The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1898 Page: 1 of 16
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VOL. XVII., NO. 6.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, FEB. 10, 1398.
$1 PER ANNUM*
• r.
THE PLATFORM OF THE PEO-
PLE'S PARTY.
When in the past a political party-
has enunciated a platform, declared
its belief in certain tenets and princi-
ples and nominated candidates to
stand for office thereon, it has been as-
sumed as a matter of course that the
intent of the party was to work for the
recognition of its beliefs upon our stat-
ute books, the moulding of the policy
of the government after the doctrines
laid down in its platform. It is true
that the assumption that such has
been the intent of the formulators of
party platforms and the manipulators
of nominating conventions, has often
been proven erroneous, that party de-
clarations made during campaigns
have often been falsified by the after
election actions of the successful par-
ty, that party platforms have been
taken as instruments to get in upon,
not to act upon. All this is true, but
it is none the less true that declara-
tions of party beliefs and doctrines as
set forth in party platforms have been
taken as declarations of purposes, chat
a declaration cf principles has been
considered as equivalent to a declara-
tion of a purpose to mould the policy
of the government on the lines of
those principles.
It is true that parties when intrusted
with power have often been unable or
unwilling to so mould the policy of the
government, unable or unwilling to do
what they promised, to act as they
promised to act. But when they have
so ignored their party platform? they
have been regarded as false to their
promises, false to those who trusted
them, honored them with their votes.
And the fact that there may have
been no specific declaration of purpose
in a platform has never been consid-
ered as an excuse for not acting upon
a declaration of principles, for not
making an effort to secure the recogni-
tion of those principles upon our stat-
ute books. The mere declaration of a
principle has never been considered
as a pledge to work for the recogni-
tion cf such principle, the guidance of
our government in accordance with
that principle, just so much as a spe-
cific pledge had been given to do so.
The party that would be untrue to
an implied pledge would be untrue to
a specific one. And so it has ever
been considered. A declaration of
principles, a declaration of what a
party would like to see done has been
ever considered as a declaration of
policy, a declaration of what a party
would do if it could. It has not been
considered nécessary in the past for a
party to declare that it would work
for the principles enunciated in its
platform in order to bind itself to
work for the practical recognition of
those principles. The mere declara-
tion of what ought to be done has
been ever taken ns a declaration of
what should be done and what a party
would do if it could.
But it has come to pass that a dec-
laration cf principles by the People's
party is not universally so accepted,
but accepted as a declaration of pur-
poses. It is assumed by many that
the People's party is ready to work
for much less than is enunciated in
its platforms, work in conjunction
with another party that antagonizes
many, most of its demands, in order
to secure a share in the emoluments of
office. And so it becomes necessary
that the People's party should spe-
cifically declare that it is in earnest
in the announcement of its beliefs,
that it will live up to its principles,
that it will not purchase success at. the
cost of a sacrifice of principle. The
economic platform of the People's
party has been written. Then tenets
of Populism can be well known to
those who care to know. But for the
aforementioned reasons it has become
necessary that a political platform be
written. This platform need not be
long. It need be but this: We will
carry the principles of Populism in
with the men or we will not carry in
the men.
This is the motto that Populists
should ever hold before them, by
which they should be guided in their
action.
To act otherwise, to put the success
of men before the success of princi-
ples, would be a betrayal of the peo-
ple who believe in the tenets of Pop-
ulism, who believe in the tenets of
true Democracy of which the Peo-
ple' sparty is the only true expounder
and defender. And therefore, to so
act would mean the disintegration of
the People's party, for it would mean
that the people must look to some new
party for relief or suffer themselves
to be ground down beneath the iron
heel of moneyed oligarchy. In brief,
Populists demand that this rule be
lived up to: If we cannot elect to
office men who will be free to act up
to the principles of Populism; if we
cannot elect men unless they will drop
the principles of Populism when they
pass through the portals of office, or
if we can only elect Populists to office
by helping into office men of another
party who will tie the hands of the
the Populists we may elect, and leave
the direction of government in other
hands, in hands that antagonize the
principal tenets of Populism and that
will guide the government upon other
principles, we do not care to elect any
men to office at all.
If populist leaders are not ready to
live up to this rule they cannot ba fol-
lowed, they will be forced to stop
aside, for ofiice cannot be put before
principle.
