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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN MAY Oo ENT’ L161—0-1096 | A Contract || With the People| PLATFORM _ Progressive Party — ADOPTED AT ITS First National Convention Chicago, August 7th, 1912 == PROGRESSIVE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ascent annem snes Sane ee a eS EO oe one Forty-secon d Street Building, New York City | Extracts from Speeches of Acceptance before the | Progressive National Convention By Theodore Roosevelt : : “With all my heart and soul, with every par- ticle of high purpose that is in me, I pledge you my word to do everything I can, to put every par- ticle of courage, of common sense and of strength that I have at your disposal, and to endeavor so far as strength is given me to live up to the obli- ‘gations you have put upon me to endeavor to carry out in the interests of our whole people the policies to which you have to-day solemnly dedi- cated yourselves to the millions of men and women for whom you speak.” . _B Hiram W. Johnson: | ‘ *« ASC a ls SNES EE F] | ‘It is with the utmost solemnity, the deepest obligation that I come to tell you that I have en- | listed for the war. I enlisted long ago, and I i enlisted in that fight that is your fight now, the N ©6>.: fight of all the nation, thank God, at last, human- ity’s fight politically all over the land. | “There is a new era, a new fight, a new struggle that is abroad now. There is a new | political creed, the great creed of equal oppor- | tunity, of a fair deal for all human kind, of giving | to every child in the race of life an equal start; it is the creed, in the last analysis, of humanity that is now the creed of one of the great national parties in the United States of America.” 7 TT The above are the guaranties that the following contract if ratified by the people will be carried out. JI _ Declaration of Principles of the Progressive Party. 4+ The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national =problems, has called into being a new party, born of the -‘ nation’s awakened sense of justice. We of the Progressive party here dedicate ourseives to the fulfillment of the duty laid upon us by our fathers to maintain that government of the people, by the people and for the people whose founda- - tions they laid. | legac | We hold with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that the people are the masters of their constitution, to fulfill its purposes and to safeguard it from those who, by perversion of its intent, would convert it into an instrument of injustice. In accordance with the needs of each genera- tion the people must use their sovereign powers to establish and maintain equal opportunity and industrial justice, to secure which this government was founded and without which no republic can endure. : This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will - best promote the general interest. ba be lievadot It is time to set the public welfare in the first place. THE OLD PARTIES UA es Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the gen- eral welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt inter- | ests which use them impartially to serve their selfish pur- poses. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an Invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowl- edging no responsibility to the people. ie To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the ~ unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt poli- tics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican _ party, and 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, undis- _mayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers 4 itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away ae - abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth. a A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE 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. THE 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 sev- eral states and of the United States as shall insure the representative character of the government. In particular, the party declares for direct primaries for the nomination of state and national officers, for nation-wide preferential 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. AMENDMENT OF CONSTITUTION The Progressive party, believing that a free people should have the power from time to time to amend their fundamental Jaw 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 amend- ment of the constitution, if found necessary, we advocate bringing under effective national jurisdiction those prob- lems which have expanded beyond reach of the individual states. It is as srotesque as it is intolerable that the several states should by unequal laws in matter of common concern become competing commercial agencies, barter the lives of their children, the health of their women and the safety and well-being of their working ideale for the profit of their financial interests. The extreme insistence on states rights by the Demo- cratic party in the Baltimore platform demonstrates anew — its inability to understand the world into which it has sur- 7 government now does for the national banks, and what is now done for the railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission. 3 Such a commission must enforce the complete publicity of those corporation transactions which are of public inter- est; must attack unfair competition, false capitalization and special privilege, and by continuous trained watchfulness guard and keep open equally to all the highways of Amer- ican 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 the people will be drawn naturally and safely into the channels of trade. - Under such a system of constructive regulation, legiti- mate business, freed from confusion, uncertainty and fruit- less litigation, will develop normally in response to the energy and enterprise of the American business man. We favor strengthening the Sherman law by prohibiting agreements to divide territory or limit output; refusing to sell to customers who buy from business rivals; to sell below cost in certain areas while maintaining higher prices in other places; using the power of transportation to aid or injure special business concerns; and. other unfair trade practices. COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT The time has come when the federal government should co-operate with manufacturers and producers in extending our foreign commerce. ‘To this end we demand adequate appropriations by Congress, and the appointment of diplo- matic 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 pre- eminently fitted to do this because as a people we have developed high skill in the art of manufacturing; our busi- ness men are strong executives, strong organizers. In every way possible our Federal Government should co-operate in this important matter. Anyone who has had opportunity to study and observe first-hand Germany’s course in this respect must realize that their policy of co-operation between Government and business has in comparatively few years made them a ding competitor for the commerce of the world. It should be remembered that they are doing this on a national seale 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 confiict- ing sovereignties. Such a policy is utterly out of keeping with the progress of the times and gives our great commer- cial rivals in Europe—hungry for international markets— golden opportunities of which they are rapidiy taking - advantage. TARIFF We believe in a protective tariff which shall agfalize conditions of competition between the United States and foreign countries, both for the farmer and the manufacturer and which shall maintain 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 indus- — try deserves protection which is unfair to 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 revi- sion of those schedules wherein duties are shown to be un- just or excessive. We pledge ourselves to the ostabliahiaet of a non- partisan scientific tariff commission, reporting both to the President and to either branch of ‘Congress, which shall report, first, as to the costs of production, 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, third, 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 pre- scribe a uniform system of accounting for the great pro-— tected 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 9 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 Demo- -eratic party is committed to the destruction of the pro- tective 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 arti- ficial causes. The measures proposed in this platform on various subjects such as the tariff, the trusts and conserva- tion, will of themselves tend to remove the artificial causes. There will remain other elements such as the tendency to leave the country for the city, waste, extravagance, bad - system of taxation, poor methods of raising crops and bad business methods in marketing crops. To remedy these conditions requires the fullest informa- tion and based on this information, effective 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. CURRENCY We believe there exists imperative need for prompt leg- islation 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. er} - CONSERVATION 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 10 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. In particular we pledge our party to require reasonable compensation 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 safe- guard the rights of the actual homemaker. Natural resources, whose conservation is necessary for the national welfare, should be owned or 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 sys- tem of transportation 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 Pacifie 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 sup- ply, water power and the prevention.of floods. We pledge our party to the immediate preparation of 11 such a plan, which should be made and carried out in close and friendly co-operation between the nation, the states and the cities affected. Under such a plan, the destructive. floods of the Missis- sippi and other streams, which represent vast and need- less loss to the nation, would be controlled by forest con- servation and water storage at the headwaters, and by levees below; land sufficient to support millions of people would be reclaimed from the deserts and the swamps, water power enough to transform the industrial standing of whole states would be developed, adequate water terminals would be provided, transportation by river would revive, and the railroads would be compelled to co-operate as freely with the boat lines as with each other. The equipment, organization and experience acquired in constructing 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 co-operation with the various states, at the lowest net cost to the people. 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 transportation monopoly now held and misused by the transcontinental railroads by maintaining sea com- petition with them; that ships directly or indirectly owned or controlled by American railroad corporations shall not be permitted to use the canal, and that American ships en- gaged 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 government ownership shall be opened to use promptly upon liberal terms requiring immediate development. Thus the benefit of cheap fuel will accrue to the govern- ment of the United States and to the people of Alaska and 12 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 extortion or monopoly. We demand also that extortion. or monopoly | in trans- portation shall be prevented by the prompt acquisition, con- struction, or improvement by the government of such rail- roads, 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 selfgovernment that was given to other American territories, and that federal officials appointed there shall be qualified by previous bona-fide resi- dence, in the territory. EQUAL SUFFRAGE The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy “which denies political rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of secur- ing equal suffrage to men and women alike. CORRUPT 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 pri- maries and elections. PUBLICITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE — We pledge our party to legislation compelling the regis- tration of lobbyists; publicity of committee hearings except on foreign affairs, and recording of all votes in committee; 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 nomina- tion of elective state or national officials. THE COURTS 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: 1. That when an act, passed under the police power ‘of the state, is held unconstitutional under the state constitu- tion, by the courts, the people, after an ample interval for deliberation, shall have an opportunity to vote on the ques- 13 tion whether they desire the act to become a law, notwith- standing such decision. 2. 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 disputes, except when such contempt was committed in the actual presence of the court or so near thereto as to inter- fere with the proper administration of justice, should have a right to trial by jury. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR We pledge our party to establish a Department of Labor _with a seat in the cabinet, and with wide jurisdiction 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 agri- cultural credit and co-operation, the teaching of agriculture in schools, agricultural college extension, the use of mechan- ical power on the farm, and to re-establish the Country Life Commission, thus directly promoting the welfare of the farmers, and bringing the benefits of better farming, better business and better living within their reach. HEALTH We favor the union of all the existing agencies of the federal government dealing with the public health into a ies single national healt service without discrimination against or for any one set of therapeutic methods, school of med- icine, or school of healing with such additional powers as may be necessary to enable it to perform efficiently such duties in the protection of the public from preventable diseases as may be properly undertaken by the federal authorities ; including the executing of existing laws regard- ing pure food; quarantine and cognate subjects; the promo- tion of appropriate action for the improvement of vital statistics and the extension of the registration area of such statistics, and co-operation with the health activities of the various states and cities of the nation. | PATENTS a 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 in- jurious monopolies. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION We pledge our party to secure to the Interstate Com- merce Commission the power to value the physical property of railroads. In order that the power of the commission to protect the people may not be impaired or destroyed, we demand the abolition of the Commerce Court. GOCD 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 high- ways. We also favor the extension of the rural free deliv- ery service. | | INHERITANCE AND INCOME TAX We believe in a graduated inheritance 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 tc the constitution giving the government power to levy an income tax. ? PEACE AND NATIONAL DEFENSE _ The Progressive party deplores the survival in our civilization of the barbaric system of warfare among nations with its enormous waste of resources even in time of peace, if) and the consequent. impoverishment of the life of the toiling masses. We pledge the party to use its best endeavors to ‘substitute judicial and other peaceful means of settling international differences. We favor an international agreement for the limitation -of naval forces. Pending such an agreement, and as the ‘best means of preserving peace, we pledge ourselves to ‘maintain for the present the policy of building two battle- ships a year. : TREATY RIGHTS We pledge our party to protect the rights of American eitizenship at home and abroad. No treaty should receive the sanction of our government which discriminates between ‘American citizens because of birthplace, race, or religron, or that does not recognize the absolute right of expatriation. THE IMMIGRANT Through the establishment of-industrial-standards we ‘propose to secure to the able-bodied immigrant and to his ‘native fellow workers a largershare of American oppor- dunity. | ~~ We denounce the fatal policy of indifference and neglect ‘which has left our enormous immigrant population to be- come the prey of chance and cupidity. We favor governmental action to encourage the distri- ‘bution of immigrants away from the congested cities, to rigidly supervise all private agencies dealing with them and to promote their assimilation, education and advancement. PENSIONS We pledge ourselves to a wise and just policy of pension- ing American soldiers and sailors and their widows and children by the federal government. And we approve the policy of the southern states in granting pensions to the ex-Confederate soldiers and sailors and their widows and ehildren. PARCELS POST We pledge our party to the immediate creation of a {reels post, with rates proportionate to distance and a CIVIL SERVICE . We condemn the violations of the civil service law under the present administration, including the coercion and assessment of subordinate employees, and the President’s refusal to punish such violation after a finding of guilty by ‘ % 2. 16 his own commission; his distribution of patronage amo} subservient congressmen, while withholding it from tha who refuse support of administration measures; his wil drawal of nominations from the Senate until political sy port for himself was secured, and his open use of the offiq to reward those who voted for his renomination. | To eradicate these abuses, we demand not only the ¢ forcement of the civil service act in letter and spirit, & also legislation which will bring under the competitive sy tem postmasters, collectors, marshals and all other ng political officers, as well as the enactment of an equitalj retirement law, and we also insist upon continuous servi} during good behavior and efficiency. i GOVERNMENT BUSINESS ORGANIZATION We pledge our party to readjustment of the busing methods of the national government and a proper co-ordiry tion of the federal bureaus, which will increase the econor and efficiency of the government service, prevent duplid tions and secure better results to the taxpayers for eve} dollar expended. | GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION OVER INVESTMEN The people of the United States are swindled out | many millions of dollars every year, through worthless ¥ vestments. The plain people, the wage-earner and the m§ and women with small savings, have no way of knowing t§ merit of concerns sending out highly colored prospectus} offering stock for sale,- prospectuses that make big retury seem certain and fortunes easily within grasp. } We hold it to be the duty of the government to prote its people from this kind of piracy. We, therefore, demat wise, carefully thought-out legislation that will give us sug governmental supervision over this matter as will furnish § the people of the United States this much- needed protectiog and we pledge ourselves thereto. ; CONCLUSION i On these principles and on the recognized desirabilig of uniting the Progressive forces of the nation into 4 organization which shall unequivocally represent the Pr} gressive spirit and policy we appeal for the support of American citizens, without regard to previous politic§ affiliations. PB-7200-17-5SB fH: Ps by Trp Express Jos PRINT toddard- Sutbenend oo 9-15 Murray St., . , aa ' s — . . mis <= ‘ ‘ = a fs: * : 2 ea j ‘ - x * we $ a a a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 086361927