Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Members of New York Democratic State Committee

Dist.

1 Edwin Bailey. 2. Jos. Cassidy.

[blocks in formation]

Name and Address.
Patchogue 27. Stephen Ryan.........

37.

38

John Anderson, Jr...
Frank Cooper...
Robert Wemple...
Clinton Beckwith..
George Hall...
J. M. Fitzgerald..
John W. Potter...
Charles N. Bulger..

Norwich

.Troy

Newcomb .Schenectady

.Fultonville

Herkimer Ogdensburg

Sacket's Harbor

..Marcy

Oswego

William Rafferty, White Mem. Bldg. Syracuse

Long Island City 28. Patrick E. McCabe, 122 Morton Street, Albany 3. M. J. Cummings...428 Henry Street, Brooklyn 29, Francis J. Molloy, 4. John W. Webber....404 Hart Street, Brooklyn 30, 5. Thomas F. Wogan....669 2d Avenue, Brooklyn 31. 6. M. E. Butler............533 3d Street, Brooklyn 33. 7. P. H. McCarren.....97 Berry Street, Brooklyn 33 8. John L. Shen..278 Jefferson Avenue, Brooklyn 34. 9. Conrad Hasenflug...493 Hart Street, Brooklyn 35. 10. James P.Sinnott, 118 Arlington Ave., Brooklyn 36. 11. Daniel E. Finn..569 Broome Street, New York 12. John T. Oakley...234 E. 13th Street, New York 13. D. F. Colhalan.....147 Spring Street, New York 14. Chas, F. Murphy, 305 E. 17th Street, New York 15. William Dalton........ Hotel York, New York 16. Maurice Featherson, 358 E. 79th St., New York 17. Thos. E. Rush.....122 E. 82d Street, New York 18. Jas. J. Hagan...164 W. 64th Street, New York 44. 19. Thos. F. McAvoy...456 W. 153d St., New York 45. T. W. Finucane, 20 Portsmouth Sq., Rochester 20. Jas. J. Frawley, ...180 E. 95th St., New York 46. Jacob Gerling....5 North Water St., Rochester 21. Eugene J. McGuire, 618 E. 138th St., New York 47. George W. Batten..... 22. Louis F. Haffen...524 E, 162d Street, New York 48. John J. Kennedy.. 23. Michael J. Walsh.....

24. Arthur A. McLean..........

39.

Henry G. Jackson.

40.

Daniel Sheehan...

41.

Calvin J. Huson..

42.

Charles P. Williams.

43.

James E, Schwarzenbach..

Fletcher C. Peck.

Yonkers 49. Henry P. Burghard..
Newburgh 50. Matt. C. Merzig.....

25. Robert W. Chanler... ...............................Poughkeepsie 51. James O. Bennett...

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Binghamton
Elmira

... Penn Yan Lyons

Hornellsville
Nunda

Lockport

Buffalo
Buffalo

..Silver Creek

[blocks in formation]

Name and Address, Name and Address. 1. John J. Bartlett..... .Greenport 21. Louis F. Payn... 2. Harry Jaquillard, 389 So. 3d Street, Brooklyn 22. Cornelius V. Collins... 3. Lewis M. Swasey, 42 Herkimer St., Brooklyn 23. William Barnes, Jr..... 4. Jacob A. Livingston, 2264 Pitkin Ave., B'klyn 24. Horace G. Tennant.............. 6. F. J. H. Kracke, 11 Kenmore Place, Brooklyn 25. John K. Stewart........ 6. Timothy L. Woodruff, 94 Eighth Ave., B'klyn 26. John F. O'Brien...... 7. Michael J. Dady, 40 Court Street... Brooklyn 27. Daniel F. Strobel.. 8. George Cromwell. New Brighton, S. I. 28. John T. Mott.. 9. Charles H. Murray.. 115 Broadway, N. Y. 29. Francis Hendricks...... 10. Samuel S. Koenig ..63 Park Row, New York 30. George W. Dunn.... 11. William Halpin, 318 West 29th St., New York 31. Charles H. Betts. 12. John S. Shea, 146 East 30th Street, New York 32, George W. Aldridge. 13 Henry E. O'Brien, 45 Broadway, New York 33. J. Sloat Fassett.. 14. Joseph H. De Bragga, 137 Smith St., Evergreen 34. John A. Merritt.. 16. William Harris Douglass, 11 Broadway, N. Y. 35. John Grimm, Jr., 12 Walnut Street, Buffalo 16. Samuel Krulewitch. 21 East 108th St., N. Y. 36. John G. Wickser.....266 Pearl Street, Buffalo 17. Moses M. McKee, 275 W. 140th St., New York 87. George H. Witter..................... Wellsville 18. Wm. H. Ten Eyck, 378 Mott Ave., New York 19. William L. Ward..... ........Port Chester Additional Member: 20. Benjamin B. Odell, Jr...............Newburgh Charles W. Anderson, 203 W, 100th St., New York

.Lyons Rochester .Elmira Lockport

Principles of the Endependence League.

THE Certificate of incorporation of the Independence League, dated New York, December 9, 1905, states that the objects sought by the organization are:

Voluntarily to obtain and promote by educational means and political action such legislation as will secure independence among electors.

"An administration of government independent of corporate and corrupt influences.

"The application of public property to public uses.

Effective control by the people of political parties.

"And to these ends to especially support electoral reforms securing an intelligent and fair ballot, the direct nomination of candidates for public office by the people, the abolition of corrupt practices, the public ownership and operation of those public utilities, which, in their nature are natural monopolies; the relief of labor and capital from unjust burdens, thus securing the increased production of wealth, just wages and fair hours for those who labor, and the abolition of private monopoly-to the end that equal rights may be secured to all and especial privileges be granted to none and, further, to unite in a common movement all societies and associations organized for like purposes, and to establish branches of the League throughout the State of New York and the United States of America."

Election Reform Legislation in 1907.

The following statement of legislation in the several States in 1907 revising general and primary election methods was made by the Hon. Alton B. Parker, president of the American Bar Association, in his address at the annual meeting of the association at Portland, Me., August, 1907:

Election reform is still a subject for legislative consideration, but the emphasis has been largely shifted from the election to the control over nominations. Nearly all of the States now regulate the choice of delegates to conventions. A new idea which has found favor with a number of Legislatures is that of direct nominations. Under these

PRIMARY ELECTION LAWS

the conventions are more or less superseded, and the voter directly indicates his choice., Such laws recently enacted vary principally as to the vote necessary to nominate, the methods by which platformis are adopted and the degree of control left to the governing bodies" of the parties. There seems to be, however, a considerable tendency to abandon the theory that a political party is a voluntary organization subject to its own rules and regulations, and to substitute a rather complete statutory regulation.

In Indiana the law passed in 1907 is mandatory in counties having within their limits cities of 36,000 population or over, and optional in other counties. It does not apply to candidates for National, Congressional, State, or District offices. Primaries for all parties are held together, but each voter must announce the party whose ticket he desires to vote. If challenged on the ground that he is not an adherent of that party, he may make an affidavit that at the last election he voted for a majority of the candidates of his party and that he will support a majority of the candidates of that party at the next election.

The Iowa law, as amended in 1907, is mandatory, and ineludes all offices except Judges, United States Senators, and Presidential electors. At the first primary to be held under the act each elector declares his party affiliation, which is recorded in the poll book, and thereafter no voter is to receive a ballot of another party unless ten days before any primary he files a declaration of a change of party affiliation. Persons receiving the highest vote, provided such vote is not less than 35 per cent. of the total party vote for that office are to receive the nominations. The Missouri primary law of 1907 is mandatory, and covers nearly all offices, except certain local ones. Bailots for each party are provided, together with a non-partisan ballot, and each voter receives the ballot which he requests. No provision is made for challenging on the ground that a person is not a member of a certain party. Nominations are by plurality votes. Conventions may be held for nomination of Presidential electors, delegates to national conventions, and members of national committees, and for the adoption of platforms.

