The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-10-25
A TARIFF FOR REVENUE
ONLY.
Full Explanation of that Free
Trade Plank.
MR.. WATTERSON SAYS HE WROTE 1T
AND THE CONVENTION UNANI-
MOUSLY ADOPTED 1T.

The Louisville Courier-Journal, edited by
Henry Watterson, has the following:
Mr.. Watterson had the misfortune to be
chairman of the platform committee in the
Lite national conventions; but he had the hap
piness to be associated with thirty-seven other
gentlemen, representing the wisdom and ex.
perience oil every state and section of the
Union. No cut-and died platform happened
to be III readiness, and these gentlemen be-
TOOK themselves to an apartment in the Grand
Hotel, where from s in the evening to 8 o'clock
the next morning they discussed the various
questions which they thought worthy of con-
sideration. Quite mass Of documentary mat
ter was the consequence. This was turned
over to Mr. Watterson to be licked into shape,
and Mr.. WattersOn, with the assistance of Mr..
Gwinn OF Maryland, and Mr.. Irish of Iowa,
two of the ablest and most enlightened men,
bers OF the committee, completed the work
very much as the country has it. Thus phrased
and pointed it was reported back to the COM
mittee; every clause, every line, every word
was subjected to the closest scrutiny; and the
whole was not adopted until an entire day had
Deen spent In this process OF revision. 1t was
then, as perfected, brought before the cenven-
ton, and, not one vote dissenting, declared to
be the platform of the party.
MIR. WatterSOn is forced to admit the soft
impeachment that he is responsible for the
tariff plank in question, and although, to be
strictly accurate, he might tighten his load of
guilt somewhat by placing an equal share to
the account of Mr.. David A. Wells he scorns
to dodge the issue. Mr.. Watterson is a Demo-
crat. He was bred in the old-time school of
Democratic opinion and, among the traditions
OF this school, surviving the ravages of time
and war, that of revenue reform (miscalled
Tree trade) has, along with honest money and
strict construction of the constitution, clung
to his mind and heart as about all which fate
has left us worth fighting for. But, that
which i'll itself is right may not always be
polite. In the making of Ilatforms, as in the
management of parties, an eye to the fitness
OF things and decent respect for the prevail
ing situation of the public mind should be
had. So, in considering this matter, although
he was instructed by the committee to prepare
a resolution upon the tariff-although nobody
dreamed OF the platform going to the country
without such a resolution-Mr. Watterson did
not follow blindly and solely the cardinal
principle OF Democratic faith to which he had
been brought up. He might, indeed, have
justified himself-had he foreseen that obiec-
tion would be made on point SO unexpected
by the platform of 56, which declared for
progressive free trade" or the platform of
6S, which declared for "a tariff for revenue
upon foreign imp orts," Or, had he concluded
to drop tradition and subject himself exclusive
ly to practical influences-the odious charac-
ter OF the existing tariff and the advantage to
be derived throughout the West, particularly
in Indiana and Illinois, from such an issue as
revenue reform-might have relied for his
voter III ten in all the region known as the Mis-
sissippi Valleybut claims 10 be free-trader. But
Mr.. Watterson was even more cautious still
With all these authorities to back him. he yet
looked to the party law as it was. The pl L
form OF 1876, until substituted by that OF 1880,
stood as the law of the party. On the plat
form of 1876 we had gained signal victory
On it we had carried Indiana. 1t is universally
conceded to have been good platform. So,
turing to it, with the purpose of making it
his guide, Mr.. Watterson stumbled upon the
following:
We denounce the present tariff levied upon near
aooo articles as masterpiece Of injustice in
equality and false pretence. We demand
that all custom house taxation shall be only for
revenue.
Now, this resolution had either to be re-
affirmed or reScinded. Unfortunately, neither
Mr.. Watterson nor the gentleman who were as
sociated with him in the objectionable blunder
of reasserting Democratic doctrine as old and
tritl as the moral law, possessed in June the
luminous hind-sight which makes words so
oraeular in October.
From the beginning of the canvass to this
hour the Courier-Journal has not lost sight for
a moment of the tariff plank in the national
platform. From time to time as seemed to be
required, it has shown the oppressive character
OF the present vllainous tariff. If the Demo-
cratic speakers and newspapers have not done
the like, and if thereby the party has suffered,
that is the fault of the management of the
campaign, not of the platform. Nay, for ten
years, confident in a thorough reform of our
revenue system great public need, and there
fore to some party brave enough and wise
enough to fulfil it a great advantage lay con-
cealed, we have steadily, earnestly and copi-
ously urged the matter upon the public atten-
ton. In the present campaign we are serving
not as leader, but as private in the ranks.
We did not make the campaign. We are re-
SpOnSlble for no part OF it.