Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-09-21
A DEMOCRATIC FUNK.
The Democratic Committee Declines to
Publicly Debate the Issues.
Chairman NASH Answers the De.
clinaiiOn and EXplOdes the
Hollow Pretexf Of s'NO Is
sue" i'm AN Admirable
Political Argument.
COLUMBUS, o., Sept. IL, 1882.

Hon. George K. Nash, Chairman Republican
: State Executive Committee:
DEAR SIR-The invitation to public
discussion received from your committee
on behalf of Hon. Charles Townsend
was submitted to Mr.. Newman, who
while holding himself ready to meet any
engagement we may make, has referred
your communication to our com nsittee
for final action.
The Democratic ticket was nominated
more than seven weeks ago. and the Re-
publican ticket has been in the field even
a longer period. The election takes
place in four weeks. If a joint discus.
sion was desired, the proposition should
have been made at an earlier day, be
fore arrangements for the campaign had
been fully completed. Only few pub.
lie meetings which Mr.. Newman is ex.
pected to address have been announced
but he has promised to visit, at stated
periods before the election, number
of counties. These engagements. which
will occupy nearly or quite all his time
until the election, would be deranged by
an acceptance of your proposition. Com
pretending. as we think we do, the pur-
pose of your invitation, the Democratic
Executive Committee desires to state
that it is well pleased with the progress
of the campaign thus far, and has no de-
sire to altar the programme or devlate
from the plan already laid out. Mr..
Newman has been and still is engaged
in discussing the issues involved in the
present political campaign, in manner
satisfactory to our committee and 20 the
people 1t is not our desire to withdraw
him from the field of labor to which he
has been assigned. II the status of the
campaign upon your side is not salts
factory or assuring, we are not disposed
to relieve you from any embarraSsments
that may exist. We are content to have
Mr.. Townsend and your speakers con-
time to discuss any issues they may
choose, whether they are involved in
the present political campaign" or are
merely sensational.
Your managers have attempted, but
now openly confess their inability to
force the discussion of questions not in
vOlved in or pertinent to the canvass,
and as we readily recognize in the pro-
posed discussion only another attempt
to accomplish this purpose, We would be
stupid iddeed to aid yon, in your dilem-
ma. In order that there may be no
doubt in the mind of any one as to our
meaning, we will state our position full
ly aud explicitly. Major Townsend. in
the public addresses which he has made
during the campaign, has devoted much
the larger part of his time to the mat
ter of regulation and taxation of the
traffic in Intoxicating liquors, and it is
announced that in any joint discussion
he would pursue the same course. No
such issue is made by the platforms OF
the two parties. No members of the
General Assembly are to be eleted, nor
is any constitutional amendment to be
voted on this year. The present Legis
lature, which is largely Republican,
will exist until 1884, and its power to
pass constitutional laws is unquestion-
ed. Between the Democratic and Re-
publican parties there is, in truth, in
this canvass, no issue whatever upon
this subject.
The Democratic party was the first to
declare that the General Assembly
should be clothed with power to provide
against the evils resulting from the traf-
fc in intoxicating liquors; it was the
first to make provision 10y law on the
subject, and it has always insisted that
persons engaged in the traffic should
bear just proportion of the burdens of
taxation; but it also insists that every
person who conducts his business In
conformity to law shall receive the
equal protection of person and property
guaranteed by the Constitution, and that
the largest liberty consistent with good
government shall be extended to every
citizen. If the burdens of taxation are
not properly adjusted, the evil should
be remedied. This would involve an
examination of the whole subject of tax
alton. 1t would call for accurate infor-
nation, instead of vague statement or
as to the taxes, State and
Federal, which are paid by persons en-
gagged or interested in the manufacture
or sale of alcoholic, malt and vinous
liquors; it would require comparison
of the taxes imposed on other species of
property, and it would require careful
consideration of the Constitutional lin
its to taxation, which were utterly dis
regarded ia the passage of the Pond
law. In the absence of any issue upon
the subject-in the absence of any prop
osition from your party, or even any
member of it, fixing, or even suggesting,
the limits of such regulation and taxa
tion-it would be altogether idle for Mr..
Newman and Mr.. Townsend to attempt
any discussion of the subject.
While we see no ground for discus
fNf ha hQt n a N.
didates Of the Democratic and Republi-
can parties, we take the liberty of sug-
gesting that there appears to be ample
ground for such discussion among the
members of your own party. In speech
es which Gov. Foster is reported to have
made, the position is distinctly taken,
that persons engaged in the traffic in
liquors should be subjected to a special
tax. additional to that imposed on own
ers of other species of property, and that
such tax should be made lien on the
property where the liquors are sold. You
are reported as entertaining the same
views. But Senator Sherman said, in
his speech in Columbus, that he doubted
very much whether any efficient tax
law can be passed which will not be sub
ject to the same objection that was ia
tai to the Pond law. He says: 81 can
not see how you can have tax law
without it operating as license law"
Again, three Republican Judges, consti-
tuting majofity of the Judges of the
Supreme Court, held the Pond law to be
unconstitutional; but Major Townsend
if reported, in recent speech, as saying
that the decision is wrong, and, there
fore, that the act is still a valid law. In
addition these grounds of debate among
members of your own party, we beg
leave further to suggest that there is
some room for discussion between mem
bers of your party and the Prohibition.
lists, the latter maintaining the ground
that the scheme of taxation is not only
wrong, but sinful.
The real question before the people is