population of this country and to restore the just level of prices of labor and production.

4. We denounce the sale of bonds and the increase of the public interest-bearing bond debt made by the present Administration as unnecessary and without authority of law, and that no more bonds be issued except by specific act of Congress.

5. We demand such legal legislation as will prevent the demonetization of the lawful money of the United States by private contract. 6. We demand that the Government on payment of its obligations shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and preceding Administrations for surrendering this option to the holders of Government obligations. 7. We demand a graduated income tax, to the end that aggregated wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation, and we denounce the recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to the income-tax law as a misinterpretation of the Constitution and an invasion of the rightful powers of Congress over the subject of taxation.

8. We demand that postal savings banks be established by the Government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people and to facilitate exchange.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS
AND TELEGRAPH.

1. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people and on non-partisan basis, to the end that all may be accorded the same treatment in transportation, and that the tyranny and political power now exercised by the great railroad corporations, which result in the impairment if not the destruction of the political rights and personal liberties of the citizen, may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accomplished gradually, in a manner consistent with sound public policy.

2. The interest of the United States in the public highways built with public moneys and the proceeds of extensive grants of land to the Pacific railroads should never be alienated, mortgaged, or sold, but guarded and protected for the general welfare as provided by the laws organizing such railroads. The foreclosing of existing liens of the United States on these roads should at once follow default in the payment of the debt of the companies, and at the foreclosure sales of said roads the Government shall purchase the same if it becomes necessary to protect its interests therein, or if they can be purchased at a

reasonable price; and the Government shall operate said railroads as public highways for the benefit of the whole and not in the interest of the few, under suitable provisions for protection of life and property, giving to all transportation interests and privileges and equal rates for fares and freight.

3. We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding those debts and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be executed and administered according to their true intent and spirit.

4. The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the interest of the people.

LAND, HOMES, AND PACIFIC RAILROAD GRANTS.

1. The true policy demands that the national and State legislation shall be such as will ultimately enable every prudent and industrious citizen to secure a home, and therefore the land should not be monopolized for speculative purposes.

All lands now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs should by lawful means be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only, and private land monopoly, as well as alien ownership, should be prohibited.

2. We condemn the frauds by which the land grant to the Pacific Railroad Companies have, through the connivance of the Interior Department, robbed multitudes of bona fide settlers of their homes. and miners of their claims, and we demand legislation by Congress which will enforce the exemption of mineral land from such grants after as well as before patent.

3. We demand that bona fide settlers on all public lands be granted free homes, as provided in the national homestead law, and that no exception be made in the case of Indian reservations when opened for settlement, and that all lands not now patented come under this demand.

DIRECT LEGISLATION AND GENERAL PLANKS.

We favor a system of direct legislation through the initiative and referendum under proper constitutional safeguards.

We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and United States Senators by a direct vote of the people.

We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest sympathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and independence, and we

believe the time has come when the United States, the great Republic of the world, should recognize that Cuba is and of right ought to be a free and independent state.

We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of Columbia and the early admission of the Territories as States.

All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price of labor and its products.

In times of great industrial depression idle labor should be employed on public works as far as practicable.

The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison citizens for indirect contempt and ruling by injunction should be prevented by proper legislation.

We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers.

Believing that the elective franchise and untrammelled ballot are essential to a government of, for, and by the people, the People's Party condemn the wholesale system of disfranchisement adopted in some States as unrepublican and undemocratic, and we declare it to be the duty of the several State Legislatures to take such action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot and an honest count.

FINANCIAL QUESTION "THE PRESSING ISSUE."

While the foregoing propositions constitute the platform upon which our party stands, and for the vindication of which its organization will be maintained, we recognize that the great and pressing issue of the pending campaign, upon which the present Presidential election. will turn, is the financial question, and upon this great and specific issue between the parties we cordially invite the aid and co-operation of all organizations and citizens agreeing with us upon this vital question.

216. THE DE LOME LETTER

One of the preliminaries of the Spanish-American War was the enforced resignation of the Spanish Minister to the United States. The papers relating to the so-called De Lome letter follow.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1898, pp. 1007-1017. Washington, 1901.

[Translation of letter written by Señor Don Enrique Dupuy de Lome to Señor Don José Canalejas. Undated, but from internal evidence probably written about the middle of December, 1897.]

LEGATION OF SPAIN, Washington.

His Excellency Don JOSÉ CANALEJAS.

MY DISTINGUISHED AND DEAR FRIEND: You have no reason to ask my excuses for not having written to me. I ought also to have written to you, but I have put off doing so because overwhelmed with work and nous sommes quittes.

The situation here remains the same. Everything depends on the political and military outcome in Cuba...

The message has been a disllusionment to the insurgents, who expected something different; but I regard it as bad (for us).

Besides the ingrained and inevitable bluntness (groseria) with which is repeated all that the press and public opinion in Spain have said about Weyler, it once more shows what McKinley is, weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd, besides being a would-be politician (politicastro) who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of his party.

Nevertheless, whether the practical results of it [the message] are to be injurious and adverse depends only upon ourselves.

I am entirely of your opinions; without a military end of the matter nothing will be accomplished in Cuba, and without a military and political settlement there will always be the danger of encouragement being given to the insurgents by a part of the public opinion if not by the Government.

It would be very advantageous to take up, even if only for effect, the question of commercial relations, and to have a man of some prominence sent hither in order that I may make use of him here to carry on a propaganda among the Senators and others in opposition to the junta and to try to win over the refugees.

Ever your attached friend and servant,

ENRIQUE DUPUY DE LÔME.

Mr. Day to Mr. Woodford.
[Telegram.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, February 9, 1898.

There has appeared in the public prints a letter, addressed early in December last by the Spanish minister to Mr. Canalejas, and which the minister admits was written by him. It contains expressions concerning the President of the United States of such character as to end the minister's utility as a medium for frank and sincere intercourse between this country and Spain. You are, therefore, instructed to at once say to the minister of state that the immediate recall of the minister is expected by the President.

No. 13.]

EXCELLENCY:

Señor Gullon to Mr. Woodford.

MY DEAR SIR:..

DAY, Acting.

MINISTRY OF STATE,

Palace, February 15, 1898.

After your excellency read to me the telegram transmitted by your Government,.. when you asked me to indicate to you the opinions and intentions of the cabinet of Madrid concerning the facts mentioned in the same dispatch I replied solely that the Spanish Government, like that of Washington, and like your excellency, with entire sincerity lamented the incident which was the cause of our interview; but that, while considering it and measuring its real significance, Señor Dupuy de Lome had already solved it by presenting the resignation of his charge, which the council of ministers had just accepted.

To this clear declaration I understood that I should limit my reply, because, in fact, the Spanish ministry, in accepting the resignation of a functionary whose services they had been utilizing and valuing up to that time, left it perfectly well established that they did not share, and rather, on the contrary, disauthorized, the criticisms tending to offend or censure the chief of a friendly State, although such criticisms had been written within the field of personal friendship, and had reached publicity by artful and criminal means.

I take advantage, etc.,

[Inclosure in No. 150.]

PIO GULLON.