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1912 Democratic Party Platform
(4,707 words, 12 pages)

We the representatives of the Democratic Party of the United States in nationalconvention assembled, reaffirm our devotion to the principles of Democraticgovernment formulated by Thomas Jefferson and enforced by a long and illustriousline of Democratic Presidents.

Tariff Reform

We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic Party thatthe federal government, under the constitution, has no right or power toimpose or collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue, andwe demand that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessitiesof government honestly and economically administered.

The high Republican tariff is the principal cause of the unequal distributionof wealth, it is a system of taxation which makes the rich richer and thepoor poorer, under its operations the American farmer and laboring man arethe chief sufferers, it raises the cost of the necessaries of life to them,but does not protect their product or wages. The farmer sells largely infree markets and buys almost entirely in the protected markets. In the mosthighly protected industries, such as cotton and wool, steel and iron, thewages of the laborers are the lowest paid in any of our industries. We denouncethe Republican pretence on that subject and assert that American wages areestablished by competitive conditions, and not by the tariff.

We favor the immediate downward revision of the existing high and inmany cases prohibitive tariff duties, insisting that material reductionsbe speedily made upon the necessaries of life. Articles entering into competitionwith trust-controlled products and articles of American manufacture whichare sold abroad more cheaply than at home should be put upon the free list.

We recognize that our system of tariff taxation is intimately connectedwith the business of the country, and we favor the ultimate attainment ofthe principles we advocate by legislation that will not injure or destroylegitimate industry.

We denounce the action of President Taft in vetoing the bills to reduceth tariff in the cotton woolen metals and chemical schedules and the Farmer'sfree bill, all of which were designed to give immediate relief to the massesfrom the exactions of the trusts.

The Republican Party, while promising tariff revision, has shown by ittariff legislation that such revision is not to be in the people's interest,and having been faithless to its pledges of 1908, it should not longer enjoythe confidence of the nation. We appeal to the American people to supportus in our demand for a tariff for revenue only.

High Cost of Living

The high cost of living is a serious problem in every American home. TheRepublican Party in its platform attempts to escape from responsibilityfor present conditions by denying that they are due to a protective tariff.We take issue with them on this subject, and charge that excessive pricesresult in a large measure from the high tariff laws enacted and maintainedby the Republican Party and from trusts and commercial conspiracies fosteredand encouraged by such laws, and we assert that no substantial relief canbe secured for the people until import duties on the necessaries of lifeare materially reduced and these criminal conspiracies broken up.

Anti-Trust Law

A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. We thereforefavor the vigorous enforcement of the criminal as well as the civil lawagainst trusts and trust officials, and demand the enactment of such additionallegislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private monopolyto exist in the United States.

We favor the declaration by law of the conditions upon which corporationsshall be permitted to engage in interstate trade including among othersthe prevention of holding companies of interlocking directors of stock wateringof discrimination in price, and the control by any one corporation of solarge a proportion of any industry as to make it a menace to competitiveconditions.

We condemn the action of the Republican administration in compromisingwith the Standard Oil Company and the tobacco trust and its failure to invokethe criminal provisions of the anti-trust law against the officers of thosecorporations after the court had declared that from the undisputed factsin the record they had violated the criminal provisions of the law.

We regret that the Sherman anti-trust law has received a judicial constructiondepriving it of much of its efficiency and we favor the enactment of legislationwhich will restore to the statute the strength of which it has been deprivedby such interpretation.

Rights of the States

We believe in the preservation and maintenance in their full strengthand integrity of the three co-ordinate branches of the Federal governmentthe executive the legislative and the judicial each keeping within its ownbounds and not encroaching upon the just powers of either of the others.

Believing that the most efficient results under our system of governmentare to be attained by the full exercise by the states of their reservedsovereign powers, we denounce as usurpation the efforts reserved to them,and to enlarge and magnify by indirection the powers of the Federal government.

We insist upon the full exercise of all the powers of the Government,both State and National, to protect the people from injustice at the handsof those who seek to make the government a private asset in business. Thereis no twilight zone between the nation and the state in which exploitinginterests can take refuge from both. It is as necessary that the Federalgovernment shall exercise the powers delegated to it as it is that the Statesshall exercise the powers reserved to them, but we insist that the Federalremedies for the regulation of interstate commerce and for the preventionof private monopoly, shall be added to, and not substituted for State remedies.

