New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-06-25
WHAT OHIO DEMOCRATS SAY.


courage to take a new departure. Trimming
and trickcry of the old sort shaped the plat
form as well as the ticket, and the result is
compound of dsingenuous evasions and shabby
untruths. 1t is not true that the Republican
"party has pursued q policy of favoring in
"dividual and class interests at the expense OF
"the laboring people of the country" Ii implies
an impudent untruth to say that the Democrats
of Ohio "renew their previous declaration for
stable money" 1t is palpably false to say
that "the Republican party has violated every
"pledGe it has heretofore given for the re-
form of the Civil Service. and has failed
"during its long administration of the Gov
"ernment to correct even the most crying
"abuses." Those who urge that reform most
earnestly must at the same time admit that
the public service is, on the whole, more pure,
and more free from abuses, crying or other,
than it ever was under any Democratic adj
minstration. In ignoring the radical measure
passed at the last session, and talking as II
the party in power had refused to take any
steps of the kind, the Democrats of Ohio
merely advertise their own dishonesty.
The platform tries to put the party on both
sides of the tariff question. In one resolution
it proposes " tariff for revenue, limited to the
necessities of q government economically
administered and in another dcnounces the
reduction of " the tariff on wool, while at the
same time increasing it on woollen goods
The assertion that Congress increased the duty
on woollen goods is a fragrant falsehood.
Originally, the statement may have been made
IN mere confusion of terms, because the duties
a in raised
above those proposed by the Tariff Commits
sion. In referring to that change, some per-
sons spoke of Congress as having " increased
the duty,n but the mistake was at once ex-
posed in the Senate by Mr.. Morrill,, who
showed that tho reduction Of duties on such
goods as a whole would be about $500, 900,
aud by Mr.. Aldrich, who gave details very
fully, and in the House, at the very close of
the debate by Mr.. Kasson, who compared the
old and new rates with some detail. Since
hat time the bill has been printed and dis
cussed, and there can be no excuse whatever
for the assertion that the duties on woOllen
goods have been increased. The reduction OF
the duty on wool was finally made by
Democratic votes In the Senate, when Mr..
Sherman made his last and most earnest effort
to have the duty on wool raised more nearly
to the present rate, sixteen Republicans and
Mr.. Davis, o illinois, voted for his motion, and
ONLY fourteen Republicans against 1t, while
of the Democratic Senators only three voted
for the motion and twenty-six against it. This
was the last and decisive vote on that question,
and it is unspeakable impudcnce for Demo-
Gratis to denOunce the reduction of the duty on
wool as the act of a Republican Congress In
that case ms in some Others, the Republicans
were divided, though the majority favored the
higher duty, and the result was determined by
the almost solid vote Of the Democrats, TWEEN
ty-six for and only three against reduction.
But this platform is dishonest in broader
sense. 1t is deliberately framed to deceive the
people in respect to the real aims of the Demo
cratic party. Instead of proposing tariff for
revenue only. as the party has for years in
every form by which political intention can
be made known-by resolutions, by speeches
and teachings and by votes in COngress-this
platform seeks to create the impression that
the old party has suddenly become
converted, and intends hereafter to "encOur-
age productive interests at home, and afford
Just compensation to labor" 1t would be
most gratifying to believe that the Democrats
OF OIllO lldu fAUtIltHCcu bllih CliduEt VI utuIl.
But everybody knows that they have not The
old free-traders are still at the front, and as
emphatic in their demands as ever. Hurd, of
Toledo, and Payne, of Cleveland, Thurman,
Ward, and all the rest of the Democratic
leaders of Ohio, stand exactly where they have
stood for many years They denOunce the
protective system as robbery, and mean to
destroy it if they can, but they consent to
form of words which may possibly deceive
somebody, because they want success. Mr..
Hoadly himself when a Republican, acted
with the frec-trade wing at the West, and
in dispatch to The World, dated on Saturday,
takes pains to speak of the Republican candi-
date as " the champion of taxation as a
source of wealth" The phrase is SO familiar
ir free-trade literature that there can be no
doubt about its intent. Yet this party, all
boiling over with hostility to protective ideas
and the protective system, picks out ambigu-
Gus phrases for its platform in order to
disguise its aims
1t will prove poor investment. After all,
the honest masses like candor and manliness
more than trickeTy. II is too late to make
the country believe that the Democratic party
has departed from the position which it has
held Tor half a century, and which this very
year nine-tenths of its members of Congress
occupied throughout a prolonged struggle
Had that party declared plainly and unequiv-
Ocally for the maintenance of protective
duties, even then no one would have put faith
In professions 80 contrary TO its conduct. But
still less can it be trusted when 1t resorts to
tricky and shutting phrases, which may mean
anything or nothing. The people, those who