Nebraska, in 1907, enacted a general primary law applicable to all offices, except in cities of less than 25,000 inhabitants, and in village, township, and school district offices. Declaration of party affiliation is required, but no challenge upon that ground is provided. The person receiving the highest vote is declared the nominee. Nominees for county offices select the county committees, and these committees in turn select delegates to a convenThe North tion which adopts the party platform and elects the State Central Committee. Dakota primary law enacted by the last Legislature is quite similar to that of Nebraska.

A novel provision in the new primary law of the State of Washington is the indication of first and second choice by the use of a double column opposite the names of the candidates on the primary ballot. If no candidate receives more than 40 per cent. of the first choice of votes, then the second choice votes are to be added, and the candidate receiving the highest number of first and second choires receives the nomination. Political parties casting less than 10 per cent, of the vote at the last previous election are allowed to nominate at conventions, held on the same day as the primaries.

California has had considerable difficulty in securing a primary election law, as no less The last than two such acts have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Legislature adopted a resolution for a constitutional amendment which imposes upon the Legislature the duty of enacting primary laws, and places beyond question the right of the Legislature to act in the matter.

NOMINATIONS FOR UNITED STATES SENATORS. United States Senators are of course governed by Federal law, and nominations under In Missouri a law State laws have only persuasive force upon members of the Legislature. passed in 1907 provides for nominations for United States Senators at the general election. All persons desiring to be elected to this office are required to file with the Secretary of State their names and application. These names are placed upon the ballots under the party heading, and the person having the highest number of votes upon the party ticket which has a majority on general ballot in the Legislature is declared the nominee of such party, and "all members of such party in the Legislature shall vote for such person.'

In Washington any candidate for the Legislature may file a declaration that during his term of office he will always vote for the candidate for United States Senator who has received the highest number of votes upon his party ticket at the previous primary election. and in such case there is printed on the primary ballot opposite or below the candidate's name "Pledged to vote for party choice for United States Senator."

Delegates to the national convention, in the States having primary election laws, are ordinarily chosen by the old convention system. An innovation in this respect is found in Wisconsin, where a law of the last session provides that these delegates shall be chosen at the Spring election.

FILING OF ELECTION ACCOUNTS.

The filing of expense accounts for and by candidates has been adopted in Iowa, and the enumeration of purposes for which campaign expenses may be incurred was made in 1907 in acts of Connecticut, California, South Dakota, and Washington. A still later development of this idea is the limitation in the amount of campaign expenses in the Corrupt Practices laws In the former State the limitation is by perof California and New York, enacted in 1907.

[ocr errors]

ELECTION REFORM LEGISLATION IN 1907-Continued.

centage upon the annual salary, varying with the length of the term, and amounting in general to 5 per cent. of the salary for each year. In the latter State the limitation is by fixed sums, which are much more liberal than those in California, being $10,000 in case of the Governor, $6,000 in case of other elective State officers, etc. Connecticut enforces her Corrupt Practices act by disqualifying the incumbent and by making him ineligible for election or appointment for any public office for four years.

The Single Tax.

The following statement of the single tax principle was written by Henry George, Sr.: We assert as our fundamental principle the self-evident truth enunciated in the Declaration of American Independence, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. We hold that all men are equally entitled to the use and enjoyment of what God has created and of what is gained by the general growth and improvement of the community of which they are a part. Therefore, no one should be permitted to hold natural opportunities without a fair return to all for any special privilege thus accorded to him, and that that value which the growth and improvement of the community attaches to land should be taken for the use of the community; that each is entitled to all that his labor produces; therefore, no tax should be levied on the products of labor.

To carry out these principles, we are in favor of raising all public revenues for national, State, county, and municipal purposes by a single tax upon land values, irrespective of improvements, and all the obligations of all forms of direct and indirect

taxation.

Since in all our States we now levy some tax on the value of land, the single tax can be instituted by the simple and easy way of abolishing, one after another, all other taxes now levied and commensurately increasing the tax on land values until we draw upon that one source for all expenses of government, the revenue being divided between local governments, State government, and the general government, as the revenue from direct tax is now divided between the local and State governments, or by a direct assessment being made by the general government upon the States and paid by them from revenues collected in this manner. The single tax we propose is not a tax on land, and therefore would not fall on the use of land and become a tax on labor.

It is a tax not on land, but on the value of land. Then it would not fall on all land, but only on valuable land, and on that not in proportion to the use made of it, but in proportion to its value-the premium which the user of land must pay to the owner, either in purchase money or rent, for permission to use valuable land. It would thus be a tax not on the use and improvement of land, but on the ownership of land, taking what would otherwise go to the owner as owner, and not as user.

In assessments under the single tax all values created by individual use or improvement would be excluded, and the only value taken into consideration would be the value attaching to the bare land by reason of neighborhood, etc., to be determined by impartial periodical assessments. Thus the farmer would have no more taxes to pay than the speculator who held a similar piece of land idle, and the man who, on a city lot, erected a valuable building would be taxed no more than the man who held a similar lot vacant. The single tax, in short, would call upon men to contribute to the public revenues not in proportion to what they produce or accumulate, but in proportion to the value of the natural opportunities they hold. It would compel them to pay just as much for holding land idle as for putting it to its fullest use. The single tax, therefore, would

1st. Take the weight of taxation off the agricultural districts, where land has little or no value irrespective of improvements, and put it on towns and cities, where bare land rises to a value of millions of dollars per acre.

2d. Dispense with a multiplicity of taxes and a horde of tax-gatherers, simplify government, and greatly reduce its cost.

3d. Do away with the fraud, corruption. and gross inequality inseparable from our present methods of taxation, which allow the rich to escape while they grind the poor. Land cannot be hid or carried off, and its value can be ascertained with greater ease and certainty than any other.

4th. Give us with al: the world as perfect freedom of trade as now exists between the States of the Union, thus enabling our people to share through free exchanges in all the advantages which nature has given to other countries, or which the pecular skill of other peoples has enabled them to attain. It would destroy the trusts, monopolies, and corruptions which are the outgrowths of the tariff. It would do away with the fines and penalties now levied on any one who improves a farm, erects a house, builds a machine, or in any way adds to the general stock of wealth. It would leave every one free to apply labor or expend capital in production or exchange without fine or restriction, and would leave to each the full product of his exertion.

5th. It would, on the other hand, by taking for public use that value which attaches to land by reason of the growth and improvement of the community, make the holding of land unprofitable to the mere owner and profitable only to the user. It would thus make it impossible for speculators and monopolists to hold natural opportunities unused or only half used, and would throw open to labor the illimitable field of employment which the earth offers to man. It would thus solve the labor problem, do away with involuntary poverty, raise wages in all occupations to the full earnings of labor, make overproduction impossible until all human wants are satisfied, render labor-saving inventions a blessing to all, and cause such an enormous production and such an equitable distribution of wealth as would give to all comfort, leisure, and participation in the advantages of an advancing civilization, in securing to each individual equal right to the use of the earth. It is also a proper function of society to maintain and control all public ways for the transportation of persons and property, and the transmission of intelligence; and also to maintain and control all public ways in cities for furnishing water, gas, and all other things that necessarily require the use of such common ways,

National Platforms of Political Parties.

PLATFORM OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, ADOPTED AT ST. LOUIS, MO.,
JULY 8, 1904.

The Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, declares its devotion to the essential principles of the Democratic faith which bring us together in party communion.

Under them local self-government and national unity and prosperity were alike established. They underlaid our independence, the structure of our free republic, and every Democratic extension, from Louisiana to California, and Texas to Oregon, which preserves faithfully in all the States the tie between taxation and representation. They yet inspire masses of our people, guarding jealously their rights and liberties, and cherishing their fraternity, peace and orderly development. They remind us of our duties and responsibilities as citizens, and impress upon us, particularly at this time, the necessity of reform and the rescue of the administration of government from the headstrong, arbitrary and spasmodic methods which distract business by uncertainty, and pervade the public mind with dread, distrust, and perturbation.

the

Fundamental Principles.-The application of these fundamental principles to the living issues of the day is the first step toward the assured peace, safety, and progress of our nation. of all citizens; the right of trial by jury; freedom of the person defended by the writ of Freedom of the press, of conscience, and of speech; equality before the law habeas corpus; liberty of personal contract supremacy of the civil over the military authority; a well-disciplined militia; the separation of church and State; economy in expenditures; iow taxes; that labor may be lightly untrammeled by sumptuary burdened; the prompt and sacred fulfilment of public and private obligations; fidelity laws; to treaties; peace and friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none; absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority, the vital principle of republics-these are doctrines which Democracy has established as proverbs of the nation, and they should be coustantly invoked, preached, resorted to and enforced.

