Socialist Platform for the 1908
Presidential Election.
Public Works Projects. The
immediate government relief for the unemployed workers by building schools, by
reforesting of cut over and waste land, by reclamation of arid tracts, and the
building of canals, and by extending all other useful public works. All persons
employed on such works shall be employed directly by the government under an
eight hour work day and at the prevailing union wages. The government shall
also loan money to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose
of carrying on public works. It shall contribute to the funds of labor
organizations for the purpose of assisting their unemployed members, and shall
take such other measures within its power as will lessen the widespread misery
of the workers caused by the rnisrule of the
capitalist class.
Public Ownership. The
collective ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, steamship lines and
all other means of social transportation and communication, and all land.
The collective ownership of all industries which are
organized on a national scale and in which competition has virtually ceased to
exist.
Labor. The improvement of the
industrial condition of the workers,
(a)
By shortening the workday in keeping with the increased productiveness of machinery,
(b)
By securing to every worker a rest period of not less than a day and a half in
each week,
(c)
By securing a more effective inspection of work- shops and factories,
(d)
By forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of age,
(e)
By forbidding the interstate transportation of the products of child labor, of
convict labor and of all uninspected factories,
(f)
By abolishing official charity and substituting in its place compulsory
insurance against unemployment, illness, accident, invalidism, old age and
death.
Tax Reform. The extension of
inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the amount of the bequests and
the nearness of kin. -- A graduated income tax.
Women's Suffrage. Unrestricted and
equal suffrage for men and women ....
Senate. The
abolition of the senate.
Constitutional and Judicial Reforms. The abolition of the power usurped by the supreme court of the
United States to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation enacted by
Congress. National laws to be repealed or abrogated
only by act of Congress or by a referendum of the whole people.
That
the Constitution be made amendable by majority vote.
That
all judges be elected by the people for short terms,
and that the power to issue injunctions shall be curbed by immediate
legislation.