USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. VI > Part 32
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"The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions. .
"Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.
"This declaration is our covenant with the people, and we hereby bind the party and its candidates in State and nation to the pledges made herein.
"Rule of the People .- The Progressive party, committed to the principle of government by a self-controlled democracy expressing its will through representatives of the people, pledges itself to secure such alterations in the fundamental law of the several States and of the United States as shall insure the representative character of the gov- ernment. In particular the party declares for direct primaries for the nomination of State and national officers, for nation-wide preferential
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primaries for candidates for the Presidency, for the direct election of United States Senators by the people; and we urge on the States the policy of the short ballot, with responsibility to the people secured by the initiative, referendum, and recall.
"The Progressive party, believing that a free people should have the power from time to time to amend their fundamental law so as to adapt it progressively to the changing needs of the people, pledges itself to provide a more easy and expeditious method of amending the Federal Constitution.
"Nation and State .- Up to the limit of the Constitution, and later by amendment of the Constitution, if found necessary, we advocate bringing under effective national jurisdiction those problems which have expanded beyond reach of the individual States.
"It is as grotesque as it is intolerable that the several States should by unequal laws in matter of common concern become competing commercial agencies to barter the lives of their children, the health of their women, and the safety and well-being of their working people for the profit of their financial interests.
"The extreme insistence on States rights by the Democratic party in the Baltimore platform demonstrates anew its inability to under- stand the world into which it has survived or to administer the affairs of a Union of States which have in all essential respects become one people.
"Social and Industrial Justice .- The supreme duty of the nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceas- ingly in State and nation for :
"Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial acci- dents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects incident to modern industry ;
"The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and nation, including the Federal control over interstate commerce and the taxing power, to maintain such standards;
"The prohibition of child labor;
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"Minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a liv- ing scale in all industrial occupations ;
"The prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an eight-hour day for women and young persons;
"One day's rest in seven for all wage-workers;
"The eight-hour day in continuous twenty-four hour industries ;
"The abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; and the application of prisoners' earnings to the support of their dependent families ;
"Publicity as to wages, hours, and conditions of labor ; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures, and check systems on labor products ;
"Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade diseases which will transfer the burden of lost earn- ings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community ;
"The protection of 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 development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing con- tinuation schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools ;
"The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers.
"We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress.
"Regulation of Interstate Corporations .- We believe that true popular government, justice, and prosperity go hand in hand, and, so believing, it is our purpose to secure that large measure of general prosperity which is the fruit of legitimate and honest business, fostered by equal justice and by sound progressive laws.
WILLIAM H. TAFT
William H. Taft, 27th president; born at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 15, 1857; lawyer; assistant county solicitor Hamilton County, 1885-87; judge superior court of Cincinnati, 1887-90; solicitor general United States, 1890-92; circuit judge, 1892- 1900; secretary of war under President Roosevelt, 1904-08; elected president, 1908; defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson, 1912; appointed by President Harding chief judge United States supreme court, 1921.
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"We demand that the test of true prosperity shall be the benefits conferred thereby on all the citizens, not confined to individuals or classes, and that the test of corporate efficiency shall be the ability better to serve the public; that those who profit by control of business affairs shall justify that profit and that control by sharing with the public the fruits thereof.
"We therefore demand a strong national regulation of interstate corporations. The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both inevi- table 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.
"This power has been abused in monopoly of national resources, in stock watering, in unfair competition and unfair privileges, and, finally, in sinister influences on the public agencies of State and nation. We do not fear commercial power, but we insist that it shall be exercised openly under publicity, supervision, and regulation of the most efficient sort, which will preserve its good while eradicating its evils.
"To that end we urge the establishment of a strong Federal Admin- istrative 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.
"Such a commission must enforce the complete publicity of those corporation transactions which are of public interest ; must attack un- fair competition, false capitalization, and special privilege, and by con- tinuous trained watchfulness guard and keep open equally to all the highways of American commerce. Thus the business man will have certain knowledge of the law and will be able to conduct his business easily in conformity therewith, the investor will find security for his capital, dividends will be rendered more certain, and the savings of
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the people will be drawn naturally and safely into the channels of trade.
"Under such a system of constructive regulation legitimate business, freed from confusion, uncertainty, and fruitless litigation, will develop normally in response to the energy and enterprise of the American business man.
"Commercial Development .- The time has come when the Federal government should cooperate with manufacturers and producers in extending our foreign commerce. To this end we demand adequate appropriations by Congress and the appointment of diplomatic and consular officers solely with a view to their special fitness and worth, and not in consideration of political expediency.
"It is imperative to the welfare of our people that we enlarge and extend our foreign commerce. We are preeminently fitted to do this because, as a people, we have developed high skill in the art of manu- facturing; our business men are strong executives, strong organizers. In every way possible our Federal government should cooperate in this important matter.
"Any one who has had opportunity to study and observe first-hand Germany's course in this respect must realize that their policy of cooperation between government and business has in comparatively few years made them a leading competitor for the commerce of the world. It should be remembered that they are doing this on a national scale and with large units of business, while the Democrats would have us believe that we should do it with small units of business, which would be controlled not by the national government but by forty-nine conflicting sovereignties. Such a policy is utterly out of keeping with the progress of the times and gives our great commercial rivals in Europe-hungry for international markets-golden oppor- tunities of which they are rapidly taking advantage.
"The Tariff .- We believe in a protective tariff which shall equalize conditions of competition between the United States and foreign coun- tries, both for the farmer and the manufacturer, and which shall main- tain for labor an adequate standard of living. Primarily the benefit of any tariff should be disclosed in the pay envelope of the laborer. We declare that no industry deserves protection which is unfair to
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labor or which is operating in violation of Federal law. We believe that the presumption is always in favor of the consuming public.
"We demand tariff revision because the present tariff is unjust to the people of the United States. Fair-dealing toward the people requires an immediate downward revision of those schedules wherein duties are shown to be unjust and excessive.
"We pledge ourselves to the establishment of a non-partisan scien- tific Tariff commission, reporting both to the President and to either branch of Congress, which shall report first, as to the costs of produc- tion, efficiency of labor, capitalization, industrial organization and efficiency, and the general competitive position in this country and abroad of industries seeking protection from Congress; second, as to the revenue-producing power of the tariff and its relation to the resources of government; and thirdly, as to the effect of the tariff on prices, operations of middlemen, and on the purchasing power of the consumer.
"We believe that this commission should have plenary power to elicit information, and for this purpose to prescribe a uniform system of accounting for the great protected industries. The work of the commission should not prevent the immediate adoption of acts reducing those schedules generally recognized as excessive.
"We condemn the Payne-Aldrich bill as unjust to the people. The Republican organization is in the hands of those who have broken, and cannot again be trusted to keep, the promise of necessary downward revision. The Democratic party is committed to the destruction of the protective system through a tariff for revenue only-a policy which would inevitably produce widespread industrial and commercial disaster.
"We demand the immediate repeal of the Canadian Reciprocity act.
"High Cost of Living .- The high cost of living is due partly to world-wide and partly to local causes; partly to natural and partly to artificial causes. The measures proposed in this platform on various subjects, such as the tariff, the trusts, and conservation, will of them- selves remove the artificial causes. There will remain other elements, such as the tendency to leave the country for the city, waste, extrava- gance, bad systems of taxation, poor methods of raising crops, and bad
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business methods in marketing crops. To remedy these conditions requires the fullest information and, based on this information, effec- tive government supervision and control to remove all the artificial causes. We pledge ourselves to such full and immediate inquiry and to immediate action to deal with every need such inquiry discloses.
"Improvement of the Currency .- We believe there exists impera- tive need for prompt legislation for the improvement of our national currency system. We believe the present method of issuing notes through private agencies is harmful and unscientific. The issue of currency is fundamentally a government function, and the system should have as basic principles soundness and elasticity. The control should be lodged with the government and should be protected from domination or manipulation by Wall Street or any special interests.
"We are opposed to the so-called Aldrich Currency bill because its provisions would place our currency and credit system in private hands, not subject to effective public control.
"Conservation of Natural Resources .- The natural resources of the nation must be promptly developed and generously used to supply the people's needs, but we cannot safely allow them to be wasted, exploited, monopolized, or controlled against the general good. We heartily favor the policy of conservation and we pledge our party to protect the national forests without hindering their legitimate use, for the benefit of all the people. Agricultural lands in the national forests are, and should remain, open to the genuine settler. Conservation will not retard legitimate development. The honest settler must receive his patent promptly without needless restrictions or delays.
"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.
"In order that consumers and producers, managers and workmen, now and hereafter, need not pay toll to private monopolies of power and raw material, 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 benefits conferred.
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"In particular we pledge our party to require reasonable compensa- tion to the public for water-power rights hereafter granted by the public. We pledge legislation to lease the public grazing lands under equitable provisions now pending which will increase the production of food for the people and thoroughly safeguard the rights of the actual homemaker. Natural resources whose conservation is neces- sary for the national welfare should be owned and controlled by the nation.
"Waterways .- The rivers of the United States are the natural arteries of this continent. We demand that they shall be opened to traffic as indispensable parts of a great nation-wide system of trans- portation in which the Panama canal will be the central link, thus enabling the whole interior of the United States to share with the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards in the benefit derived from the canal.
"It is a national obligation to develop our rivers, and especially the Mississippi and its tributaries, without delay, under a comprehensive general plan covering each river system from its source to its mouth, designed to secure its highest usefulness for navigation, irrigation, domestic supply, water-power, and the prevention of floods. We pledge our party to the immediate preparation of such a plan, which should be made and carried out in close and friendly cooperation be- tween the nation, the States, and the cities affected.
"Under such a plan the destructive floods of the Mississippi and other streams, which represent a vast and needless loss to the nation, would be controlled by forest conservation and water storage at the headwaters and by levees below, land sufficient to support millions of people would be reclaimed from the deserts and swamps, water-power enough to transform the industrial standing of whole States would be developed, adequate water terminals would be provided, transporta- tion would revive, and the railroads would be compelled to cooperate as freely with the boat lines as with each other.