Capital and Labor.-We favor the enactment and administration of laws giving labor and capital impartially their just rights. Capital and labor ought not to be enemies. Each is necessary to the other. no less "vested," no less "sacred," and no less "inalienable" than the rights of capital. Each has its rights, but the rights of labor are certainly Constitutional Guarantees.-Constitutional guarantees are violated whenever any citizen is denied the right to labor, acquire, and enjoy property or reside where interests or inclination may determine. governments should be summarily rebuked and punished. Any denial thereof by individuals, organizations, or

We deny the right of any executive to disregard or suspend any constitutional privilege or limitation. Obedience to the laws and respect for their requirements are alike the supreme duty of the citizen and the official. The military should be used only to support and maintain the law. condemn its employment for the summary banishment of citizens without trial or for the control of elections. We unqualifiedly

We approve the measure which passed the United States Senate in 1896, but which a Republican Congress has ever since refused to enact, relating to contempts in Federal Courts and providing for trial by jury in cases of indirect contempt.

Waterways.-We favor liberal appropriations for the improvement of waterways of the country. When any waterway like the Mississippi River is of sufficent importance to demand special aid of the Government, such aid should be extended with a definite plan of continuous work until perinanent improvement is secured.

We oppose the Republican policy of starving home development in order to feed the greed for conquest and the appetite for national "prestige" and display of strength.

Economy of Administration.-Large reductions can easily be made in the annual expenditures of the Government without impairing the efficiency of any branch of the public service, and we shall insist upon the strictest economy and frugality compatible with vigorous and efficent civil, military and naval administration as a right of the people too clear to be denied or withheld.

We favor honesty in the public service, the enforcement of honesty in the public service, and to that end a thorough legislative investigation of those executive departments of the Government already known to departments suspected of harboring corruption, and the punishment of ascertained corrup teem tionists, without fear or favor or regard to persons. with corruption, as well as other of both the Senate and House of Representatives to permit such investigation to be made The persistent and deliberate refusal demonstrates that only by a change in the executive and in the legislative departments can complete exposures, punishment, and correction be obtained.

Federal Government Contracts With Trusts.-We condemn the action of the Republican party in Congress in refusing to prohibit an executive department from entering into contracts with convicted trusts or unlawful combinations in restraint of interstate trade. We believe that one of the best methods of procuring economy and honesty in the public service is to have publie officials, from the occupant of the White House down to the lowest of them, return as nearly as may be to Jeffersonian simplicity of living. Executive Usurpation.--We favor the nomination and election of a President imbued with the principles of the Constitution, who will set his face sternly against executive usurpation of legislative and judicial functions, whether that usurpation be veiled under the guise of executive construction of existing laws, or whether it take refuge in the tyrant's pleas of necessity or superior wisdom.

Imperialism.-We favor the preservation, so far as we can, of an open door for the world's commerce in the Orient without any unnecessary entanglement in Oriental and European affairs, and without arbitrary, unlimited, irresponsible, and absolute government anywhere within our jurisdiction. We oppose, as fervently as did George Washington

NATIONAL PLATFORMS OF POLITICAL PARTIES-Continued.

himself, an indefinite, irresponsible, discretionary, and vague absolutism and a policy of colonial exploitation, no matter where or by whom invoked or exercised; we believe with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams that no government has a right to make one set of laws for those "at home" and another and a different set of laws, absolute in their character, for those "in the colonies." All men under the American flag are entitled to the protection of the institutions whose emblem the flag is; if they are inherently unfit for those institutions then they are inherently unfit to be members of the American body politic. Wherever there may exist a people incapable of being governed under American laws, in consonance with the American Constitution, the territory of that people ought not to be part of the American domain.

