The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-24
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON on RRENT ToP1os-ooMP1nED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
THE OHIO PLATFORM.

From the N. Y. Times.
The action Of the Ohio Republicans was
looked forward to with interest, not unmin-
gled with anxiety, by the best of the party
throughout the country. 1t was felt that the
present occasion was preliminary test of the
capacity of the party to move steadily for
ward without breaking line, keeping in its
ranks both the deliberate and the impetuous.
Judging by the synopsis of the resolutions
which has reached us, and by the light thrown
on the action of the convention by the ante
cedents and associations of General Noyes,
and by the speech of Senator Sherman, the
country will be justified in believing that the
Republicans of Ohio fairly represent the Re-
publicans of the nation, and that no real
need, no live issue has been treated by them
with neglect or evasion.
In speaking with pride of the past of the
party, identified with the highest triumphs
and severest trials of our country, the Ohio
platform but expresses the just and solid
confidence for which the past affords ample
warrant. 1t is true that mere gratitude is
not sufficient capital for party to make new
ventures with. But it is equally true that
promises for the future are judged by per-
formances IN the past, and that as long as
party maintains substantial unity it is in
evitably and rightly judged by the nature
and extent of its actual achievements.
Laurels win no new Victories but the army
that has its banners wreathed with them has
fewer desertions and more recruits than one
whose record is, like that of the Democracy,
stained with cowardice and treason. In turn
ing its attention to the present and future,
the Republican party has right to challenge
the closest scrutiny of its previous career.
But the Republicans of Ohio do not con-
tent themselves with retrospect. They un-
dertake conscientiously and clearly to meet
the demands which steadily developing pub
lie opinion makes upon them. They en-
phatically dissent from that view which would
make the party the instrument of extreme
protection to special industries and limited
sections of the country. They yield grace
fully but decidedly to the conviction which
has been gaining ground for these past fodr
or five years, that the duties on imports have
been, and, even after considerable modifca-
tions, still are unequal in their operation
They pledge the party to the service of
making them bear evenly upon all industries,
and upon every section Of the Common
wealth.
The Ohio platform also meets the other
pressing requisition of enlightened public
opinion, that the civil service shall be re-
formed, and, in approving heartily the prac-
tical measures adopted by the President,
shows the sense of the party in the West
that the work shall be done with all possible
thoroughness and dispatch. 1t is we'll to re-
member that the publication and reorgani-
zation of the civil service is a comparatively
recent demand 1t has grown up wholly
since the war, and in time when the most
engrossing questions resulting from the war,
and involving the peace, order, and prosper
ity of the country, were pressing upon the
public mind with overwhelming urgency.
1t belongs, moreover to class of questions
with which the American people are some
what unfamiliar, and to which they have
given but little study and enjoyed practi-
cally very little experience. Bearing these
things in mind, the temper of the Republican
party towards the reform must be accepted
as highly salutary and promising. If it is not
all that the most ardent and best informed
students of this question would desire, it is
quite as assuring as, all things considered,
could have been expected. We need not say
that q deliberate expression from Republi-
can convention, in connection with the prac-
tical step taken by Republican Congress and
President, is worth thousand of the most
explicit VOWS of the Democracy. Civil service
reform in the mouths of the party that in
cludes Tammany and which Tammany con-
trolls is q bitter jest.
If the platform of the Ohio Republicans is
less advanced than the opinion of some por.
tions of the East on the question of amnesty
in the South, the Southern leaders have
themselves to thank for it. 1t is Jefferson
DaVlB anu lOOLlDb duu Otepu6uS IudI nave
checked the growth of popular sentiment il
favor of amnesty, and it is not to be denied
that since the incontinent display of rebel
lious feeling on the part of these men, ant
the reception it has met at the South, the
Ohio Convention would have ceased to b,
representative had it made any unqHalife(
demand for such a measure. dl.
These points, and many others, were ably
treated by Senator Sherman in his speech OF
the evening of the convention. With admi
rable clearness and energy he exposed tn,
himsy pretensioDs of the Democracy, AM
pointed out the specific claims of the Republi
can party to be trusted with the execution o
anyreforms desired by the people. He showe
that long service had not made him dull t
the changes of public sentiment and that he
and the body of which he is one of the vete
ran members, are prepared to advanc
steadily and practically to the realization @
any well-defned popular purposes. His fran
though moderate adhesion to the advance
positions of the convention is one more o
the many signs that the Republican party i
to continue to be, as it has long been, th
representative and therefore the governin
party of the nation. 1t is only necessary
add that in most essential respects the pos
tion of the Iowa Republicans, whose victor
is certain, is the same as that Of the Obi
Republicans taken in the face of a determine
foe-a fact which adds to the significance
both. aii...........H m ,4