New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-08
MASSACHUSETTS, DEMOCRATIC yIEWS

MASSACHUSETTS, DEMOCRATIC VIEWS.
There is evidently powerful lot OF thinking
going Oh among Democrats. The newspapers
of the party are full of views which are poured
upon the country in the most generous manner
by eminent Democratic statesmen The flood
has been running especially strong in the West
for several weeks, and now comes an answering
wave from the East. The Boston Trareller,
which is not Democratic paper, but Republi-
can paper with weak side for Governor But
Ter, publishes five columns of interviews with
Democratic leaders in Massachusetts, and they
furnish uncommonly interesting reading. The
main topics considered are the tariff issue and
Governor Buffers Presidential possibilities,
Summed up concisely, it may be said that the
statesmen's views are practically unanimous IN
favor of judcious stradde of the tariff qucs-
ton, and are about evenly divided on Butler.
Some of them think he has little boom,
hardly large enough to speak of, while others
think he never had much of boom anyway, and
has smashed it completely by his course as
Governor
The most outspoken commentator is that vet
eran political observer, Frank Bird, who de-
servedly occupies the position of sage in Massa-
chusetts politics. He says the Governor y has
"a made blank fool of himself" "No man ever
had a more magnificent opportunity to make a
"briliant record for himself and win honor as
"a Governor Of the old Commonwealth than he,
sand no man ever more absolutely threw away
ian opportunity than he has already done.
q don't own any stock in him, and ! certainly
"am not taking any. have for years mis-
trusted him. Last year, thinking he might
@have learned something gave him my sup
sport, but l find was deceived. lie is the
q sane Butler he has always been" That is
conclusion which has been reached by many OBJ
servers outside Of Massachusetts, Concerning
issues in 1884, Mr. Bird thinks they will he
revenue reform and civil service reform. He
believes the Democrats can win by openly ia
voring tariff for revenue only, and making a
fight on it. He does not believe in hedging or
talking about incidental protection, and in
this respect he differs from all the other Bay
State Democrats whose views are given. 1t is
much TO be wished that Mr. Bird could per-
suade the Democracy to adopt bis manly course
and give the Republicans chance to join battle
ON this all-inportant issue in the open field,
rather than to fight it with the Democrats am
buscaded behind straddle.
Among the other Democrats whose opinions are
given by The Irareller are Judge Abbott Lev
erett Satonstall, Charles Levi Woodbury., ex-
Mayor Prince, Mayor Palmer and ex-Congress-
man Tarbox. They allagree that tariff fOrrevenue
only should be the Democratic policy. but wish
il to be distinctly understood that they do not
! favor free trade. Judge Abbotts explana-
| ton of tins interesting position is substantially
! the samo as that given by the Others He says
| Everybody knows, who knows anything that
" for the present in this country there can be
@nothng like free trade" That is a solemn
truth. but where does it leave the statesmen of
the Iroquois banquet, and the a6le editors of
| The World and The COurier-JOmnalP Does
the venerable Judge Abbott exclude them from
the Everybody who knows anythingR" We
trust not. II has struck us for some time that
they know a great deal, but, as the countryman
once put it, "the trouble is that most all the
things they know amt So" What the Judge
means by tariff for revenue is this: Two
ahundred millions of dollars must be annually
raised by customs duties and that is absolutely
inconsistent with free trade. In whatever
sway the tariff is imposed to raise what must be
raised by duties on imports, it will afford neces-
sary all the protection that needs to be given"
That is simply the old business of tariff for
revenue with incidental protection" and is a
clumsy stIaddle of the whole question. 1t
would nut the discretionary power of deciding
how much protection " needs to be given" iii
! the hands of the free-trade Democracy, and we
have the word of Carter Harrison and other
tuth-tellers in the party that the Democracy S
first act after getting into power by aid of the
stradde woald be to wipe out protection"
On the question of candidates the Massachu-
sets statesman are not at all garruous. Judge
| Abbott has no doubt, from all he has heard, that
Mr. Tilden is as well as he has been at any
time for many years past-quite well enough
TO administer the office of President admirably
q if he were elected to it, Mr.. Saltonstall says
Of Butler: ain the first place, he never had any
prospects but suppOsing he ever did have, he
has destroyed them" Mr. Woodbury. thinks it
too early to talk about candidates, bat that
Butler is certainly making very live Gov
ernor, and the Republicans are helping to make
him prominent before the country. Mr.. Tarbox
thinks Butler is making magnificent
record" General A. p. Martin, Il friend OF
Buffers, takes different view, and says Buffers
administration "has been disappointment to
his friends 1t is apparent, therefore, that
even in Massachusetts, there is no Butler boom,
and that the Democratic statesmen there are
convinced that an open stand for free trade
would defeat the party in 1884
| -
REFORM IN THE CORONERS OFFICE.
The subject of reforms in the COroner's Office
-, t.. "a.