Peoples’ Party^-Reud and
Reflect.
Wo hereby renew onr unqualified
endorsement of the national platform
of the Peoples’ party, and we favor
in the State of Georgia the following
reform:
1. 1 he abolition of the present
convict lease system which, prosti¬
tutes to the greed of private avarice
the State's sovereign right to punish
her citizens for violation of law. We
believe the State herself should keep
possession of her prisoners and should
employ them upon the public roads
and not allow them brought in com¬
petition with honest free labor.
2. We favor the furnishing of pri¬
mary school books by the State to
avoid the burdens put upon our peo¬
ple by the frequent changes of text¬
books. • We also favor the payment
of the teachers monthly.
3. We favor the enactment of an
ho unperverted Australian ballot law to
so framed as to allow illiterate or
blind voters to receive aid in toe
preparation they of their ballots, when
election. so desire, from the maungers of
4. We emphatically condemn the
practice, of late becoming so preva¬
lent, of public officers accepting free
passes from railroad corporations.
We intend this condemnation to ap¬
ply to the executive, legislative and
judicial branches of our national and
state government.
5. Be ieving, as we do, that these
eternal principles are necessary to
good government and to the preser¬
vation of our I’epublican institutions:
and, sity believing that a supreme neces¬
now exists for a determined and
organized struggle against the cor*
rupt hereby despotism of centralized wealth,
we this pledge ourselver anew to
sacred task, and we invite the
earnest irrespective co-operation of all good citi¬
zens, of party; and upon
these united efforts in behalf of the
cause of constitutional liberty wo
reverently Almighty invoke the blessings of
God.
C. II. Ellington,
Chairman P.atform Committee.
PHTTSICIANTS.
D. F. GUNN,
PRACTICING PHYSICIAN,
JS&“Gffiee next to Wallersteiu’s.
1
55 $
.1
1
J. L. HURST,
Hancock St., FOET GAINES, GA.
Encouraged by the prospects of good
crops, the Proprietor of this well
known and populai estab¬
lishment, has- ordered,
and has on hand,
a large stock of
WHISKIES.
WILD-CAT COHN,
CHAMPAGNE RYE,
WINES OF ALL KINDS
ICE-COLD BEER,
TOBACCO & CIGARS.
His friends and patrons are requested
to call. aug 3
PEOPLES 1 PARTY rLvrq)Hftf
ADOPTED BY THE OMAHA CONFERENCE OF LABORING
PEOPLE, JULY 4, 1892.
\ .
A SSEMBLEf) upon the one hundred and sixteenth anniversary of the declaration
il. of independence, the Peoples’ party of America, in their first national conven¬
tion, invoking upon their action the blessing of Almighty God, puts forth in
the name and behalf of the people of this country, the following preamble and decile
ration of principles:
The conditions which surround us best Justify our cc-operation. We meet ir. vho
midst of a nation brought to the veige of moral, political and tnaterfci ruin. Cor¬
ruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the congress, arid touches eveii
the ermine of the bench. The people aro demoralized. Most of the States have
been Compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal Intim¬
idation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzaled*; tiblic opinioh
silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, lator impover¬
ished, and the lands concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban work¬
men are dehied the right of organization for Belt-protection,* Imported pauperized
labor bents down their wages: a hireling Standing aimy, unrecognized by our laws,
is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degeneratihg into European
conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal
fortunes for a few. unprecedented in the history of mankind, and the possessors of
these, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific
mode of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes—tramps and million
aires.
The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders. A
vast bonds, public debt payable millions in legal tender the burdens currency has been funded into gold bearing *
thereby adding PARTIES ARRAIGNED.—8ilver, to of the people.
TIIE OLD which has been accepted as coin
since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of
gold by decreasing the value of all forms abridged of property, as well as human labor, and
the supply of currency ispurposedly to fatteh usurers, bankrupt enterprises
and enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized o i two
continents and is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and overthrown
at once it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the
establishment of an absolute despotism.
We have witnessed for more than a century the struggles of the two great polit¬
ical parties fot power and plunder, while grievous wrongs havo been indicted upbh
the people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both these par¬
ties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious effort
to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promiso us any substantial re
form. They have agreed togethoi to Ignore in the coming campaign avory Issue but
one. Thoy propose to drown the outcries of plundered peoplo with the uproar of a
sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, and national banks, lings,
trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver the oppressions of the usurers
fnay bo all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our honi«3, wines and children
on the altar of Mammon; to destroy the multitude in order t'o secure coiruption funds
from the millionaires.
Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, and filled with the
spirit of the grand generation who established our independence, we seek to restore
the government of the republic to the hands of “the plain people,” with which c’ash
it originated. identical with the
THE WAR IS OVER.—We assert our purposes to be purposes
of the national constitution—“To form a more perfect union, establish justice, Jn
suro domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general wel-.
fare arid sccurothc blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posteiity.” We declare
that this republic cun only endure as u free government while built upon the love of
the whole people for each other and for the nation; that it cannot be pinned together Which
by bayonets; that the civil war is over, and that every passion and resentment
grew out of it must die with It, and that we must be in fact, as we are in uome, one
united brotherhood of freemen.
Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there Is no precedent Ik
the history of the world—our annual agricultural productions amount to billions
dollars In value, which must within a few weeks or months be exchanged for billions
of dollars of commodities comsumed in their production; the existing currency sup
ply is wholly inadequate to make this exehunge; the results are lulling prices, the for
mation of combines and rings and the Impoverishment of the producing classes. W©
pledge ourselves that if given power we will labor to correct these evils by wise and
reasonable legislation in accordance with the terms of our platform. people—
Wo believe that the powers of the government—in other words, of the
should bo expanded (as In the case of the postal service) as rapidly and as far fta
the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, land,
to the end that oppression, injustice and poverty shall eventually cease in the
THREEFOLD DECLARATION.—While our sympathies as a party of reform
are naturally upon the sido of every proposition which will tend to make men intelli¬
gent, virtuous and temperate, we nevertheless regard these questions, important as
they are, as secondary to the great issues now piessing for solution, and upon which
not only our individual prosperity but the very existence of free institutions depend;
and we ask all men first help us to determine whether we are to havo a republic to
administer before wo differ as totho conditions upon which it Is to be administered,
believing that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move for¬
ward until every wrorg is remedied and equal lights and equal privileges securely
established for all the men and women of the country. We declare therefore:
1. That the union of the labor forces of tho United States this day eonsumated,
shall be permanent and perpetual. May its spirit enter Into all hearts for the salva
tion of the republic and tho uplifting of mankind.
2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from industry
without an equivolont is robbery. “If any will not work, neither shall he eat.” The
interests of rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical. ,
3. We believe that the time hns come when the railroad corporations will cither
own tho people or the people must own them, and should the government onter upon
the work of owning and contiolling any or all railroads we should favor an amend¬
ment to the constitution by which all persons engaged in the government service
shall bo placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to^
prevent the increase of tho power of national administration by tho uso of such adtfl*
tionaJ government employes.
The Planks of the Platform.
1. We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the gen¬
eral government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that -
without the tise of banking corporations; a just, equitable and efficient means of dis¬
tribution. direct to tho people, at a tax not exceeding 2 percent., bo provided, as set
forth in thejsubtreasury plan of the Farmers’ Alliance, or some hotter system; also by
payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.
a. We demand free and uniimited coinage of silver and gold at the present ratio
of 16 to 1.
b. We demand that the amount of circulating medium bo speedily Increased to
not less than $50 capita.
c. Wo demand a graduated income tax.
d. Wo believe the money of the country should be kept as much as possible In
the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all State and national revenue
shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and
honestly administered. for
c. We demand that postal savings banks be established by the government
safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange. the
2. Transportation being a means of change and a public necessity, govern¬
ment should own and operate the railroads in the Interest of the people.
a. The telegraph and telephone, like the postoflice system, being a necessity for
the transportation of news should be owned and operated by the government in the
interest of the people.
3. The land, including all the national resources of wealth, is tho heritage Of all
the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, >-.nd alien own¬
ership of land should bo prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other cor¬
porations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by aliens, should
be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only.
SUPPLEMENT TO TIIE PLATFORM.—Whereas other questions have been
presented for our consideration, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the
platform of the Peoples’ party, but as resolutions expressive ot the sentiment of this
convention: •
1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections, and
pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter without Federal Intervention
through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot
system. .. ,
2. Resolved, That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be
applied to a reduction of the burden of taxation now resting upon the domestic indue- ,V
trie8 of the country. (
3. Resolved, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pensions t 9 ex-Union
soldiers and sailors.
4. Resolved, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under
the present system, which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the
world, and crowds out our wage earners; and we denounce the present ineffective
laws against contract labor, and demand the further restririton of undesirable immi¬
gration.
5 Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized working¬
men to shorten the hours of labor and demand a rigid enforcement of the existing
eight-hour law on government work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the
said law.
6. Resolved, That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of merce
naries, known as the Pinkerton system as a menace to our liberties, and we demand
its abolition; and wo condemn the recent invasion of the territory of Wyoming by
the hiered assassins of plutocracy, assisted by Federal officials.
7. Resolved, That we commend to the favorable consideration of the people and
the reform press the legislative system known as the Initiative and referendum.
8. Resolved, That we favor a constitutional provision limiting the office of Pres¬
ident^ the United and Vice-President States by direct to one term, and people.’ providing for the election of Senators of
a vote of the
9. Resolved, That we oppose any sudsidy or national aid to any private corpora*
tion for any purpose.
SUBSCRIBE FOR THE
Daily Press 9
PUBLISHED IN ATLANTA, GA.,
BY HON. THOMAS E. WATSON.
SUBSCRIPTION rates: