There are two ideas of government. There are those who be- Democratic lieve that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous prosperity. theory of that their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in this country. . .

challenge.

If they dare to come out and in the open defend the gold stand- The ard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the Nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

45. Contemporary Political Issues

The following condensed extracts from the platforms of two leading parties in the campaign of 1912 reveal the tendency of the older issues growing out of the Civil War and Reconstruction to disappear before the newer questions connected with the development of industry and commerce, the relations of capital and labor, and changes in our system of government.

We heartily favor the policy of conservation and pledge our Progressive platform on party to protect the National forests without hindering their Conservalegitimate use for the benefit of all the people.

Agriculture lands in the National forests are, and should remain, open to the settler. Conservation will not retard legitimate development.

tion.

The Democratic platform on the trust ques

tion.

We believe that the remaining forests, coal and oil lands, water powers, and other natural resources, still in State or National control (except agricultural lands), are more likely to be wisely conserved and utilized for the general welfare if held in the public hands.

We demand that such resources shall be retained by the State or Nation, and opened to immediate use under laws which will encourage development and make to the people a moderate return for the benefits conferred.

Pledge our party to require reasonable compensation to the public for water power rights, hereafter granted to the public.

Natural resources whose conservation is necessary for the National welfare should be owned or controlled by the Nation.

A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable.

Favor the vigorous enforcement of the criminal as well as the civil law against trusts and trust officials.

Demand the enactment of such additional legislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private monopoly to exist in the United States.

We favor the declaration by law of the conditions upon which corporations shall be permitted to engage in interstate trade, including, among others, the prevention of holding companies, of interlocking directors, of stock watering, of discrimination in price, and the control by any one corporation of so large a proportion of any industry as to make it a menace to competitive conditions.

We condemn the action of the Republican Administration in compromising with the Standard Oil Company and the Tobacco Trust, and its failure to invoke the criminal provisions of the Anti-Trust law against the officers of these corporations. . . .

We regret that the Sherman Anti-Trust law has received a judicial construction depriving it of much of its efficacy, and we favor the enactment of legislation which will restore to the statute the strength of which it has been deprived in such interpretation.

We favor the efficient supervision and rate regulation of railroads, express companies, telegraph and telephone lines engaged in interstate commerce.

To this end we recommend the valuation of railroads, express companies, telegraph and telephone lines by the Interstate Commerce Commission, such valuation to take into consideration the physical value of the property, the original cost, the cost of reproduction and any element of value that will render the valuation fair and just. . . .

We favor also legislation preventing the over issue of stocks and bonds by interstate railroads, express companies, telegraph and telephone lines, and legislation which will assure such reduction in transportation rates as conditions will permit, care being taken to avoid reduction that would compel a reduction of wages, prevent adequate service or do injustice to legitimate invest

ments.

We demand a strong National regulation of interstate cor- The Progresporations.

The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The concentration of modern business, in some degrees, is both inevitable and necessary for National and international business efficiency. But the existing concentration of vast wealth under a corporate system, unguarded and uncontrolled by the Nation, has placed in the hands of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible power over the daily life of the citizen - a power insufferable in a free Government and certain of abuse.

Urge the establishment of a strong Federal administrative commission of high standing, which shall maintain permanent active supervision over industrial corporations engaged in interstate commerce or such of them as are of public importance, doing for them what the Government now does for the National banks, and what is now done for the railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission. . . .

We pledge our party to secure to the Interstate Commerce

sive Party on the trust

issue.

Progressive Party on the judiciary.

The Progres

lation.

Commission the power to value the physical property of railroads.

Pledge party to provide that when an act, passed under the police power of the State, is held unconstitutional under the State constitution, by the courts, the people, after an ample interval for deliberation, shall have an opportunity to vote on the question whether they desire the act to become law, notwithstanding such decision.

Pledge party to provide that every decision of the highest appellate court of a State declaring an act of the legislature unconstitutional on the ground of its violation of the Federal constitution shall be subject to the same review by the Supreme Court of the United States as is now accorded to decisions sustaining such legislation.

We believe that the issuance of injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes should be prohibited when such injunctions would not apply if no labor disputes existed.

We also believe that a person cited for contempt in labor disputes, except when such contempt was committed in the actual presence of the court or so near thereto as to interfere with the proper administration of justice, should have a right to trial by jury.

The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human sive program resources by an enlarged measure of social and industrial justice. of labor legisPledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for effective legislation, looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment and other injurious effects, incident to modern industry.

We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for the fixing of minimum safety and health standards; for the prohibition of child labor; for minimum wage standards for working women; to provide a living wage in all industrial occupations; for the prohibition of night work for women; for the

establishment of an eight-hour day for women and young persons; for one day's rest in seven for all wage workers; for the eight-hour day in continuous twenty-four-hour system; for the abolition of the convict contract labor system; for substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; for the application of prisoners' earnings to the support of their dependent families; for publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases; the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products; for standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry and thus to the community; for the protection of the home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American

use. . . .

The movement toward more popular government should be promoted through legislation in each State which will permit the expression of the preference of the electors for national candidates at Presidential primaries.

We direct that the National Committee incorporate in the call for the next nominating convention a requirement that all expressions of preference for Presidential candidate shall be given and the selection of delegates and alternates be made through a primary election conducted by the party organization in each State where such expression and election are not provided for by State law.

Committeemen who are hereafter to constitute the membership of the Democratic National Committee and whose election is not provided for by law shall be chosen in each State at such primary elections, and the service and authority of committeemen, however chosen, shall begin immediately upon the receipt of their credentials respectively.

The Democratic Party

on primary

reform.