We insist that we ought to do for the Filipinos what we have already done for the Cubans, and it is our duty to make that promise now, and upon suitable guarantees of protection to citizens of our own and other countries resident there at the time of our withdrawal, set the Filipino people upon their feet, free and independent, to work out their own destiny. The endeavor of the Secretary of War, by pledging the Government's indorsement for "promoters" in the Philippine Islands, to make the United States a partner in speculative legislation of the archipelago, which was only temporarily held up by the opposition of the Democratic Senators in the last session, will, if successful, lead to entanglements from which it will be difficult to escape.

The Tariff.-The Democratic party has been, and will continue to be, the consistent opponent of that class of tariff legislation by which certain interests have been permitted, through Congressional favor, to draw a heavy tribute from the American people. This monstrous perversion of those equal opportunities which our political institutions were established to secure has caused what may once have been infant industries to become the greatest combinations of capital that the world has ever known. These especial favorites of the Government have, through trust methods, been converted into monopolies, thus bringing to an end domestic competition, which was the only alleged check upon the extravagant profits made possible by the protective system. These industrial combinations, by the financial assistance they can give, now control the policy of the Republican party. We denounce protection as a robbery of the many to enrich the few, and we favor a tariff limited to the needs of the Government, economically administered, and so levied as not to discriminate against any industry, class, or section, to the end that the burden of taxation shall be distributed as equally as possible.

We favor a revision and a gradual reduction of the tariff by the friends of the masses for the commonwealth, and not by the friends of its abuses, its extortions and its discriminations, keeping in view the ultimate end of "equality of burdens and equality of opportunities," and the constitutional purpose of raising a revenue by taxation, to wit, the support of the Federal Government in all its integrity and virility, but in simplicity. Trusts and Unlawful Combinations.-We recognize that the gigantic trusts and combinations designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of the joint products of capital and labor, and which have been fostered and promoted under Republican rule, are a menace to beneficial competition and an obstacle to permanent business prosperity. A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable.

Individual equality of opportunity and free competition are essential to a healthy and permanent commercial prosperity, and any trust or monopoly tending to destroy these by controlling production, restricting competition, or fixing prices, should be prohibited and punished by law. We especially denounce rebates and discrimination by transportation companies as the most potent agency in promoting and strengthening these unlawful conspiracles against trade.

We demand an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to the end that the travelling public and shippers of this Government may have prompt and adequate relief from the abuses to which they are subjected in the matter of transportation. We demand a strict enforcement of existing civil and criminal statutes against all such trusts, combinations, and monopolies; and we demand the enactment of such further legislation as may be necessary to effectually suppress them.

Any trust or unlawful combination engaged in interstate commerce which is monop. olizing any branch of business or production should not be permitted to transact business outside of the State of its origin. Whenever it shall be established in any court of competent jurisdiction that such monopolization exists, such prohibition should be enforced through comprehensive laws to be enacted on the subject.

Reclamation of Arid Lands and Domestic Development.-We congratulate our Western citizens upon the passage of the law known as the Newlands Irrigation Act for the irrigation and reclamation of the arid lands of the West-a measure framed by a Democrat, passed in the Senate by a non-partisan vote, and passed in the House against the opposition of almost all Republican leaders by a vote the majority of which was Democratic. We call attention to this great Democratic measure, broad and comprehensive as it is, working automatically throughout all time without further action of Congress, until the reclamation of all the lands in the arid West capable of reclamation is accomplished, reserving the lands reclaimed for home seekers in small tracts, and rigidly guarding against land monopoly, as an evidence of the policy of domestic development contemplated by the Democratic party, should it be placed in power.

Isthmian Canal.-The Democracy, when intrusted with power, will construct the Panama Canal speedily, honestly and economically, thereby giving to our people what Democrats have always contended for-a great interoceanic canal, furnishing shorter and cheaper lines of transportation and broader and less trammeled trade relations with the other peoples of the world.

American Citizenship.-We pledge ourselves to insist upon the just and lawful protection of our citizens at home and abroad, and to use all proper measures to secure for them, whether native-born or naturalized, and without distinction of race or creed. the equal protection of laws and the enjoyment of all rights and privileges open to them

« ZurückWeiter »