We are in favor of the arbitration of differences between employers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees, and recommend such legislation as is necessary to carry out this principle.
The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our leading railroad systems, and the formation of trusts and pools require a stricter control by the Federal govern ment of those arteries of commerce. We demand the enlargement of the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission and such restriction and guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people from robbery andAjppreasion.
We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of recent Republican congresses, which have kept taxes high while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the pructs of the people s toil are depressed in price till they no longer repay the cost of production. We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befits • Democratic government and a reduction in the number of useless offices the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.
We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authori ties in local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States and a crime against free institutions, and we especi lly object to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which the Federal judges. in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, execu tioners._• and we approve the bill passed at the last session U of the nited States Senate, and now pending in the House of Representatives, relative to contempt' in Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.
No discrimination should be indulged in by the govern ment of the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pam the Pacific Railroad Funding Bill and denounce the effort of the present Republican Congress to enact a similar measure.
Recognising the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we heartily endorse the rule of the present commissioner of pensions, that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the roll; and the fact of enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.
We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico Arizona, and Oklahoma into the Union as States, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having the necessary population and resources to entitle them to State hood, and, while they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any Territory, together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona .fide residents of the Territory or District in which their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party believes in home rule and that all public lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establishment of free homes for American citizens.
We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a delegate in Congres, and that the general land and timber laws of the United States be extended to said Territory.
The Monroe Doctrine. as originally declared, and as interpreted by succeeding Presidents. is a permanent part of the foreign policy of the United States and must at all tin m be maintained.
We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and independence.
We are opposed to life tenure in the public service. except as provided in the Constitution. We favor appoint ments based on merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the civil-service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness.
We declare it to be the unwritten law of this Republic, established by custom and usage of one hundred years and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our government, that no man should be eligible for a third term of the Presi dential office.
The Federal government should care for and improve the MississippiRiver and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide water. When any waterway of the Republic is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured.