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Show INDIANA DEFJOffiHTS FOR BRYAN; HOT PLATFCRFI - INDIANAPOLIS,rJune 7. Democrats of Indiana, in convention today, adopted adopt-ed a platform strongly Indorsing William Wil-liam J. Bryan for the Presidency, and selected a State ticket for all offices except Governor and Reporter of the Supreme- court. Benjamin F. Shively of South Bend, former Representative In Congress for the Thirteenth Indiana district, was permanent chairman. Mr. Shively said: "The use. of governmental power for private purposes is the beginning of what Is today called graft. Such use of gov- ernmental -power creates a distinct class In the country, with Interests special and apart from the Interests common to their fellow-citizens. The beneficiaries of governmental gov-ernmental power unconsciously come to regard their own peculiar privileges as of paramount public concern. They come to countenance and even support other abuses and mischiefs la government . so long as their own special advantages are conHerved. The result of this old system of farming out the powers of government has been to bring into the Republic a confederacy con-federacy of special- privileges that it is today contesting for supremacy with the American people. "In exchange for the favors it has received re-ceived and expects to receive, it. has for many years capitalized the Republican organization, or-ganization, financed Its conventions, secured se-cured the election of its candidates and required them to stand pat after they were elected. "The McCalls. McCurdys and Alexanders Alexan-ders had witnessed the trust properties of government turned over to private interests inter-ests and its power farmed out for selfish gain. They had witnessed those functions func-tions which had been conferred for beneficent benefi-cent purposes transferred into merchandise. merchan-dise. They could not appropriate the great trust funds in their charge for political po-litical purposes without crime. The chairman and the treasurer of the National Na-tional Republican committee could not receive re-ceive those funds without crime. Yet, because be-cause of the moral turpitude, born of persistent per-sistent and successful merchandising in power, these men not only made this criminal use of trust funds, but openly and unblushlngly Justified it. "Republican United 8tates Senator Mitchell had witnessed the wrongful appropriation ap-propriation of the public property to private pri-vate individuals under the form of law, and he and his associates attempted the wrongful appropriation without the form of law of 300,000 acres of the public land, and he died on his way to prison. A Republican Re-publican United States Senator from Nebraska Ne-braska peddled out the postoffices of his State for his own gain as a hawker peddles ped-dles fish, and only escaped conviction on a technicality. Republican United States Senator Burton of Kansas employed the power of his Senatorial office to protect a get-rich-qulck concern that was picking the pockets of his Kansas constituents. A Piatt and a Depew men long In the public life of the country and who had been regarded as paragons of official and business integrity are at last discovered to have been the commonest sort of com- mon grarters. "The disease itself suggests the remedy. It began where public power was first diverted di-verted from public purposes and made the source of private power. Withdraw privilege priv-ilege and the temptation to the corruption corrup-tion which it engenders disappears. Let all men, all Interests, all occupations stand equal under the law, and all men will then have a common Interest in clean and Just government." Mr. Shively discussed the tariff, reviewed re-viewed the history of the Democratic party and emphasized the support given by the Democrats in Congress In the interest in-terest of interstate commerce legislation. Referring to William Jennings Bryan, he said: "That which Is today eulogized and approved ap-proved as .broad statesmanship and enlightened en-lightened patriotism In Theodore Roosevelt Roose-velt was only a few years ago denounced as reactionary, revolutionary and unpatriotic unpa-triotic in William Jennings Bryan. The afterslght of the one Is almost equal to the foresight of the other." The plateform follows: It pledges Itself when returned to power to correct the evils that have grown out of Republican official shortcomings, short-comings, to an economical administration of public affairs and to the consistent enforcement en-forcement of the law pertaining to public welfare. . It sends greetings across the sea to that wise and conservative statesman, unfaltering patriot and superb leader. William Jennings Bryan, and pledges its vote 17n convention and electoral vote of Indiana to htm for President In 1908. "For nearly ten years the Republican party has been In absolute control in all departments in the national Government with power to change unjust conditions and to rectify evils. Yet during that time colossal combinations of capital have dominated the people and Illegal persecution perse-cution of corporate law have stifled competition com-petition and unafirly limited the opportunity oppor-tunity of the individual citizen. Wealth, thereby illegally obtained, has been unsparingly un-sparingly used to control legislation and corrupt elections. No honest effort has beer! made or is being made by the Republican Re-publican legislation -o cure or eradicate these evils. We denounce the hypocrisy of the Republican party, which while pretending to legislate against the evils deals only with the symptoms, and not with the disease. The unfair tyrannical features of the so-called "protective tariff" have made these things possible, and no permanent relief can be secured until its obnoxious efatures are removed. We domand tariff for revenue only. The growth of the trusts and other Inordinate In-ordinate and dangerous combinations of capital, the tremendous and rapidly Increasing In-creasing absorption and centralization of the wealth of the country In the hands of a chosen few, all due to premeditated and systematic legislation in behalf of special Interests by the Republican party, par-ty, demand a change In the policies imposed im-posed upon the country by that party and make the passage of restrictive laws i an Imperative npcesslty. |