"The equipment, organization, and experience acquired in con- structing the Panama canal soon will be available for the Lakes-to- the-Gulf deep waterway and other portions of this great work, and should be utilized by the nation in cooperation with the various States at the lowest net cost to the people.
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"Panama Canal .- The Panama canal, built and paid for by the American people, must be used primarily for their benefit. We demand that the canal shall be so operated as to break the transporta- tion monopoly now held and misused by the transcontinental railroads by maintaining sea competition with them; that ships directly or indi- rectly owned or controlled by American railroad corporations shall not be permitted to use the canal, and that American ships engaged in coastwise trade shall pay no tolls.
"The Progressive party will favor legislation having for its aim the development of friendship and commerce between the United States and Latin-American nations.
"Alaska .- The coal and other natural resources of Alaska should be opened to development at once. They are owned by the people of the United States and are safe from monopoly, waste, or destruction only while so owned. We demand that they shall neither be sold nor given away except under the Homestead law, but while held in gov- ernment ownership shall be opened to use promptly upon liberal terms requiring immediate development.
"Thus the benefit of cheap fuel will accrue to the government of the United States and to the people of Alaska and the Pacific coast, the settlement of extensive agricultural lands will be hastened, the extermination of the salmon will be prevented, and the just and wise development of Alaskan resources will take the place of private extor- tion or monopoly.
"We demand also that extortion or monopoly in transportation shall be prevented by the prompt acquisition, construction, or improve- ment by the government of such railroads, harbor, and other facilities for transportation as the welfare of the people may demand.
"We promise the people of the Territory of Alaska the same measure of local self-government that was given to other American Territories, and that Federal officials appointed there shall be qualified by previous bona fide residence in the Territory.
"Equal Suffrage .- The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denies politi- cal rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike. 1
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"Corrupt Election Practices .- We pledge our party to legislation that will compel strict limitation on all campaign contributions and expenditures, and detailed publicity of both before as well as after primaries and elections.
"Publicity and Public Service .- We pledge our party to legisla- tion compelling the registration of lobbyists; publicity of committee hearings, except on foreign affairs, and recording of all votes in com- mittee; and forbidding Federal appointees from holding office in State or national political organizations or taking part as officers or delegates in political conventions for the nomination of elective State or national officials.
"Popular Review of Judicial Decisions .- The Progressive party demands such restriction of the power of the courts as shall leave to the people the ultimate authority to determine fundamental questions of social welfare and public policy. To secure this end, it pledges itself to provide:
"First .- 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.
"Second .- 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.
"Administration of Justice .- The Progressive party, in order to secure to the people a better administration of justice, and by that means to bring about a more general respect for the law and the courts, pledges itself to work unceasingly for the reform of legal procedure and judicial methods.
"We believe that the issuance of injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes should be prohibited when such injunctions would not apply when no labor disputes existed.
"We also believe that a person cited for contempt in labor dis- putes, except when such contempt was committed in the actual pres-
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ence of the court or so near thereto as to interfere with the proper administration of justice, should have a right to trial by jury.
"A Department of Labor .- We pledge our party to establish a Department of Labor, with a seat in the cabinet and with wide juris- diction over matters affecting the conditions of labor and living.
"Country Life .- The development and prosperity of country life are as important to the people who live in the cities as they are to the farmers. Increase of prosperity on the farm will favorably affect the cost of living and promote the interests of all who dwell in the country and all who depend upon its products for clothing, shelter, and food.
"We pledge our party to foster the development of agricultural credit and cooperation, the teaching of agriculture in schools, agricul- tural college extension, the use of mechanical power on the farm, and to reestablish the Country Life commission, thus directly promot- ing the welfare of the farmers and bringing the benefits of better farming, better business, and better living within their reach.
"National Health Service .- We favor the union of all the exist- ing agencies of the Federal government dealing with the public health into a single National Health Service, without discrimination against or for any one set of therapeutic methods, school of medi- cine, or school of healing, with such additional powers as may be necessary to enable it to perform efficiently such duties in the pro- tection of the public from preventable diseases as may be properly undertaken by the Federal authorities, including the executing of existing laws regarding pure food, quarantine and cognate subjects, the promotion of appropriate action for the improvement of vital statistics and the extension of the registration area of such statistics, and cooperation with the health activities of the various States and cities of the nation.
"Patents .- We pledge ourselves to the enactment of a Patent law which will make it impossible for patents to be suppressed or used against the public welfare in the interests of injurious monopolies.
"Interstate Commerce Commission .- We pledge our party to secure to the Interstate Commerce commission the power to value the physi-
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cal property of railroads. In order that the power of the commis- sion to protect the people may not be impaired or destroyed, we demand the abolition of the Commerce Court.
"Good Roads .- We recognize the vital importance of good roads, and we pledge our party to foster their extension in every proper way, and we favor the early construction of National highways. We also favor the extension of the rural free-delivery service.
"Inheritance and Income Tax .- We believe in a graduated inheri- tance tax as a national means of equalizing the obligations of holders of property to government, and we hereby pledge our party to enact such a Federal law as will tax large inheritances, returning to the States an equitable percentage of all amounts collected. We favor the ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution giv- ing the government power to levy an income tax.
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