POLITICAL MOVEMENTS OF THE YEAR 1898. Arranged in the Order of Their Occurrence. The second annual convention of this or- "We are unalterably opposed to the single gold standard and the so-called reform of the Indianapolis monetary convention and all kindred projects. "We believe that congress alone has power to coin and issue money and that this power should not be delegated to individuals and corporations; that the power to control and regulate a paper currency is inseparable from the power to coin money, and that all currency intended to circulate as money should be issued and its volume controlled by the general government only. "We invite the co-operation of all persons who believe that the financial question is the paramount political issue and urge that all other domestic questions be held in abeyance until the principles enumerated 1 the foregoing resolutions shall be embodied into law. "We express our continued confidence in the brave and sagacious leader of the bimetallic forces in 1896, William Jennings Bryan, whose high character, eminent ability, unimpeachable integrity, dauntless courage, inspired with unparalleled devotion the democratic, silver republican and populist hosts in 1896. Louisville, Ky., was designated as the place for holding the convention of 1899. THE SOCIAL DEMOCRACY OF AMERICA This organization held a meeting in Chicago, Ill., in June, which resulted in a split, Mr. Debs and his followers retiring to another hall and organizing a new political party. The point of difference was the colonization scheme which Mr. Debs had once championed, but which experiment had satisfied him was chimerical and fatal to the purposes of the organization. The question of colonization came up, and after a night of rather bitter debate the convention upheld colonization by a vote of 52 to 36, when Mr. Debs and his followers withdrew, bers for the new organization. The followThe leaders claim something like 4,000 meming platform was adopted: Owners of the means of production. Labor, manual and mental, being the rightfully follows that those who perform creator of all wealth and all civilization, it all labor and create all wealth should enjoy impossible by the modern system of producthe fruit of their efforts. This is rendered tion. The fruits of co-operative labor are in a great measure appropriated by the This system is gradually extinguishing the middle class and necessarily leaves but two classes in our country-the large class of workers and the small class of great employers and capitalists. The producers can never be in reality free until they become the owners of the means of production. This is possible in but two ways: "1. Individual ownership, which has never been generally realized and which the in dustrial development is from day to day obliterating and rendering impossible. 2. Social ownership, which has been made necessary by the development of the mode of production. The individual instru ment, the tool, has developed into a social instrument, the machine. In order to conform to the change we must substitute social ownership for individual ownership of the means of production. This social control of the means of production must naturally follow the economic development. To accomplish the transition it is necessary that the producers of the country shall unite in an independent political party, the social democratic party of America, which aims to effect the change by all honorable means at the disposal of the producers, especially the ballot, which from a means of corruption and officehunting must be transformed into a means of emancipation. "We extend our sympathy to the struggling and starving Cuban patriots in their contest for liberty, and are in favor of immediate intervention by the United States to secure the absolute independence of the Cuban republic. And while we deprecate To arrive at this end we declare in favor war, unless necessary to maintain the of the following demands: national honor and to enforce the rule of "1. The public ownership of all industries civilization and humanity in this hemi-controlled by monopolies, trusts and comsphere, we favor such a vigorous foreign bines. policy as will preserve the dignity of the nation, secure proper respect for the stars and stripes and prevent in future the cowardly assassination of our brave and gallant sailors." The following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: President, James P. Tarvin, Covington, Ky.; vice-presidents, N. R. Tucker of Ohio, F. J. Van Voorhies of Indiana, A. C. Bentley of Illinois; secretary, Allen C. Clark of Indiana; treasurer, Col. Shote of Ohio. 2. The public ownership of all railroads, telegraphs, telephones, all means of transportation, communication, water works, gas and electric plants and all other public utilities. "3. The public ownership of gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, iron and all other mines; also all oil and gas wells. 4. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the progress of production. 5. The inauguration of a system of public works and improvements for the employ. ment of the unemployed, the public credit | Burkitt; Ohio, John Phalen; Pennsylvania, to be utilized for that purpose. "6. All useful inventions to be free to all, the inventor to be remunerated by the public. 7. The people to provide honorable maintenance for aged and disabled toilers. "8. Labor legislation to be made national instead of local and international where possible. 9. National insurance of working people against accidents and lack of employment. 10. Equal civil and political rights for women and the abolition of all laws discriminating against women. "11. The adoption of the initiative and referendum and the right of recall of representatives by the voters; also minority representation. 12. Abolition of war as far as the United States is concerned and the introduction of international arbitration instead. "Draft of a farmers' programme-While in the field of industry the instruments of production have become centralized to such a degree that only in collective form can they be restored to the producers, this is by no means the case in the field of agriculture; here the main instrument of production-to wit, the soil-is generally the individual possession of the producer. We adopt the following platform for the purpose of uniting the workers in the country with those in the city: "1. Nationalization of all mortgages on land, the rate of interest to be lowered to cost price. "2. The national credit to be at the disposal of the farmers for improvement of their land to the extent of half its value. Money to be issued for this purpose, which is to be destroyed when the installments are paid. "3. No more public land to be sold, but to be utilized by the United States or the state directly for the public benefit, or leased to farmers in small parcels of not over 640 acres, the state to make strict regulations as to improvement and cultivation. Forests and waterways to be put under direct control of the nation. maga "4. Erection of grain elevators, zines and cold-storage buildings by the nation to be used by the farmers at cost price. "6. A uniform postal rate for the transportation of agricultural products on all railroads. 7. Public credit to be at the disposal of counties and towns for the improvement of roads and soil and for irrigation and drainage. Money to be used for, such purpose to be destroyed when repaid." THE PEOPLE'S PARTY CONVENTION. Pursuant to a call issued by the national organization committee of the people's party a convention was held in Cincinnati, O., on the 6th day of September. The delegates, numbering about 246, who were in attendance represented that wing of the party known as the "middle-of-the-road" or "non fusionist" element. Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota was chosen chairman of the convention. A committee on resolutions was appointed to present an address to the people of the United States and to formulate a platform. This committee was composed of the following named delegates: Florida, F. H. Lytle; Georgia, W. J. McDaniel; Illinois, Ray Goodwin; Indiana, O. L. Ross; Kentucky, Jo A. Parker; Michigan, James E. McBride; Mississippi, Frank Wharton Barker; Tennessee, Horace Merritt; Minnesota, Ignatius Donnelly; Missouri, W. O. Atkeson; Arkansas, M. R. Coffman. The committee presented the following address and platform, which were adopted: "Prosperity is the first right of a people. "The preamble of the constitution of the United States declares the purpose of that instrument to be to promote the general welfare'-in other words, to enrich the people and make them happy. "Liberty is desired of all men, because it means equality of opportunity; and this means universal prosperity. Poverty, lacking liberty, is unable to defend itse.f against privilege. "All history is but a record of the struggles of mankind to rise to happiness in the face of misgovernment. "Labor in the ancient civilizations was but another name for slavery. All the workers in the forest, on the farm, in the shop and in the mine, were slaves. "The monuments of Egypt still rear their massive fronts to heaven, enduring testimony to the enormities of injustice inflicted upon the workmen who built them. "The producers of the wealth of Greece and Rome were denied happiness in life and heaven in death. They were regarded as soulless beings, forbidden to be present at the religious mysteries, and refused even the rights of sepulture. "Their degraded estate was branded in their very faces, and when they became too numerous for their masters' safety they were slaughtored by thousands. "The fact that they belonged to the same race, and even to the same families, as their owners did not in the least mitigate their sufferings. Nor was it considered any argument in behalf of the poor creatures that their outlawed caste had given birth to great geniuses and commanders, like Esop, Probus, Vitellius, Diocletian, and even Augustus Cæsar. "The producers of all food were hungry, the creators of all wealth were paupers, the manufacturers of all clothing were naked, the forgers of all weapons were defenseless. "Out of their very faith in God were welded the chains that rendered them helpless; for they feared the denial of the sacred rites of sepulture more than they feared death itself, and the baseless hopes of future bliss, in pagan heaven, were received by them as an equivalent for a life of continuous misery on earth. longer to bear the incalculable sufferings, "When these wretched beings, unable broke out in great insurrections, under Spartacus, Eunus, Athenion and others, and left to rot on the public highways. more than a million of them were crucified "The birth of the Christian religion was the first break of light amid the gloomy horrors of this