contact us: waprog2@yahoo.com or greyfuzz@eskimo.com or PO Box 1034, Puyallup, WA 98371 Declaration of Principles of the Progressive Party 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 ourselves 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 foundation they laid. 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
generation 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. It is time to
set the public welfare in the first place. A Covenant with
the People The Rule of the
People In particular,
the party
declares for direct primaries for 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. Social and
Industrial Strength The fixing of
minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and
the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including
the Federal control over inter-State commerce and the taxing power,
to maintain such standards; The prohibition
of child labor; Minimum wage
standards for working women, to provide a living scale in all
industrial occupations; The prohibition
of night work for women and the establishment of an eight hour day
for women and young persons; One day's rest
in seven for all wage-workers; … The protection
of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment
and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance
adapted to American use; The development
of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of
illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuation schools
for industrial education under public control and encouraging
agricultural education and demonstration in rural
schools; … Business We therefore
demand a strong National regulation of inter-State corporations. The
corporation is an essential part of modern business. The
concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both inevitable
and necessary for National and international business efficiency.
but the existing concentration of vast wealth under a corporate
system, unguarded and uncontrolled by the Nation, has placed in the
hands of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible power over the
daily life of the citizen--a power insufferable in a free government
and certain of abuseÂ…. 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. Tariff We condemn the
Payne-Aldrich bill as unjust to the 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 Democratic Party is
committed to the destruction of the protective system through a
tariff for revenue only--a policy which would inevitably produce
widespread industrial and commercial disaster. High Cost of
Living Currency The issue of
currency is fundamentally 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 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. Conservation 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…. Panama
Canal We demand that
the canal shall be so operated as to break the transportation
monopoly mow held and misused by the transcontinental railroads by
maintaining sea competition 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
engaged in coastwise trade shall pay no tolls. Alaska Equal
Suffrage Corrupt
Practices Department of
Labor Good
Roads Inheritance and
Income Tax We favor the
ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution giving the
Government power to levy an income tax. Peace and
National Defense 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 battleships a year. Treaty
Rights The
Immigrant We favor
governmental action to encourage the distribution 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 Conclusion
August 7, 1912
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 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
several States and of the United States as shall insure the
representative character of the Government.
The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation
of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and
industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State
and Nation for:-- …
We believe that true popular government, justice
and prosperity go hand in hand, and so believing, it is our purpose
to secure that large measure of general prosperity which is the
fruit of legitimate and honest business, fostered by equal justice
and by sound :progressive
laws.
We believe in a protective tariff which shall
equalize 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.
The high cost of living is due partly to worldwide
and partly to local causes; partly to natural and partly to
artificial causes. The measures proposed in this platform on
various subject, such as the tariff, the trusts and conservation,
will of themselves tend to remove the artificial causes …We pledge
ourselves to such full and immediate inquiry and to immediate action
to deal with every need such inquiry discloses.
We believe there exists imperative need for prompt
legislation for the improvement of our National currency system. We
believe the present method of issuing notes through private agencies
is harmful and unscientific.
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 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.
The Panama Canal, built and paid for by the American
people, must be used primarily for their benefit.
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.
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
securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.
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 primaries and
elections.
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.
We recognize the vital importance of good roads and
we pledge out party to foster
their extension in every proper way, and we favor the early
construction of National highways. We also favor the extension of
the rural free delivery service.
We believe in a graduated inheritance tax as a
National means of equalizing the obligations of holder 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.
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, and the consequent impoverishment of the life of the toiling
masses. We pledge the party to use its
best endeavors to substitutes judicial an other peaceful means of
settling international differences.
We pledge our party to protect
the rights of American citizenship at home and abroad. No treaty
should receive the sanction of our government which discriminates
between American citizens because of birthplace, race or religion,
or that does not recognize the absolute right of
expatriation.
Through the establishment of industrial standards
we propose to secure to the able-bodied immigrant and to his native
fellow workers a larger share of American opportunity.
We denounce the fatal
policy of indifference and neglect which has left our enormous
immigrant population to become the prey of chance and
cupidity.
We pledge ourselves to a wise and just policy of
pensioning American soldiers and sailors and their widows and
children they 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 children.
On these principles and on the recognized
desirability of uniting the Progressive
forces of the Nation into an organization which shall unequivocally
represent the Progressive
spirit and policy we appeal for the support of all American citizens
without regard to previous political affiliations.