American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-07-24
Flat, Stale and Improbable.

vention gave the keynote, in his open
| ing address, to the Committee on Reso-
lutions, and the members of that COM
mittee pitched their tune in strict ac-
cordance Herewith. The result is that
it is exceedingly fiat--as flat, if so start
ling Il change in metaphor be permissi-
bic, as dishwater. The only thing that
it does reasonably well or with any ap-
pearance of enthusiasm is the point
ing with PRIDE" and this has so long
ceased to be regarded, even by the par
ties who expect to support platforms,
rs worth doing at ali, that its being
well done can hardly be claimed as
striking success in the matter of plat
form building. Even in this respect
the platform is only constructed well in
a general way. The descent into de-
tails neutralizes wholly the sweeping
claim that the Republican party has
been covering itself with glory .'as
with a garment" for the past twenty
years.
When the platform calls attention,
for instance, to the alleged fact that the
party has raised the value of our pa
per currency from thirty-eight per
cent. to the par of gold" it invites a
kind of comment which is not at all
calculated to swell the Republican
bosom with pride. 1t suggests, in the
first place, that it is to the Republican
party and its abominable tinanciering
the country was indebted for the de-
basement of its currency to thirty eight
per cent. and it suggests, still further,
that but for the economy and retrench-
ment which the Democratic party intro
duced, the boosted appreciation would
even now be in the dun distance. 1t
calls attention, moreover, to the grave
doubt which still ex SITS, in the minds
of prudent men of all parties, as to the
permanency of the financial result so
much exulted in.
Equally damaging. and more nom
sensical, is the credIting of the Repub-
Hcan party with the increased mileage
of railroads and the increased prepon-
derance of exports over imports. Had
the trainers of the platform pointed
with pride" in general terms and
grandiloquent language to the startling
growth and progress of the country, and
stopped at that point, they might have
had some effect on the minimizing por-
ton of the party or of the people. But
and prosperity and measure them in
miles of railroad, the least thoughtful
man in any party sees at a glance that
the party is boasting of that which it
had no hand Whatever in bringing
about. Some few railroads have been
built, perhaps, which but for the Re-
publican party would not have been
built. But it was because the party
gave away huge slices of the National
domain as subsidies to the builders; and
SO obnoxious has this unwise generosity
become that the party long since re-
solved not to continue it. and in this
very platform expressly declares that
mo further grant OF the public domain
should be made to any railway or other
corpora ton" If, therefore, the party
is to be credited with the increase in
mileage it is because it has
party conventions have been compelled
to cond emn snd repudiate it. As for
the remarkable excess of exports over
imports last year-which the platform
ov erstates. by the way, to the extent of
Sc o, 600, 00O--it is something for which
tn Republican party is no more respon-
sible than it is for the immense crops, and
the favorable seasons which made the
crops possible. 1t was injudiciOus,
moreover, for the Committee on Reso-
lutions to refer to the commerce of the
country. In doing SO they remind the
public that both the imports which they
oelittle and the exports they magnify
we're carried across the sea in vessels
IF foreign build, because the policy of
,he party has wiped the American ship
builder out of existence, and will not
permit the American merchant to be-
come the owner of foreign-built ships.
To the rest of the platform there is
40 force whatever, Even in the enun-
citation of the party doctrine of central
zatiOn IL ia nc faoble as IL well could he
hough it indicates Enthusiastically that
he party will = when it can-give
he Federal Government control
churches 1t is still more feeble,
f possible, in the treatment of
he Chinese question. The plank on
hat point contains just enough to irri-
ate the Eastern Republicans; while it
alls very far short of satisfying the peo-
lie of the Pacific slope. 1t is essentially
milk-and-water proposition, with the
water very largely predomidating.
1t is abundantly clear that the COM
nittee which framed the platform and
he Convention which adopted it looked
Onward to a personal campaign rather
han a contest in which principles will
,e at issue. They will find themselves
cry much in error, however, when the
contest actually begins. From this
ime to the second of November they
will be kept so busy defending the past
f their party that they will have no
to point with pride. Their
eeble platform will be found utterly in
efficient to furnish the party standing
oom-much less fighting room.-DetroH
Free Press.
~. Il