10. That we call upon the President of the United States to press the calling of a Conference of the nations for the purpose of formulating an agreement for disarmament, to the end that all peoples may be free from the unjust and oppressive taxation for the maintenance of war machines. If, as in 1920, only one cent of each dollar of taxation can be spent for education, research, and development work, and only 6 cents for the primary functions of the government, while the other 93 cents go to pay for our past and future wars, then only one fate can lie before us, 'final destruction. War is inhuman and we demand that it be made impossible. 11. That amid the confusion of our day, the call is loud for the maintaining of the high national ideals upon which our country was founded. Both the secular and the religious Press join in demanding for our preservation the giving of proper recognition to the Supreme Lawgiver. Tho standing unswervingly for the absolute separation of church and state, we call for the humble submission of all our people to the God of Nations, knowing that "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." THE STATE COMMITTEE-1922. Chairman-Byron E. P. Prugh, Harrisburg, Dauphin County. The annual meeting of the Prohibition State Committee was held in Harrisburg, Wednesday, June 14, 1922, at which meeting the State Committee officers of 1921 were re-elected; and Doctor Silas C. Swallow, of Harrisburg, Dauphin County, was selected honorary vice-chairman. Charles Palmer, of Chester, Delaware County, was nominted as the Prohibition candidate for Judge of the Superior Court. CANDIDATES-1922. The Prohibition party candidates nominated at the primaries held on Tuesday, May 16, 1922, were, as follows: For United States Senate: Mrs. Rachel C. Robinson, 715 Wallace Avenue, Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County, (for the unexpired term ending March 4, 1923); Mrs. Rachel C. Robinson, 715 Wallace Avenue, Wilkinsburg. Allegheny County, (for the full term beginning March 4, 1923); Frank G. Lewis, Upland Avenue, Chester, Delaware County, (for the unexpired term ending March 4, 1927); Governor: William Repp, Old Forge, Lackawanna County; Lieutenant Governor: R. E. English, Grove City, Mercer County; Secretary of Internal Affairs: Miss Ella Broomell, Civic Club, Harrisburg, Dauphin County. PLATFORM-1922. The Prohibition party of Pennsylvania in convention assembled in the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, February 22, 1922, recognizing once more the supreme place of God in the affairs of the people and of government, and believing that laws and their administration ought to have regard to Divine justice and to be in accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ, declares in favor of the following principles: 1. Recognizing the fact that our Nation was founded as a Christian nation, we favor the recognition of Almighty God in our National Constitution. Amid the confusion of the day the call comes loud to us to maintain our high ideal. Of late both the secular and the religious press have been stressing the need to give the Supreme Lawgiver proper recognition, if our Nation is to be preserved and prosper. We declare that all legislation should be enacted on the basis of RIGHT and not of political expediency, and that all officials should be made to feel that their oath of office is something vastly more important than simply a form of induction into office. Further, those of other religious faith or of no religious faith, who have come to share with us the blessings that have come from building upon this Christian foundation, must be caused to realize that we shall not permit the removal of its foundation stones. 2. We favor making the Bible a text-book in our public schools. 3. We are opposed to the appropriation of state funds to sectarian purposes. 4. Prohibition of the beverage liquor traffic having been imbedded in the National Constitution, we declare our emphatic disapproval of the Woner Bill, which continues the licensed salocn in our State, and we call for the election of a legislature that will utterly abolish the license system. 5. We appeal to the President of the United States to use his executive power for the strict enforcement of the Volstead Act; we demand full legal punishment for those who wilfully and persistently violate our laws prohibiting the handling of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes; We advocate the deportation of aliens convicted of such violation, and that all citizens SO convicted be deprived of their franchise_rights; we deplore the tendency towards leniency exhibited by some Federal and other courts in the case of such violators; and we advocate depriving of their citizenship of those Americans who in foreign lands do what is forbidden by prohibition laws in their own land. 6. Second only to enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment is the problem of industrial welfare. We stand for industrial peace. We declare that the rule of the plutocrat or the soviet or any combination between them must not supplant the rule of the whole people. We believe that the time has come for the Government, representing the whole people, to make a thorough and impartial study of the rights of labor whether organized or unorganized, of the rights of employing capital, and of the rights of the general public to make clear, legal statement and definition of the same, and to erect industrial courts of justice through which all these parties may secure equal and exact justice and be protected from the evils brought about by industrial warfare or by forced idleness through unjust domination of the labor market either by capital or by labor. 