%554. Party Candidates in 1892.%—When the campaign opened in 1892 there were thus four parties in the field. The People's party nominated James B. Weaver and James G. Field. The platform called for
1. The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1.
2. A graduated income tax.
3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.
4. The restriction of immigration.
5. A national currency to be loaned to the people at two per cent interest per annum, secured by land or produce.
6. All land held by aliens, or by railroads in excess of their actual needs, to be reclaimed and held for actual settlers.
The Prohibitionists nominated John Bidwell and J. B. Cranfill, and declared "anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a beverage."
The Democratic party selected Grover Cleveland for the third time and chose Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President. The platform condemned trusts and combines, advocated the reclamation of the public lands from corporations and syndicates, the exclusion of the Chinese and of the criminals and paupers of Europe, denounced "the Sherman Act of 1890," and called for "the coinage of both gold and silver without discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage," with "the dollar unit of coinage of both metals" "of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value."
The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, expressed their sympathy with the cause of temperance, their opposition to trusts, and called for the coinage of both gold and silver in such way that "the debt-paying power of the dollar, whether silver, gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal."