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Preamble We, the representatives of the Prohibition
Party, assembled in the National Convention at Winona Lake, Indiana, September
1, 2, and 3, 1959, recognizing Almighty God as the source of all just
government, and with faith in the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ,
do solemnly promise that, if our party is chosen to administer the affairs
of the nation, we will, with earnest dedication to the principles of righteousness,
seek to serve the needs and to preserve the rights, the prerogatives and
the basic freedoms, of the people of the United States. For the realization
of these ends we propose the following programs of government: Constitutional
Government First of all, we affirm our sincere loyalty
to the Constitution of the United States, and express our deep confidence
in that document as the basic law of our land. We deplore all attempts
to violate it, whether by legislation, by means of evasion, or through
judicial interpretation. We believe in the principles of liberty and justice
enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and in the Preamble and
Bill of Rights of our Constitution. We declare ourselves in hearty support
of our system of representative government, with its plan of checks and
balances, and express our firm intent to serve the people of our nation
with a constructive, forward-looking program of good government, dedicated
to the welfare of our citizenry. Communism-Totalitarianism We are positively, aggressively and unalterably,
opposed to Communism as a way of life or as a governmental system. We
believe that the program of Communism, with its intent to infiltrate and
to overthrow our present form of government, must be pitilessly exposed.
We challenge all loyal citizens to become fully aware of this menace to
civilization, to exert every effort to defeat these 'masters of deceit,'
and to help preserve our American way of life. We also declare ourselves opposed to any other
form of totalitarian philosophy or form of government. We endorse the
efforts of those agencies which have been honestly and earnestly exposing
subversive activities and groups. Governmental
Economy and Taxation We live in an era of extravagance and wasteful
spending. This spirit has invaded government at all levels, demanding
an ever-increasing tax load upon our people. The constant increase in
taxation, requiring nearly one-third of the total income of our citizens
to pay the expenses of government, is approaching the point of confiscation,
leading to economic bankruptcy. We believe that good government ought
not to attempt to do for people what they can do for themselves. With
proper economy, governmental costs can be lowered, the tax load can be
lightened, and the public debt can be reduced. We promise to devote ourselves
to such an end, even though it involves the reorganization and/or abolition
of certain departments, bureaus and vested interests. Money
and Finance A sound financial program and a dependable
monetary policy are fundamental to a stable economy. Our Constitution
gives to Congress the power to 'coin money' and to 'reglate the value
thereof.' We believe that Congress, working with the executive department
of our government, should take immediate steps to establish a financial
program that will block inflationary trends, insure a sound currency,
stabilize price levels and provide for systematic retirement of the national
debt. We urge that careful consideration be given to a return to the gold
standard, suggesting that such a step would help stabilize our economy,
would promote confidence in our monetary system and would underwrite a
continuing program of sound finance and expanding industrial progress. The
Federal Budget Good government and a sound economy demand
a balanced federal budget. The inflationary effects and the disturbing
influences of unbalanced budgets must be eliminated. We cannot, with impunity,
continue to increase the mortgage on our future and the interest load
of the present. As the level of taxation is already excessive, there must
be either a decided reduction in governmental services and federal spending
or a substantial improvement in efficiency, with consequent elimination
of waste in both personnel and materials. Actually, both areas need careful
exploration with a view not only to maintaining a balanced budget, but
also to reduction of the national debt. Foreign
Aid Many billions of dollars of our taxpayers'
money have been and are still being given to foreign countries. Unfortunately,
substantial portions have been used to support governments and programs
considerably at variance with American ideals and concepts. It is frankly
recognized that complex and baffling problems are involved in this area
of international relations, but it is likewise believed that the practice
needs most careful scrutiny and review. Free
Enterprise We deplore the current trend toward development
of a socialistic state. We are strongly opposed to governmental restraints
on our free enterprise system, to detailed regulation of our economic
life and to federal interference with individual initiative. We declare
ourselves for freedom of opportunity, for private industry financed within
the structure of our present anti-trust laws and for a sound economic
system based upon recognized business practice. To this end, we propose
that our government withdraw, with reasonable promptness, from the field
of business activity and sell to private industry those business enterprises
now owned and operated by the federal government. Labor
and Industry In the area of labor and industrial relations
we believe that the public welfare must be given paramount consideration.
Both management and labor must be held responsible for their economic
and their social behavior. Neither should be permitted to dominate at
the expense of the other or of the common good. Rather, the anti-trust
laws must be applied equally to all monopolies, whether of business or
labor. Whenever the public welfare is seriously endangered because of disputes affecting quasi-public businesses and utilities we favor
the compulsory arbitration of labor-management disputes. Employee-Employer
Rights Every individual has certain basic and fundamental
rights. A person's right to join or not to join a labor union without
affecting his employment and his right to work for an employer willing
to hire him must be protected. Likewise, employees and employers must
be free to bargain and to contract as they wish. Mass picketing, rioting,
terrorism, and all other forms of violence and coercion, secondary boycotts
and industry-wide bargaining should be prohibited. Individual
and States' Rights Our founding fathers recognized the importance
of both individual and states' rights, and determined to preserve them
by making the Bill of Rights an integral part of our Constitution. During
recent years there has been an increasing tendency toward an undesirable
concentration of power and authority in the federal government. We pledge
ourselves to action that will preserve all legitimate individual rights
and will maintain among the several states their constitutional place
in our system of government. We maintain that all American citizens, regardless
of race, religion or national origin, are equal before the law and are
entitled to equality of treatment under the laws of our land. We deplore
the use of violence, from whatever source, as a means of trying to resolve
tensions and divergencies of opinion among our citizenry. Public
Morality and Law Enforcement Moral and spiritual considerations must be
primary factors in determining both state and national policies. We deplore
the gross neglect of such matters by the dominant political parties, culminating
in the shocking revelations of crime and of political and economic corruption
which have characterized recent years. We charge these parties with basic
responsibility for the rapid decline in moral standards which followed
repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. We believe that the program of nullification
of law through non-enforcement which led to repeal contributed greatly
to the disintegration of public morals, to a general deterioration of
standards and to a lowering of values among our people. We pledge ourselves to break the unholy alliance
which has made these things possible. We propose to strengthen and to
enforce laws against gambling, narcotics, and commercialized vice, to
emphasize the basic importance of spiritual and moral values to the development
and growth of an enduring nation, and to maintain the integrity of our
democracy by careful enforcement of law and loyal support of our Constitution. World
Peace We live in an age of atomic and hydrogen bombs,
in an era of missiles and jet propulsion, in a world filled with animosities
and cruel hatreds. Instruments for the destruction of civilization have
been developed. Under these conditions, we pledge ourselves to search
for peaceful solutions to international conflict, by seeking to deal creatively
and constructively with the underlying causes of international tension,
and, to strive for world peace and order based upon the teachings and
practices of the Prince of Peace. Universal
Military Training Although we seek for world peace and order,
we declare our firm belief, under existing world conditions, in a sound
program of national preparedness. At the same time, we seriously question
the desirability of the existing program of peace-time compulsory military
training. We doubt that it represents a genuine safeguard to world peace.
Rather, we believe it to be contrary, in principle, to our American way
of life, to place an unnecssary burden upon our peacetime economy, to
threaten us with possible military dictatorship, and, as currently conducted,
to permit and very often to promote the moral and spiritul deterioration
of our Youth. Therefore, we declare our opposition to any program of peacetime
compulsory military training and urge a complete evaluation and re-orientation
of our entire program of national preparedness. Nuclear
Bomb Tests Many scientists throughout the world have warned
us that radioactive fallout, resulting from the testing of nuclear weapons,
endangers the health of human beings throughout the world, and will increase
the number of seriously defective children who will be born to future
generations. It is unjust that the people of the world, and especially
those of nations not engaged in nuclear testing, should be exposed to
this peril without their consent. The danger and the injustice will become
progressively greater with each additional test. In addition, there is
the added danger that continuation of the armaments race will lead to
an atomic war of annihilation. We, therefore, urge that, as a step toward
world disarmament, all testing of nuclear weapons be indefinitely suspended
on a multilaterial basis and that our government seek with renewed vigor
and persistence an agreement among all nuclear powers for the permanent
and complete cessation of nuclear tests for military purposes. Religious
Liberty We believe in religious liberty. Freedom of
the individual to worship, to fellowship with others of similar faith,
to evangelize, the educate and to establish religious institutions, must
be preserved. When religious liberty is lost political liberty will perish
with it. We believe, also, that our government should take a firm, positive
position against religious intolerance and persecution anywhere in the
world. Marriage
and Divorce Ordained of God, the home is a sacred institution.
Its sanctity must be protected and preserved. We favor the enactment of
uniform marriage and divorce laws in the various states as an aid to building
strong and enduring homes throughout our nation. Old
Age Insurance We endorse the general principle of an actuarially
sound social security program which includes all employed groups. We question
the soundness of the existing program. We deplore the widepread current
abuse of the privileges involved; we condemn the maladministration of
its provisions for political ends; we pledge ourselves to correct these
evils. Ballot
Law Reform True democracy requires that the needs and
interests of minority groups be given fair, honest and appropriate consideration.
