Bangor, April 2, 1936
The delegates of the Republican Party, assembled in convention in Bangor, hereby adopt the following declaration of principles or platform:
1. We believe in the preservation of the Constitution of the United States of America and of the Constitution of the State of Maine, in the maintenance of law and order, in freedom of speech, freedom of the press and in freedom of the radio for the discussion of national problems and governmental policies and the acts of those in authority.
2. We believe in the American system of representative government under which the Legislature functions freely, unhampered by executive encroachment or domination.
3. We believe political parties are indispensable to popular, effective government and that they are more than vehicles for obtaining political power. They should be made effective instruments through which those who think alike can combine for good government.
4. We believe in the integrity of contracts whether private or public, including the solemn covenants contained in Party Platforms, and expect the same standard of ethics to prevail in the performance of public obligations as is recognized as fundamentally honest in the performance of private contracts.
5. We believe in an economic system based upon individual initiative and the maintenance of competition regulated by appropriate governmental authority in harmony with American traditions. We oppose an economic system based upon bureaucratic control and bureaucratic management. We demand a return to the precepts of the framers of our Constitution, our judicial system and our government.
6. We favor strict economy and thrift without neglecting the proper functions of government. We favor the prompt attainment of a balanced national budget, not by misleading methods of double bookkeeping, but by the honest method of keeping the expenses of government within the limits of its income. An equitable apportionment of the tax burden is the obvious obligation of government.
7. We favor a sound currency based on gold and definitely stabilized by Congress, in accordance with the constitutional responsibility of Congress to regulate the currency.
8. We favor the immediate withdrawal of government from competition with private industry.
9. We believe in Old Age Pensions commensurate with need. In the accomplishment of this end it must be remembered that what one receives another must pay. We favor the immediate putting into effect of such provisions for old age pensions as sound economic policy for the State of Maine may justify.
10. The Republican Party will countenance no special privilege and condemns the array of class against class. It will ever seek to protect the rights and interests of all.
11. We favor the extension and enforcement of the national civil service and its complete separation from politics. We advocate the extension of the civil service principle in the administration of state affairs.
12. We condemn the exploitation of human misery by the injection of politics in Federal relief administration.
13. We pledge the party to maintain and support adequate legislation and administration to protect the rights of wage-earners.
14. The Republican Party advocates flood control by expenditure of public money only to such an extent as demonstrated to be consistent with Public Welfare, after careful study of the problem by competent engineers. We emphatically oppose the surrendering to Federal control and of the rights of Maine, her citizens, or her industries, by subterfuge in any form whatsoever.
15. Believing that good citizenship and the continuous advancement of our civilization depend upon education, we recommend broader and more equitable educational opportunities for all the children of Maine.
16. Recognizing that women constitute one half of the voters, we favor greater recognition of women in the party councils and in appointment to public office.
17. We believe that the great agricultural industry of Maine should not be compelled to compete with the products of foreign soil and condemn the trade agreements affecting our farmers under the most favored nation clause.
18. We favor the State Government taking all proper steps to develop and protect the industrial agricultural and recreational life of our state.
19. The campaign of 1936 should properly be based upon issues of major importance rather than upon differences as to minor matters of policy. We realize that as time advances, new problems arise and we pledge a forward-looking administration of public affairs. For that reason the Republican Party leaves minor contentious matters for the full freedom of legislative action.
20. We invite all members of the electorate who believe in orderly, constitutional, free government to band together to perpetuate, under our constitution, the free United States of America governed by the people as against any dictatorial form of government, the evils of which are too clearly suggested by European experiments; thus we may transmit to posterity the principles at justice, freedom and democracy.
Source: Maine State Archives