Income Tax and Popular Election of Senators

We congratulate the country upon the triumph of two important reforms demandedin the last national platform, namely, the amendment of the Federal Constitutionauthorizing an income tax, and the amendment providing for the popular electionof senators, and we call upon the people of all the States to rally to thesupport of the pending propositions and secure their ratification.

We note with gratification the unanimous sentiment in favor of publicity,before the election, of campaign contributions--a measure demanded in ournational platform of 1908, and at that time opposed by the Republican Party--andwe commend the Democratic House of Representatives for extending the doctrineof publicity to recommendations, verbal and written, upon which presidentialappointments are made, to the ownership and control of newspapers, and tothe expenditures made by and in behalf of those who aspire to presidentialnominations, and we point for additional justification for this legislationto the enormous expenditures of money in behalf of the President and hispredecessor in the recent contest for the Republican nomination for President.

Presidential Primary

The movement toward more popular government should be promoted throughlegislation in each State which will permit the expression of the preferenceof the electors for national candidates at presidential primaries.

We direct that the National Committee incorporate in the call for thenext nominating convention a requirement that all expressions of preferencefor Presidential candidates shall be given and the selection of delegatesand alternates made through a primary election conducted by the party organizationin each state where such expression and election are not provided for bystate law. Committeemen who are hereafter to constitute the membership ofthe Democratic National Committee and whose election is not provided forby law, shall be chosen in each state at such primary elections, and theservice and authority of committeemen, however chosen, shall begin immediatelyupon the receipt of their credentials, respectively.

Campaign Contributions

We pledge the Democratic Party to the enactment of a law prohibitingany corporation from contributing to a campaign and any individual fromcontributing any amount above a reasonable maximum.

Term of President

We favor a single Presidential term, and to that end urge the adoption ofan amendment to the Constitution making the President of the United Statesineligible to reelection and we pledge the candidates of this conventionto this principle.

Democratic Congress

At this time when the Republican Party after a generation of unlimited powerin its control of the federal government, is rent into factions, it is opportuneto point to the record of accomplishment of the Democratic House of Representativesin the Sixty-second Congress. We indorse its action and we challenge comparisonof its record with that of any Congress which has been controlled by ouropponents.

We call the attention of the patriotic citizens of our country to itsrecord of efficiency, economy and constructive legislation.

It has, among other achievements, revised the rules of the House of Representativesso as to give to the representatives of the American people freedom of speechand of action in advocating, proposing and perfecting remedial legislation.

It has passed bills for the relief of the people and the developmentof our country, it has endeavored to revise the tariff taxes downward inthe interest of the consuming masses and thus to reduce the high cost ofliving.

It has proposed an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing forthe election of United States senators by the direct vote of the people.It has secured the admission of Arizona and New-Mexico as two sovereignstates.

It has required the publicity of campaign expenses both before and afterelection and fixed a limit upon the election expenses of United States Senatorsand Representatives. It has passed a bill to prevent the abuse of the writof injunction.

It has passed a law establishing an eight hour day for workmen on allnational public work.

It has passed a resolution which forced the President to take immediatesteps to abrogate the Russian treaty.

And it has passed the great supply bills which lessen waste and extravagance,and which reduce the annual expenses of the government by many millionsof dollars. We approve the measure reported by the Democratic leaders inthe House of Representatives for the creation of a council of national defense,which will determine a definite naval program with a view to increased efficiencyand economy.

The party that proclaimed and has always enforced the Monroe Doctrine,and was sponsor for the new navy, will continue faithfully to observe theconstitutional requirements to provide and maintain an adequate and well-proportionednavy sufficient to defend American policies, protect our citizens and upholdthe honor and dignity of the nation.

Republican Extravagance

We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the people by oppressivetaxation through the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses,which have kept taxes high and reduced the purchasing power of the people'stoil. We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a Democraticgovernment and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salariesof which drain the substance of the people.

Railroads, Express Companies, Telegraph and Telephone Lines

We favor the efficient supervision and rate regulation of railroads, expresscompanies, telegraph and telephone lines engaged in interstate commerce.To this end we recommend the valuation of railroads, express companies,telegraph and telephone lines by the Interstate Commerce Commission, suchvaluation to take into consideration the physical value of the property,the original cost, the cost of reproduction, and any element of value thatwill render the valuation fair and just.

We favor such legislation as will effectually prohibit the railroads,express, telegraph and telephone companies from engaging in business whichbrings them into competition with their shippers or patrons; also legislationpreventing the over issue of stocks and bonds by interstate railroads, expresscompanies, telegraph and telephone lines, and legislation which will assuresuch reduction in transportation rates as conditions will permit, care beingtaken to avoid reduction that would compel a reduction of wages, preventadequate service, or do injustice to legitimate investments.

Banking legislation

We oppose the so-called Aldrich bill or the establishment of a central bank;and we believe our country will be largely freed from panics and consequentunemployment and business depression by such a systematic revision of ourbanking laws as will render temporary relief in localities where such reliefis needed, with protection from control of dominion by what is known asthe money trust.

Banks exist for the accommodation of the public, and not for the controlof business. All legislation on the subject of banking and currency shouldhave for its purpose the securing of these accommodations on terms of absolutesecurity to the public and of complete protection from the misuse of thepower that wealth gives to those who possess it.

We condemn the present methods of depositing government funds in a fewfavored banks, largely situated in or controlled by Wall Street, in returnfor political favors, and we pledge our party to provide by law for theirdeposit by competitive bidding in the banking institutions of the country,national and State, without discrimination as to locality, upon approvedsecurities and subject to call by the Government.

Rural Credits

Of equal importance with the question of currency reform is the questionof rural credits or agricultural finance. Therefore, we recommend that aninvestigation of agricultural credit societies in foreign countries be made,so that it may be ascertained whether a system of rural credits may be devisedsuitable to conditions in the United States and we also favor legislationpermitting national banks to loan a reasonable proportion of their fundson real estate security.

We recognize the value of vocational education, and urge federal appropriationsfor such training and extension teaching in agriculture in co-operationwith the several states.

Waterways

We renew the declaration in our last platform relating to the conservationof our natural resources and the development of our waterways. We renewthe declaration in our last platform relating to the conservation of ournatural resources and the development of our waterways. The present devastationof the Lower Mississippi Valley accentuates the movement for the regulationof river flow by additional bank and levee protection below, and the diversion,storage and control of the flood waters above, their utilization for beneficialpurposes, in the reclamation of arid and swamp lands and the developmentof water power, instead of permitting the floods to continue, as heretofore,agents of destruction.

We hold that the control of the Mississippi River is a national problem.The preservation of the depth of its waters for the purpose of navigation,the building of levees to maintain the integrity of its channel and theprevention of the overflow of the land and its consequent devastation, resultingin the interruption of interstate commerce, the disorganization of the mailservice, and the enormous loss of life and property impose an obligationwhich alone can be discharged by the general government.

To maintain an adequate depth of water the entire year, and thereby encouragewater transportation, is a consummation worthy of legislative attention,and presents an issue national in its character. It calls for prompt actionon the part of Congress and the Democratic Party pledges itself to the enactmentof legislation leading to that end.

We favor the co-operation of the United States and the respective statesin plans for the comprehensive treatment of all waterways with a view ofco-ordinating plans for channel improvement, with plans for drainage ofswamp and overflowed lands, and to this end we favor the appropriation bythe Federal Government of sufficient funds to make surveys of such lands,to develop plans for draining of the same, and to supervise the work ofconstruction.

We favor the adoption of a liberal and comprehensive plan for the developmentand improvement of our inland waterways, with economy and efficiency, soas to permit their navigation by vessels of standard draft.

Post Roads

We favor national aid to State and local authorities in the constructionand maintenance of post roads.

Rights of Labor

We repeat our declarations of the platform of 1908, as follows:

"The courts of justice are the bulwarks of our liberties, and weyield to none in our purpose to maintain their dignity. Our party has givento the bench a long line of distinguished justices who have added to therespect and confidence in which this department must be jealously maintained.We resent the attempt of the Republican Party to raise a false issue respectingthe judiciary. It is an unjust reflection upon a great body of our citizensto assume that they lack respect for the courts.

"It is the function of the courts to interpret the laws which thepeople enact, and if the laws appear to work economic, social or politicalinjustice, it is our duty to change them. The only basis upon which theintegrity of our courts can stand is that of unswerving justice and protectionof life, personal liberty, and property. As judicial processes may be abused,we should guard them against abuse.

"Experience has proved the necessity of a modification of the presentlaw relating to injunction, and we reiterate the pledges of our platformsof 1896 and 1904 in favor of a measure which passed the United States Senatein 1898, relating to contempt in Federal Courts, and providing for trialby jury in cases of indirect contempt.

"Questions of judicial practice have arisen especially in connectionwith industrial disputes. We believe that the parties to all judicial proceedingsshould be treated with rigid impartiality, and that injunctions should notbe issued in any case in which an injunction would not issue if no industrialdispute were involved.

"The expanding organization of industry makes it essential thatthere should be no abridgement of the right of the wage earners and producersto organize for the protection of wages and the improvement of labor conditions,to the end that such labor organizations and their members should not beregarded as illegal combinations in restraint of trade.

"We pledge the Democratic Party to the enactment of a law creatinga department of labor, represented separately in the President's cabinetin which department shall be included the subject of mines and mining. "

We pledge the Democratic Party, so far as the Federal jurisdiction extends,to an employee's compensation law providing adequate indemnity for injuryto body or loss of life.

Conservation

We believe in the conservation and the development, for the use of all thepeople, of the natural resources of the country. Our forests, our sourcesof water supply, our arable and our mineral lands, our navigable streams,and all the other material resources with which our country has been solavishly endowed, constitute the foundation of our national wealth. Suchadditional legislation as may be necessary to prevent their being wastedor absorbed by special or privileged interests, should be enacted and thepolicy of their conservation should be rigidly adhered to.

The public domain should be administered and disposed of with due regardto the general welfare. Reservations should be limited to the purposes whichthey purport to serve and not extended to include land wholly unsuited therefor.The unnecessary withdrawal from sale and settlement of enormous tracts ofpublic land, upon which tree growth never existed and cannot be promoted,tends only to retard development, create discontent, and bring reproachupon the policy of conservation.

The public land laws should be administered in a spirit of the broadestliberality toward the settler exhibiting a bona-fide purpose to complytherewith, to the end that the invitation of this government to the landlessshould be as attractive as possible, and the plain provisions of the forestreserve act permitting homestead entries to be made within the nationalforests should not be nullified by administrative regulations which amountto a withdrawal of great areas of the same from settlement.

Immediate action should be taken by Congress to make available the vastand valuable coal deposits of Alaska under conditions that will be a perfectguarantee against their falling into the hands of monopolizing corporations,associations or interests.

We rejoice in the inheritance of mineral resources unequalled in extentvariety or value and in the development of a mining industry unequalledin its magnitude and importance. We honor the men who, in their hazardoustoil underground, daily risk their lives in extracting and preparing forour use the products of the mines so essential to the industries, the commerce,and the comfort of the people of this country. And we pledge ourselves tothe extension of the work of the bureau of mines in every way appropriatefor national legislation with a view to safeguarding the lives of the miners,lessening the waste of essential resources, and promoting the economic developmentof mining which along with agriculture must in the future even more thanin the past, serve as the very foundation of our national prosperity andwelfare, and our international commerce.

Agriculture

We believe in encouraging the development of a modern system of agricultureand a systematic effort to improve the conditions of trade in farm productsso as to benefit both consumer and producer. And as an efficient means tothis end we favor the enactment by Congress of legislation that will suppressthe pernicious practice of gambling in agricultural products by organizedexchanges or others.

Merchant Marine

We believe in fostering, by constitutional regulation of commerce, the growthof a merchant marine, which shall develop and strengthen the commercialties which bind us to our sister Republics of the south, but without imposingadditional burdens upon the people and without bounties or subsidies fromthe public treasury.

We urge upon Congress the speedy enactment of laws for the greater securityof life and property at sea; and we favor the repeal of all laws, and theabrogation of so much of our treaties with other nations, as provide forthe arrest and imprisonment of seamen charged with desertion, or with violationof their contract of service.

Such laws and treaties are un-American, and violate the spirit, if notthe letter of the Constitution of the United States. We favor the exemptionfrom tolls of American ships engaged in coastwise trade passing throughthe Panama canal.

We also favor legislation forbidding the use of the Panama Canal by shipsowned or controlled by railroad carriers engaged in transportation competitivewith the canal.

Pure Food and Public Health

We reaffirm our previous declarations advocating the union and strengtheningof the various governmental agencies relating to pure foods, quarantine,vital statistics and human health. Thus united, and administered withoutpartiality to or discrimination against any school of medicine or systemof healing, they would constitute a single health service, not subordinatedto any commercial or financial interests, but devoted exclusively to theconservation of human life and efficiency. Moreover, this health serviceshould co-operate with the health agencies of our various States and cities,without interference with their prerogatives, or with the freedom of individualsto employ such medical or hygienic aid as they may see fit.

Civil Service Law

The law pertaining to the civil service should be honestly and rigidly enforced,to the end that merit and ability shall be the standard of appointment andpromotion, rather than service rendered to a political part; and we favora reorganization of the civil service, with adequate compensation commensuratewith the class of work performed for all officers and employees and alsofavor the extension to all classes of civil service employees of the benefitsof the provisions of the employer's liability law. We also recognize theright of direct petition to Congress by employees for the redress of grievances.

Law reform

We recognize the urgent need of reform in the administration of civil andcriminal law in the United States and we recommend the enactment of suchlegislation and the promotion of such measures as will rid the present legalsystem of the delays, expense, and uncertainties incident to the systemas now administered.

The Philippines

We reaffirm the position thrice announced by the Democratic in nationalconvention assembled against a policy of imperialism and colonial exploitationin the Philippines or elsewhere. We condemn the experiment in imperialismas an inexcusable blunder, which has involved us in enormous expense, broughtus weakness instead of strength, and laid our nation open to the chargeof abandonment of the fundamental doctrine of self-government. We favoran immediate declaration of the nation's purpose to recognize the independenceof the Philippine Islands as soon as a stable government can be established,such independence to be guaranteed by us until the neutralization of theislands can be secured by treaty with other Powers.

In recognizing the independence of the Philippines, our government shouldretain such land as may be necessary for coaling stations and naval bases.

Arizona and New Mexico

We welcome Arizona and New Mexico to the sisterhood of states and heartilycongratulate them upon their auspicious beginnings of great and gloriouscareers.

Alaska

We demand for the people of Alaska the full enjoyment of the rights andprivileges of a territorial form of government, and we believe that theofficials appointed to administer the government of all our Territoriesand the District of Columbia should be qualified by previous bona-fideresidence.

The Russian Treaty

We commend the patriotism of the Democratic members of the Senate and Houseof Representatives which compelled the termination of the Russian treatyof 1832, and we pledge ourselves anew to preserve the sacred rights of Americancitizenship at home and abroad. No treaty should receive the sanction ofour government which does not recognize the equality of all of our citizens,irrespective of race or creed, and which does not expressly guarantee thefundamental right of expatriation.

The constitutional rights of American citizens should protect them onour borders and go with them throughout the world, and every American citizenresiding or having property in any foreign country is entitled to and mustbe given the full protection of the United States government. Both for himselfand his property.

Parcels Post and Rural Delivery

We favor the establishment of a parcels post or postal express, and alsothe extension of the rural delivery system as rapidly as practicable.

Panama Canal Exposition

We hereby express our deep interest in the great Panama Canal Expositionto be held in San Francisco in 1915, and favor such encouragement as canbe properly given.

Protection of National Uniform

We commend to the several states the adoption of a law making it an offensefor the proprietors of places of public amusement and entertainment to discriminateagainst the uniform of the United States similar to the law passed by Congressapplicable to the District of Columbia and the Territories in 1911.

Pensions

We renew the declaration of our last platform relating to a generous pensionpolicy.

Rule of the People

We direct attention to the fact that the Democratic Party's demand for areturn to the rule of the people expressed in the national platform fouryears ago, has now become the accepted doctrine of a large majority of theelectors. We again remind the country that only by a larger exercise ofthe reserved power of the people can they protect themselves from the misuseof delegated power and the usurpation of government instrumentalities byspecial interests. For this reason the National Convention insisted on theoverthrow of Cannonism and the inauguration of a system by which UnitedStates Senators could be elected by direct vote. The Democratic Party offersitself to the country as an agency through which the complete overthrowand extirpation of corruption, fraud, and machine rule in American politicscan be effected.

Conclusion

Our platform is one of principles which we believe to be essential to ournational welfare. Our pledges are made to be kept when in office, as wellas relied upon during the campaign, and we invite the co-operation of allcitizens, regardless of party, who believe in maintaining unimpaired theinstitutions and traditions of our country.