Instead, in many of our states, ballot laws have been enacted which are
designed to make a two-party system into a bipartisan political monopoly,
keeping minor parties off the ballot. We demand the repeal of all laws
which deny to independent voters and to loyal minority groups the fundamental
right of free political expression. Separation
of Church and State We affirm our continuing loyalty to the constitutional
principle of separation of Church and State. We will expose, and resist
vigorously, any attempt from whatever source to weaken or subvert this
fundamental principle. In the area of government, we endorse encouragement
of non-profit educational and religious institutions on a tax-exempt basis,
but we declare strong opposition to all efforts, direct or indirect, to
secure appropriations of public money for private religious or sectarian
purposes. Education It is altogether appropriate that our federal
government should be interested in and concerned about matters pertaining
to all areas of educational growth and development. However, under the
Tenth Amendment, public education is clearly a matter of state concern.
We approve of the work of the Office of Education in collecting and disseminating
essential educational information, but we are opposed to any sort of direct
federal aid to education, believing that each state should both support
and control its own educational program. Agriculture The production and distribution of agricultural
products is of vital importance to the economy of any people. We believe
that those engaged in agricultural pursuits, like other American citizens,
should be free from authoritarian control and coercion. Hence we declare
ourselves opposed to regimentation of farms and farmers and urge a sensible
and orderly return to a free market program. Public
Health The health of our people is a matter of high
importance. We are deeply concerned with this problem in its numerous
aspects. In particular, we insist that genuine caution be taken when dealing
with mental health cases lest there be unjust and prejudiced incarcerations.
Also we deplore those programs of mass medication which many maintain
are in violation of the rights of individuals under our Constitution. Service,
not Spoils In spite of our 'civil service' system, first
sponsored by the Prohibition Party, the dominant political parties are
positively committed to the 'spoils' system and, when in office, have
prostituted governmental power to serve their own selfish party interests
instead of the whole people. This has led to excessive expenditures, higher
taxes and, in some situations, to an unfortunate alliance of crime with
politics. We pledge ourselves to an honest, efficient and economical administration. The
Alcohol Problem The widespread and increasing use of alcoholic
beverages has now become a national tragedy and must be recognized as
a major cause of poverty, broken homes, juvenile delinquency, vice, crime,
political corruption, wasted manpower and highway accidents. Of all the
unfortunate mistakes of our government and people, none has been worse
than the legalization of the liquor traffic. It can be legitimately said
that no political issue confronting the citizens of our land compares
in magnitude with the need for supressing the beverage alcohol industry. The sponsors of this national curse are not
only highly capitalized and strongly organized, but are also socially
irresponsible. Out of enormous profits the liquor industry spends huge
sums to promote sales, to create habitual use of its products by both
youth and adults and to encouraging a weakening of moral resistance to
its program of social and economic exploitation. It is linked with and
supports a nationwide network of organized gambling, vice and crime. Through
its advertising it has corrupted large segments of the nation's press,
and it is endeavoring to extend its control increasingly to both radio
and television. Unfortunately, the liquor traffic has been
able to extend its power until, in all too many instances, it dominates
our political life and controls our governmental officials. Both of our
major political parties are dominated by it, amd neither dares to take
a stand against it. And so long as they continue to be yoked by party
membership with the liquor traffic and the underworld, just so long will
they be unable to make moral principles prevail. The beverage alcohol problem is a matter of
national concern. It has reached proportions which demand immediate action
looking to a solution. First of all, scientific facts about beverage alcohol
must be widely publicized. People must come to know and to understand
the demon which we harbor. Secondly, a program of publicity, education,
legislation and administration, leading to the elimination of the beverage
alcohol industry, must be developed. People must come to know that there
is no satisfactory solution to the problem except through political action
which supresses it and a political administration which destroys it. Accordingly the Prohibition Party demands the
repeal of all laws which legalize the liquor traffic and the enactment
and rigorous enforcement of new laws which prohibit the manufacture, distribution,
and sale of alcoholic beverages. You are urged to elect an administration
pledged to the above program. Such is essential to the permanent solution
of this devastating problem. Conclusion The need today in the United States of America is a re-alignment of voters and the union of all good citizens in a political party that is dedicated to a constructive program of clean, honest, and humane government. The Prohibition Party is that kind of political organization. Therefore, we challenge the citizens of our land to elect the candidates of the Prohibition Party; to put into office persons of unquestioned integrity, who will set an example of public and private morality, and who will marshal the resources of government — executive, legislative and judicial — to right the wrong and to preserve for our nation a government 'of the people, by the people and for the people,' under God. |