awful spectacle. It came as an outburst from the depths of the oppressed and servile class. Its Founder was a me to chanic; His apostles fishermen. It preached the multitude equality and universal brotherhood, the immortality of the soul and the love of a Heavenly Father. Scourged the money-changers out of the temple and consigned the wicked rich to the tortures of an eternal hell. It "The growth of Christianity was a successful insurrection of the poor and was adopted by the great only after it had embraced the great body of the people. It gradually abolished slavery, mitigated the evils of human selfishness and lifted up all mankind. "The next step in this preordained advancement was the voyage of Columbus and the transfer of the best blood of the old world to the shores of the new. A flood of poor, hungry men struggled across the Atlantic, and, on terms of perfect equality and filled with the positive demands of liberty, spread themselves over the virgin land, kept void of inhabitants, therefor, by the providence of God. The "Then began a process of splendid development for which the previous experience of mankind had afforded no parallel. genius of humanity cast away its chains and stepped forward into the light with a continent for an arena, surrounded by the glorious effulgence of universal prosperity. "All who stood before it went down, and resistance was but a stepping-stone nobler heights of development. The dreams of the poets and sages of antiquity were realized, and a government of equal rights and human brotherhood, enlightened by universal education, rose like a mountain be fore the gaze of the astonished world. to "From the Atlantic to the Mississippi the forests were brushed away and endless gardens and magnificent cities covered the land. The bodies and the minds of men were enlarged to nobler proportions and all the magnificent qualities of the human soul shone forth with resplendent luster. "But the width of the Atlantic had not changed human nature. Into this paradise the old serpent of injustice drove the toiler himself. He took possession of the garden and drove the toiler from beneath his vine and fig tree. He changed the lovely scene into an abode of unhappiness, filled with lameutations. "It was shown by that census that 4,047 families owned $12,000,000,000 of the wealth of the whole country. In other words, three one hundredths of 1 per cent of the people owned one-fifth of all the wealth, 9 per cent of the people owned 71 per cent of the entire property of the country, while the remaining 91 per cent owned but 29 per cent of the wealth. Bankruptcy, suicide and insanity had grown beyond all precedent. "These facts struck terror to the souls of all thinking people. "They asked themselves, If less than 100 years of national life, starting from an ideal condition of equality, under the no blest institutions ever known to man, had produced these terrible results, what would another hundred years bring forth? "They perceived that the great American people were rapidly becoming landless, homeless and hopeless. "They beheld the birth of that product of modern times-the corporation-an artificial creature, unknown to the ancient world; a demon possessed of all the attributes of God's creatures, but clothed with immortal life and boundless power. They saw it rise in a few generations from the nothingness to the control of congress, sta e legislatures, municipal governments, avenues of public opinion, and all the instrumentalities of production and transportation. They saw it a government within the government-levying taxes and colecting revenues never voted by the peop.e. They saw it lessening the opportunities of labor; driving the farmer from his arm and the workman from his bench, concentrating the earth's surface in the hands of a few and consigning the toiler to change and starvation. Thoughtful men looked down the vista of the future and saw the people return.ng to the awful conditions of pre-Christian slavery. To the evil rich Christ had become but a name; the horrid image of Moloch displaced the gentle Nazarene in the hearts of the rulers of the world. "Appalled by the revelations of the census of 1890 the friends of mankind assembled in this city of Cincinnati on the 19th and 20th days of May, 1891, in a convention of 1,418 delegates from thirty-two states, and with vast enthusiasm and complete unanimity established the people's party of the United States. "They adjourned until Feb. 22, 1892, to meet at St. Louis, a great assemblage, representing all the extensive labor organizations of farmers and mechanics, including those which met in St. Louis in 1889, the Ocala conference of 1890 and the Omaha assemblage of the Northwestern alliance held in 1891. "The slowly gathering discontent, tending over many years, found voice at last in the preamble and resolutions of that convention. "They built the new party on the broadest and grandest principles. They declared that 'wealth belongs to him that creates it,' and that 'every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery.' They announced that the interests of rural and civic labor are the same, their enemies identical.' "They declared: "The conditions that surround us justify our co-operation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized, in most of the states have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places in order to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are subsidized, public opinion silenced, business prostrated. our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished and the land concentrating the hands of capitalists. The urban work men are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported, pauperized labor beats down their wages; a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes, unprecedented in the history of mankind, and the possessors of these in turn despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the prolific womb of gov ernmental injustice we breed two great "Upon by the people's party. the Omaha platform received The people's party vote in 1894 and 1895 rose to nearly 2,000,000, and everything indicated its speedy national triumph. "In this emergency the democratic party saw that it had no resource but to steal one of the principles of the despised populists, and after having persistently opposed the remonetization of silver in congress and defeating a dozen bills looking to that end it changed front in the twinkling of an eye, and in the Chicago convention of 1896, in a prearranged, theatrical scene of great up roar and enthusiasm, moved to the front as the devoted and lifelong champion of that which it had ever opposed. more doubtful sincerity of a rival organization. "In vain it was urged upon the convention that if we maintained our separate existence and nominated our own candıdates we could still unite with any other party in support of a joint electoral ticket in every state. "If this plan had been adopted the republican party would surely have been defeated, but democracy insisted that the battle must be won under their banner. Hence our noble candidate for vice-president was ostracized and pushed aside in behalf of a man whose every principle was in fundamental antagonism to the creed of our party, and our organization with its twenty-two electoral votes and nearly 2,000,000 voters was ignored and spat upon. Our nomination was thrown back in our faces by a telegram from the gentleman we had nominated; we were denied all recognition. The telegram of declination was not produced, but our votes were carefully exploited in the election which followed. "By an extraordinary calamity a gentleman was made chairman of our national committee and commander-in-chief of our forces who had achieved success by a combination with republicans, and who ready to equalize things by sacrificing our party to accomplish another unholy union with the democrats. was ization, just as Benedict Arnold stipulated He preached disintegration and demoralfor the scattering of the American forces that the British might the more readily overthrow the young republic. Mr. Butler taught our forces the first duty of a soldier was to break ranks and go over to the enemy. It was as if Gen. Miles had issued orders to our troops at Santiago to tear down the American flag and merge into the the question of God and the immortality of Spaniards-because we all thought alike on the soul. "All efforts to chain the boundless subtlety of this cunning man had been in vain. As late as Aug. 25, 1898, in a speech at Denver, Col., despite all previous compacts and promises, he urged all friends of free silver to act together, and he denounced those who were 'trying to divide its friends because they differed on other questions.' And yet he well knew that the republicans and prohibitionists of Colorado and all the western states were also in favor of free silver, and that there was just as much reason to unite with them as with the democrats. He also knew that where a smaller and weaker party unites with a "Having stolen one of the principles of our platform it became necessary to steal our votes Hence, and break up our organization. when Convention met, a tremendous pressure was the people's party national brought to bear upon it to do what no political party had ever done in the his"Our chief battle is not against the demonetization of one metal for the benefit country-to wit, to nominate of another, but against the chaining of the candidates of another party for presi- the world's progress to the car wheels of a dent and vies-president and stop In mid-prehistoric superstition in the shape of both tie itself its own tremendous growth and metals. The growth of population and the tie itself to the doubtful fortunes and still happiness of mankind are thus made con tory of our tingent upon accidental discoveries of two intrinsically worthless metals. The whole adoration of gold and silver is but a survival of pagan barbarism, more deadly in its effects than slavery, polygamy and witchcraft. "While it is conceded that money is a governmental measure of value, and consists not in its material but in the stamp of the nation, the whole world is to-day held in check by a system of gold barter, while enterprise languishes, industry suffers and cemeteries are becoming populous with the bodies of bankrupts and suicides. Recog nizing that a terrible emergency requires desperate remedies and that we must appeal to the highest qualities of the human mind and heart, and not in degrading 'dickers' and trades of scrambling politicians, we cast aside all precedents and go directly to the people. We commence anew the campaign of education which gave us, in the first two years of our existence, nearly 2,000,000 votes. "We believe the soul is bigger than the pocketbook. We address ourselves to the reason of men and their love of country. We have nothing but kind words for democrats and republicans, individually. We beg them to join our ranks and help us fight the battles of mankind. For those who, eager for immediate results, have innocently left us and merged with the enemy and helped on our demoralization, we extend the open arms of invitation and reconciliation. We ask them for the sake of the great truths which fired their hearts in 1892 to be with us in 1898 and forever after. If the birth of our party was demanded by events six years ago circumstances clamor in thunder tones for its continuance to-day. The whole experiment of self-government is at stake. We are about to add to our population as many millions of alien and strange people as our whole voting force amounts to, and no one can say how soon these will be dragged to the ballot box by the money power to bury our liberties in universal ruin. "By all the dreadful past of the world, by the memory of all the millions who ended lives of miserable enslavement in degraded graves, by the teachings and sacrifices of the martyred Christ, by the sufferings of the great revolution that made us a nation, by all the hopes of humanity all over this round globe, we implore our fel low-citizens to unite with us in one grand effort to build up a reform party that will liberate mankind. "Our hearts go out to the wretched and oppressed of the whole world, and if placed in power in this country we shall try to so act as to help all mankind. PLATFORM OF THE REVIVIFIED PEOPLE'S PARTY. "As a fundamental step to the preservation of our endangered liberties we demand that the reign of corruption shall cease in our legislative halls by the establishment of direct legislation. We must shorten the plow handles of government by bringing the legislator closer to his principals so close that no lobbyist can intrude between them. Through the initiative and referendum all moral and political questions can be submitted to a fair and impartial vote of the people and if adopted by a majority of the voters become the law of the land. "While we demand that if either gold or silver is to be used as money both shall be so used, we insist that the best currency this country ever possessed was the full legal tender greenback of the civil war. And we look forward with hope to the day when gold shall be relegated to the arts of the country and the human family possess, free of tribute to bankers, a governmental full legal measure of value, made of paper, that will expand side by side with the growth of wealth and population. Then, and only then, will the people realize the full benefits of civilization and the world be made a garden of delights for mankind. "We call attention to the public school system and the postal service as exemplifications of a beneficent state socialism which our people would only relinquish with their lives. And we demand that the carrying of messages written with pen and ink be amplified to embrace messages written by electricity, and that the train of cars which carries our letters be owned by the government to carry those who wrote the letters. No other reforms will avail much if corporations are permitted to say how much they shall take from the producers and how much they will leave them. This is taxation without representation in its worst form. It is the disgrace of our republic that foreign despotisms have defended the right of the people in these particulars, while corruption has made self-government a helpless failure in this land. We believe in the collective ownership of those means of production and distribution which the people may elect, such as railways, telegraphs, telephones, coal mines, etc. "We are opposed to individuals or corporations fastening themselves, like vampires, on the people, and sucking their substance, and we demand that whatever can be better done by government for the en richment of the many shall not be turnedover to individuals for the aggrandizement of the few. "Hence we insist that banks have no more right to create our money than they would have to organize our army or pass our laws. "We reaffirm the fundamental principles of the Omaha platform and declare it to be the immutable creed of our party, coeval with it in birth and filled with the spirit that launched it on its grand career. It must not be whittled away or traded off for offices. The man who proposes to do this is an enemy of mankind; he would sell the kingdom of heaven for a mess of pottage. "In order to maintain the liberties of the people we must preserve their homes, and we therefore demand laws in the several states exempting the homes of the people from taxation absolutely in a sum not less than $2,000, and a personal property exemption of not less than $300 to each head of a family. To make up for this reduction of taxation we favor an income, inheritance and other like taxes. With malice toward none, with charity to all, with devotion to the right as God gives us to see the right,' we commit our cause to the hearts and consciences of the American people." After the adoption of the address and platform the convention proceeded to the nomination of candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. Upon a call of the states Mr. Rahilly of Minnesota presented the name of Ignatius Donnelly; Dr. Fay of the same state and Mr. Burton of Illinois seconded the nomination. Florida yielding |