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Progressive Party on the judiciary.

The Progres

of labor legis

lation.

Commission the power to value the physical property of railroads.

Pledge party to provide that when an act, passed under the police power of the State, is held unconstitutional under the State constitution, by the courts, the people, after an ample interval for deliberation, shall have an opportunity to vote on the question whether they desire the act to become law, notwithstanding such decision.

Pledge party to provide that every decision of the highest appellate court of a State declaring an act of the legislature unconstitutional on the ground of its violation of the Federal constitution shall be subject to the same review by the Supreme Court of the United States as is now accorded to decisions sustaining such legislation.

We believe that the issuance of injunctions in cases arising out of labor disputes should be prohibited when such injunctions would not apply if no labor disputes existed.

We also believe that a person cited for contempt in labor disputes, except when such contempt was committed in the actual presence of the court or so near thereto as to interfere with the proper administration of justice, should have a right to trial by jury.

The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human sive program resources by an enlarged measure of social and industrial justice. Pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for effective legislation, looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment and other injurious effects, incident to modern industry.

We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for the fixing of minimum safety and health standards; for the prohibition of child labor; for minimum wage standards for working women; to provide a living wage in all industrial occupations; for the prohibition of night work for women; for the

establishment of an eight-hour day for women and young persons; for one day's rest in seven for all wage workers; for the eight-hour day in continuous twenty-four-hour system; for the abolition of the convict contract labor system; for substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; for the application of prisoners' earnings to the support of their dependent families; for publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases; the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products; for standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry and thus to the community; for the protection of the 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 movement toward more popular government should be promoted through legislation in each State which will permit the expression of the preference of the electors for national candidates at Presidential primaries.

We direct that the National Committee incorporate in the call for the next nominating convention a requirement that all expressions of preference for Presidential candidate shall be given and the selection of delegates and alternates be made through a primary election conducted by the party organization in each State where such expression and election are not provided for by State law.

Committeemen who are hereafter to constitute the membership of the Democratic National Committee and whose election is not provided for by law shall be chosen in each State at such primary elections, and the service and authority of committeemen, however chosen, shall begin immediately upon the receipt of their credentials respectively.

The Democratic Party

on primary

reform.

CHAPTER VII

The evolu

nating machinery.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARTY MACHINERY

THE nomination of candidates for local offices and the legislation of nomi- ture was made at first in mass meetings, which very soon evolved into regularly constituted conventions. Owing to the difficulties of travel, state conventions were for a long time well nigh impossible, so that the politicians of each party hit upon the scheme of forming all the party members in the state legislature into a "legislative caucus" for the purpose of putting forward the candidates for state offices. For example, Jay was nominated for governor of New York "at a sort of a legislative caucus" in 1795, and the institution soon won general recognition. The following account of the nomination of DeWitt Clinton for governor in 1817 reveals the curious device of supplementing the legislative caucus by delegates elected from districts not represented in the legislature by party members. It may be said to mark a stage between the legislative caucus and the regular state convention.

Unfair features of the legisla

tive caucus.

46. The Legislative Nominating Caucus

It had been the uniform usage of the democratic party to select their candidate for governor, by the majority of voices declared at an assemblage of men composed exclusively of the republican members of the legislature. By this arrangement those republican citizens who resided in counties represented by federalists, could have no voice in the selection of a candidate for that important office. This the Clintonians complained of as unreasonable and unjust. They therefore proposed that delegates should be chosen in county convention, which convention should be formed of delegates chosen at the primary meetings of republicans in the respective towns, and that the delegates thus chosen from the counties equal in number to the members of assembly from the respective

counties, should, in a caucus to nominate a governor, have the same rights and exercise the same powers as republican members of the legislature. It was, I believe, well understood, that in the greatest proportion of the counties represented by federalists, a very large majority of the republicans were in favor of the nomination of Mr. Clinton. Besides, the Clintonians, by means of the council of appointment, controlled the patronage of the state, and it was not difficult for a man who understood the use of that machine as well as Judge Spencer, to control by its influence, the action of most of the county conventions. Hence, it was most evident that the adoption of the scheme could scarcely fail to forward, and perhaps, I may add, ensure the triumph of Mr. Clinton.

chosen for counties

ists.

In accordance with these views, a republican convention was first Delegates held in the county of Albany, at which John J. Moak was chairman, and Jacob Lansing secretary, on the fourth of February, represented when it was resolved that the counties represented by federalists by Federalin the legislature, ought to be represented in the state convention to nominate a governor by republican delegates chosen by such counties; and Albany being represented by federalists, John Woodworth, Elisha Jenkins, John McCarthy and Thomas Harman were appointed delegates from the county of Albany. Other counties respectable for their wealth, number and influence, followed the example.

of the dele

gates.

The delegates to the state convention thus chosen were generally Character favorable to the nomination of Mr. Clinton; and like the delegates from the county of Albany were composed of republicans of high standing and character. From the county of Oneida, Nathan Williams, and Henry Huntington were chosen, and from the county of Ontario, Gideon Granger, the late eminent and distinguished postmaster general, was a delegate.

ries to the caucus.

One difficulty which Mr. Van Buren and his friends had to Preliminaencounter, was to fix upon an opposing candidate to Mr. Clinton in caucus. Who was the man that would accept the post and combine the greatest strength, was a question not easy to be judiciously decided. They finally fixed on Judge Yates. He had

Clinton nominated.

Election of

officers.

adhered to, and defended Mr. Clinton long after he had been denounced by Judge Spencer. On his circuit the preceding summer, he had in various places urged his friends to support the nomination of Clinton. It was supposed that the known friendship of Judge Yates to Mr. C. would induce some of the latter to support the former; but a different result was produced. Men felt indignant when they were invited to support a man in opposition, who had himself taken pains and been instrumental in convincing them that Clinton ought to be chosen governor. A day or two before the meeting of the state convention, Judge Yates positively declined being a candidate. This produced some confusion in the ranks of the opposition, but they finally fixed upon Gen. Peter B. Porter as their candidate.

The state convention was held at the capitol on the 25th March. Upon balloting for a candidate, Mr. Clinton received eighty-five votes and Gen. Porter forty-one. It was understood that sixty members and twenty-five delegates voted for Mr. Clinton, and thirty-three members and seven delegates for his opponent.

47. The Congressional Caucus for Nominating Presidential Candidates*

In 1800, the Federalists in Congress held a secret conference to agree on candidates and thus present a solid front to the Jeffersonians. This scheme, denounced at the time by the opposite party, was, however, speedily adopted as a regular institution for nominating presidential candidates, and it lasted until the election of 1824, when it gave way before the popular uprising in favor of Andrew Jackson. The following official record of the caucus of 1824 shows how the system worked: —

Chamber of the House of Representatives of the United States.
February 14, 1824.

At a meeting of the republican members of Congress, assembled this evening, pursuant to public notice, for the purpose of recommending to the people of the United States suitable persons to be

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