7. We believe in the protection of the Home and in the physical and moral conservation of our children and youth. For the achievement of these ends, we call for the enactment of legislation which will effectually control the manufacture and sale of habit-forming drugs and narcotics, including tobacco, and the enforcement of the anti-cigarette law. 8. We record our unfaltering opposition to any weakening of our Sabbath_laws. 9. We demand the repeal of our present divorce law and favor a universal Federal law governing this evil. 10. We demand a more rigid and effective censorship of the movies. 11. We demand the repeal of the recently enacted boxing law. 12. We stand for the nationalization of the public school system so that all children within the jurisdiction of the United States would receive their education under the following regulations. a. All work up to the high school department to be done in the English language. b. C. All teachers, principals, superintendents, and others in any way connected with the system to have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. All text-books and books of reference to be censored by an eminently competent commission, each member of said body to exemplify the highest type of Americanism. 13. We would regulate the coming of aliens to our shores by the standard of morality, education, patriotism, and inherent power of self-sustenance, said standard of fitness to be determined in their own country under the responsibility of their own government, extending to them all the rights and privileges of our naturalization laws, excepting the right of franchise, which should be conferred upon them only after their having become thoroughly Americanized and familiar with American institutions. 14. We urge the importance of Pennsylvania forests and the need of reforestration by the State of those areas now a public waste and a common loss. 15. We deplore the general pollution of our streams by the various manufacturing establishments and call for the enforcement of all laws relating thereto and also the enactment of such laws as may be necessary to keep our streams pure. 16. We deplore the general extravagant use of public funds and especially in unnecessary overhead expenses in the State Highway Department. 17. We appeal for a revision of our primary election laws, greatly increasing the non-partisan features, opening the way for free expression of the people concerning candidates, and so framed that every party legally recognized as "a party in the State" may have the names of its candidates upon the official primary ballot in every county in the State. 18. We would make the exercise of the right of franchise obligatory and create an efficient postal voting system for the convenience of voters unable to reach their voting precinct on the day of election. 19. We congratulate our fellow citizens of the W. C. T. U. upon the fact that, since their enfranchisement, so many of them have had the vision to see that the Prohibition party stands for the same fundamental principles for which they have long been battling, that it is the only party doing so, and that therefore their place is with us at the ballot box. In the past the Prohibition party has always given women full equality with men in our party councils, and we now welcome these women and all other voters of high ideals into our party ranks with the hope that together we may be able to place our Nation on a higher plane of political living and make the "righteousness that exalteth a nation" truly ours. Finally, as Prohibitionists, we stand for the enactment of only such legislation as shall help America to rise higher and still higher in the plane of civilization by encouraging whatever is good and prohibiting everything hurtful to our common humanity. On such a platform we not only invite our fellow citizens to stand with us at the ballot box but we urge them to do so as a patriotic duty, RESOLUTIONS-1922. The Prohibition State Committee at its organization meeting held in Harrisburg, June 14, 1922, adopted the following resolutions: 1. In this day of strikes and lock-outs, of multiplied controversies between capital and labor, we declare that our past experiences as a Nation ought to teach us that, until we submit ourselves in our laws and dealings to the principles laid down by the God of Nations, we cannot expect the peace and prosperity of this Nation that we so much desire. In order to lead to the recognition of the necessity for the placing of business upon this foundation, we would emphasize the first and sixth planks of our State Platform, both of which declare that all legislation must conform to what is right rather than to what may for the time seem expedient, and which call for the enactment of such laws as when carried out shall insure "equal and exact justice" for labor, for capital, and for the general public that has suffered so long. 2. In this day of crime epidemic, we would again emphasize the need of making moral problems, especially those relating to the conservation of the Nation's first asset, her boys and girls, the matter of first concern by the State. We believe there has been too little emphasis laid upon the sacredness of human growth and life, and upon the necessity for the implanting of sterling moral character, as compared with that laid upon the sacredness of property rights. Indeed, we believe that the reason there is today so much questioning of property rights is that we have neglected the more sacred duty of guarding the Nation's moral character in its citizenship. 3. Closely allied to this is the problem of morals as related to those who have come to us from other lands. They have not had the advantages that have been ours. With them liberty usually means license to do as you please. If they are to become good citizens, the whole fabric of their ideals, as related to Community and National life, must be rebuilt; in other words they must be Americanized. The only alter native is to let these European hordes europeanize us. We must see that they are instructed in our ideals and institutions, and that they obey our Prohibition and Sabbath and other laws. 4. In this country we are a government by political parties and not by hereditary kings. Therefore the same judgments that must be exercised with respect to individuals must be exercised with respect to political parties. Neither by profession nor by action does either of the major parties, nor any other party except the Prohibition party, seek to make right and the immutable law of God the standard which it shall follow. No great reform can ever become an established fact, unless the governing political party believes in it. The Prohibition Amendment can be translated into reality only by a political party that believes in a dry nation. The average "politician" of today will sell his country for the votes necessary to give him political preferment and a place at the public crib. Hence the declaration of our State Platform extending a welcome into our party ranks to al voters of high ideals, that together we may be able to place our Nation on a hist plane of political living and make "the righteousness that exalteth a nation" ours. ly 5. We would urge upon all patriotic citizens earnest perusal of our State platform. They will find it by far the most progressive and patriotic platform they have seen for many a day. Since both old party candidates for Governor are dry, such citizens have nothing to fear for prohibition from the election of either one of these, so far as his personal attitude is concerned. But they do need to fear greatly that neither one, if elected, can secure the kind of dry legislation that they, or we, may desire. There is one way by which such legislation can be most certainly secured. Let all believers in prohibition cast their votes for the candidates of the only political party that always and everywhere is known to make absolute prohibition a cardinal principle of its platform, and thus roll up a tremendous vote for them, or better still. elect them, and in either case the next legislature will not refuse to give the drys any enforcement legislation they may demand. There is nothing the "politician" so much fears as votes. He'll do almost anything in the hope of securing them. Let us be wise, make a solid drive all along the line, and victory is sure. SOCIALIST. THE STATE COMMITTEE-1921. Secretary and Treasurer-Birch Wilson, Box 685, Reading, Berks County. Headquarters-Room 302, American Casualty Building, Reading, Berks County. Members of the State Committee:— Miss Cora M. Bixler, 27 Penn Square, Lancaster, Lancaster County; Mrs. Rose M. Coleman, 1221 Hillsdale Avenue, Pittsburgh. Allegheny County; P. A. McGowan, 1002 Louisa Street, Williamsport, Lycoming County; George W. Snyder, 139 Greenwich Street, Reading, Berks County; The Socialist State Committee held its regular annual meeting at Reading, Berks County, Sunday, June 19, 1921. Miss Cora M. Bixler, of Lancaster, Lancaster County, was nominated for the office of Representative-at-Large in Congress, the vacancy having been occasioned by the death of Honorable Mahlon M. Garland, on November 19, 1920. THE STATE COMMITTEE-1922. Chairman-George W. Snyder, 139 Greenwich Street, Reading, Berks County. The regular biennial meeting of the Socialist party was held in Reading, Berks County, Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, 1922. The Socialist nominee for Judge of the Superior Court: Albert Baker Lewis, 208 South Fourteenth Street, Philadelphia. CANDIDATES-1922: The Socialist party candidates nominated at the primaries held on Tuesday, May 16, 1922, were, as follows: For United States Senate: William J. Van Essen, 237 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County (for the unexpired term ending March 4, 1923); Charles Sehl, 2820 North Nineteenth Street, Philadelphia (for the full term beginning March 4, 1923); William J. Burke, 1213 Reseca Street, Pittsburgh, North Side, Allegheny County (for the unexpired term ending March 4, 1927); for Governor: Lilith Martin Wilson, 521 South Fifteenth Street, Reading, Berks County; Lieutenant-Governor: George A. Coleman, 1221 Hillsdale Avenue, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County; Secretary of Internal Affairs: Mary Winsor, Haverford, Montgomery County. The following platform was proposed by the State Committee, April 22-23, 1922, and adopted by Party Referendum, June 10, 1922. PLATFORM: The Socialist Party of Pennsylvania makes its appeal to the voters of the State upon the following declaration of principles and program: As a result of the senseless, brutal and devastating World War, criminally forced upon the nations by their desperate governments acting in behalf of industrial, commercial and financial overlords, America is in serious trouble and Europe is prostrate. Only the ruling classes have benefited by the seizure of territory, treasure and tribute, except where the outraged peoples have refused longer to be exploited and enslaved, and have won relief by the resolution to determine their own affairs. The raging, destructive fire of that war has not yet spent itself. In the unhappy countries of the Old World economic ruin, starvation, unemployment and disease are rife; while those who have compelled the horror are concerned most in perpetuating its cause the different and conflicting national economic interests. In our own country the capitalist class has coined billions of blood-soaked dollars out of the misfortune of the European peoples and our entrance into the war. Furthermore, it is due primarily to this class being gorged with an enormous possession of unearned wealth, in the shape of accumulated goods which the masses are not able to buy because of their restricted wages, that industry has broken down, followed by extensive unemployment and suffering, and we find ourselves in the throes of a grave crisis. The capitalist class has seized upon this act as the occasion to further entrench itself, by exercising its influence with pliant legislators, judges and executives of the government, to secure the passage of repressive measures, to abrogate political liberties, and to employ armed force to beat into submission men and women on strike. In order to perpetrate the enormities of the "open shop" and similar misnamed assaults upon wages, hours and the standard of working and living obtained in America, the capitalist class has freely bought and paid for violence in trumping up charges against and jailing labor leaders in murdering them, in wiping out peaceful means of redress and in clothing private armed men, the police and constabulary, with illegal power which they wantonly wielded. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have readily lent themselves to these nefarious purposes and practices of the capitalist class, who pick their candidates and determine their policies. Both these parties have closed their ears to the appeals of the people for justice. Both these parties are ready to continue the arrangement whereby the government, the natural resources and the vast industries of the State and nation, are agencies of profit and plunder for the capitalist class, and wrong and exploitation for the working class. Only the Socialist party takes its stand as the party of those who labor, produce the wealth and render useful service. Only the Socialist party is determined to have the government restore and promote political freedom, and use the resources and industrial opportunities to yield a larger return of comfort, leisure and happiness to the people. The greatest problem the people face today is that of earning their livelihood. Through the constant introduction of machinery and more efficient processes, the speeding up of work, the closing of avenues of employment by the wiping out of competitive concerns; the increasing of unearned income through rent, interest and profit, it becomes ever harder for the workers to make both ends meet. Sickness and untimely death readily overtake the bread winners, children are prematurely torn from school and thrust into the labor market, while uncertain employment, present insecurity and fear of the future menace the whole working class. This is as true of the toilers of the field as of the factory. It applies especially to the migratory labor engaged in seasonal occupation. It holds good of the tenant farmer and the owner of the small farm. Set upon by the different corporations and trusts which furnish credit and supplies, which transport and dispose of the produce, the farmers of small means and the laborers who share their burdens, carry all the cares of business and reap none of the rewards. As a consequence, an exceedingly large part of the farmers work mortgaged land in this highly productive agricultural state of ours. Likewise the men and women of the professions, and those whose meagre savings and long hours of effort are invested in small concerns, are little better off than working people and stand in the constant risk of being squeezed out in the concentration of capital. In short, the actual benefit of industrial improvement and progress, of the enormous production of wealth and possibilities for higher civilization, today flow to the handful of capitalists who own the larger tracts of land, mines and mills, factories, storing facilities and means of transportation, and who by their control of the financial agencies, threaten the livelihood of the rest of the people and employ that power for their own gain. As the political party of the exploited, the Socialist party is organized to carry into effect the following public measures: POLITICAL. 1. Repeal the so-called anti-sedition law and other repressive measures. Repeal the act establishing the State Constabulary, and prohibit the quartering of troops among us in the time of peace. 2. 3. Establish the initiative, referendum and recall. 4. Provide for the election of legislators and congressmen by proportional representation, so that all parties may share in the government according to the vote they poll. 5. Grant self-government to municipalities over their own affairs. 1. FISCAL. Levy progressive income and property taxes and a graduated inheritance tax, to take unearned wealth for State use. 2. Tax the unearned increment of land; all land held out of use to be taxed at its full rental value. 3. Make appropriations only to institutions in which the State has a proportionate control. |