Conspectus of the History of Political Parties and the Federal Government/1872 Labor Reform Party Platform
Labor Reform Platform, Columbus, February 21.
We hold that all political power is inherent in the people, and free government founded on their authority and established for their benefit; that all citizens are equal in political rights, entitled to the largest religious and political liberty compatible with the good order of society, as also the use and enjoyment of the fruits of their labor and talents; and no man or set of men is entitled to exclusive separable endowments and privileges or immunities from the government, but in consideration of public services; and any laws destructive of these fundamental principles are without moral binding force, and should be repealed. And believing that all the evils resulting from unjust legislation now affecting the industrial classes can be removed by the adoption of the principles contained in the following declaration: therefore,
Resolved, That it is the duty of the government to a just standard of distribution of capital and labor, by providing a purely national circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of the nation, issued directly to the people without the intervention of any system of banking corporations, which money shall be legal tender in the payment of all debts, public and private, and interchangeable, at the option of the holder, for government bonds bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent., subject to future legislation by Congress.
2. That the national debt should be paid in good faith, according to the original contract, at the earliest option of the government, without mortgaging the property of the people or the future exigencies of labor to enrich a few capitalists at home and abroad.
3. That justice demands that the burdens of government should be so adjusted as to bear equally on all classes, and that the exemption from taxation of government bonds bearing extravagant rates of interest, is a violation of all just principles of revenue laws.
4. That the public lands of the United States belong to the people, and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted to landless settlers only, in amounts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of land.
5. That Congress should modify the tariff so as to admit free such articles of common use as we can neither produce nor grow, and lay duties for revenue mainly upon articles of luxury and upon such articles of manufacture as will, we having the raw materials, assist in further developing the resources of the country.
6. That the presence in our country of Chinese laborers, imported by capitalists in large numbers for servile use, is an evil entailing want and its attendant train of misery and crime on all classes of the American people, and should be prohibited by legislation.
7. That we ask for the enactment of a law by which all mechanics and day-laborers employed by or on behalf of the government, whether directly or indirectly, through persons, firms, or corporations, contracting with the state, shall conform to the reduced standard of eight hours a day, recently adopted by Congress for national employes; and also for an amendment to the acts of incorporation for cities and towns, by which all laborers and mechanics employed at their expense shall conform to the same number of hours.
8. That the enlightened spirit of the age demands the abolition of the system of contract labor in our prisons and other reformatory institutions.
9. That the protection of life, liberty, and property are the three cardinal principles of government, and the first two are more sacred than the latter; therefore, money needed for prosecuting wars should, as it is required, be assessed and collected from the wealthy of the country, and not entailed as a burden on posterity.
10. That it is the duty of the government to exercise its power over railroads and telegraph corporations, that they shall not in any case be privileged to exact such rates of freight, transportation, or charges, by whatever name, as may bear unduly or unequally upon the producer or consumer.
11. That there should be such a reform in the civil service of the national government as will remove it beyond all partisan influence, and place it in the charge and under the direction of intelligent and competent business men.
12. That as both history and experience teach us that power ever seeks to perpetuate itself by every and all means, and that its prolonged possession in the hands of one person is always dangerous to the interests of a free people, and believing that the spirit of our organic laws and the stability and safety of our free institutions are best obeyed on the one hand, and secured on the other, by a regular constitutional change in the chief of the country at each election; therefore, we are in favor of limiting the occupancy of the presidential chair to one term.
13. That we are in favor of granting general amnesty and restoring the Union at once on the basis of equality of rights and privileges to all, the impartial administration of justice being the only true bond of union to bind the states together and restore the government of the people.
14. That we demand the subjection of the military to the civil authorities, and the confinement of its operations to national purposes alone.
15. That we deem it expedient for Congress to supervise the patent laws so as to give labor more fully the benefit of its own ideas and inventions.
16. That fitness, and not political or personal considerations, should be the only recommendation to public office, either appointive or elective; and any and all laws looking to the establishment of this principle are heartily approved.