Parties are but the means to an end.
That end may be the enjoyment oí
the honors and emoluments of office,
or that end may be the inauguration
of policies believed to be in the inter-
est of the general weal. Some men
have regarded parties as organiza-
tions by which to secure office, and
so regarding have so used tlieni.
But such truly is not the end of the
People's party. Populists want to sen
those doctrines for which the People's
party stands, carried into effect, so
that within the borders of our repub-
lic no man shall be denied the exer-
cise of that inalienable right of man,
a right founded on the groat truth
that all men are created free and
equal, a right to the enjoyment of an
equal opportunity in the production
and nccumultion of wealth, so that to
every man may be meted out the re-
wards that nature bestows upon labor
in accordance with the industry, en-
ergy and ability that each man throws
into his labor. Populists want suc-
cess, want the offices, if those offices
can be used to give this great princi-
ple practical force. But they do not
want the offices if those offices must
bo purchased by so trammelling those
elected to fill them as to make it im-
possible for them to act along Popu-
list lines. And so must Populists be
trammelled if elected by fusion with
the Democratic party, fusion that will
put into power a majority of Demo-
crats opposed to the doctrines of Popu-
lism and who would tie the hands of,
and leave powerless, the Populists so
elected.
It has been urged that haif a loaf is
better than none at all; that Popu-
lists acting by themselves cannot get
the full loaf; that by acting with the
Democratic party they can get half a
loaf and secure the success of half
their principles. How can the Dem-
ocratic party be depended upon to
carry out the principles of the Peo-
ple's party? It is said to the extent
of reopening the mints of the United
States to free silver coinage, which is
counted upon to reduce the demand
for gold, cheapen that metal, and in a
measure release debtors from the
grievous and unjust part of their bur-
dens, put upon them by the apprecia-
tion of gold.
That the Democratic party promised
to do this in the last campaign, and
that mcst of the Democrats In public
life still promise it, cannot be ques-
tioned, but, that it can be relied upon
fo stand by this promise two years
hence there is grave reason to doubt.
That the gold Democrats are organiz-
ing to make a determined effort to re-
capture the party is apparent; that
with all the power of money, all the
temptations of the flesh-pr-s behind
them, they may succeed, Is quite pos-
sible.
But grant that the gold men cannot
control the Democratic party, that
that party can be relied upon to re-
monetize silver in the event of its suc-
cess, that through its success the Pop-
ulists would secure the half a loaf as
it is said. Then the question presents
itself: Would it be justifiable for Pop-
ulists to surrender their other princi-
pios in order to secure this half loaf?
if there was any hope that the Demo-
cratic party having given half a loaf
would go on and give the whole there
might be some justiflation. Populists
cannot follow a party that professes
its willingness to close one door to tho
aggressions of the monied oligarchy,
but resolves that all the side doors
shall be left open to such aggressions.
It will not do to merely lock the
front door to the thief and invite him
to enter by the rear. With a party
that takes such a stand we cannot be
content, in such a party we cannot
put trust; we cannot regard it as a
party upholding the principle of equal-
ity, insisting upon an equality of op-
portunity for all.
To the party that invites the en-
croachments of the speculative cliques
when made through the channels of
our railroads, we cannot look with
firm reliance to bailie the encroach-
ments of the speculative cliques made
through the channel of the apprecia-
tion of gold. A party that professes
undying enmity to the monied
oligarchy in one direction and be-
friends it in the other, it is not a party
that can gain the trust and command
the support of those who hold that the
prime doctrine around which our re-
public was built, equality of opportu-
nity for all, should be regarded.
Such is the Democratic party as we
see it to-day, antagonizing the en-
croachmcnts of the monied oligarchy
on the liberties of our people when
made from one side, studiously
ignoring, tolerating, and so inviting
them, when made from the other. It
does not stand forth as the party of
equality. It denies the right of the
government to interfere with the in-
equalities of our transportation sys-
tems upon which inequalities rest our
trusts and great monopolies; it holds
that those inequalities, the special
privileges enjoyed by the cliques, must
not be trifled with by the govern-
ment; that the cliques have a right
to trample upon the rights of others
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 10, 1898, newspaper, February 10, 1898; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185743/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .