New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-09
MAKING THE ISSUE For 1854.

The defeat of the Morrison bill is not the end,
but the beginning, of desperate struggle on
the tariff question. Mr.. Randall and his fol-
lowers cannot now draw back if they would.
Mr.. Morrison and his followers would not if
they could. To do them justice, it must be
said that many of them are perfectly sincere in
their convictions. They believe that the pro-
tective tariff, whether it helps other sections or
not, does great harm and injustice to the locali-
ties and the people they represent They be-
lieve that the Democratic party has no chance
of success, and no right to exist, unless it puts
an end to this supposed injustice. Those whose
convictions of duty are not so strong nevcrthe-
less see that the struggle means political life or
death to them. They have committed them
selves and their party to policy which cannot
now be abandoned without fatal results to
them, if not to the party organization. If 1t
were possible for the party to prevail by
change of front at this late day, it must be with
different leaders and different representatives.
Hence the fight within the Democratic party
must go into the National Convention. and,
whatever the decision there, must be continued
at the polls next fall.
Mr.. Morrison's followers do not need,to declare,
50 angrily as they do, that the National Con-
vention must meet this issue. Whether they
wish it or not the question must now abe met.
If the Democratic Convention decides that the
effort to change the tariff was right 1t marks
Mr.. Randall and those who have acted with him
as traitors to the party. If it decides that the
effort was wrong, it virtually disbands the party
by taking away its only right to exist. There is
no help for it. The party will have to disband,
OF uphold the convictions of four-fifths OF its
members. There can be little doubt as to the
result. The great majority of the patty will
probably have its way. Encouraged by the
hope of winning the votes of free-trade Repub
licans, the party will speak its mind for once,
pull off its DISCUSSES, and go gayly to its grave.
The free-trade Republicans of the Times Post
species, meanwhile, will strive to capture the
Republican Convention. The four delegates
at-large from this State, elected by the Arthur
Edmunds combination, would never have been
chosen in a New-YOrk Republican convention
if il had been said that three of the four
could be in any sense claimed by the
Free Traders. Many of the supporters of MI.
Arthur may share the same views, and others
may be Indifferent as to questions of principle,
but there were many of his supporters in the
convention who would as soon have voted for a
Democrat as for Mr.. Roosevelt, if they had
thought him a Free Trader-which we hope he
will yet prove that he is not. Real Free Traders
however, have been elected as Edmunds men
as Arthur men in Massachusetts and other
States, who would never have been sent to
represent Republicans if their opinions as to a
vital part of the Republican policy had been
realized by the voters. Thus the Chicago Con-
yention will have to decide for the Republican
party, also, whether its past record and many
pledges shall be abandoned in an effort to
satisfy small minority, who have made per-
sonal opposition to Mr.. Blaine pretext for
electipg delegates hostile to the protection of
home industry.
After the conventions will come vigorous
campaign. The Republicans, we are confident,
will stand by their record and their pledges,
and present such candidates and such plat
form that there can be no sort of question, in the
future, as there has been none in the past, about
the intentions of the party. 1t would be well
for the country if the Democrats would show
the same honesty and courage. In that case,
the question would be submitted to the people
without disguise or equivocation. If the
people want to have the protective tariff over
hauled and reconstructed by Free Traders, they
can 50 ucCIuc' II OiiS iVO-VtouO hhdiGh thJS,
who have resorted to shameless SANDER in order
to break down strong statesmen who do not
agree with them, and who threaten loudly to
bolt if the candidate does not suit them, see lit
To take themselves and their stock of ISLANDERS
into the Democratic camp, there viii be no tears
shed. For every vote so lost the Republican
party will gain many when the workiugmen of
the great Northern States find the issue sharply
presented. 1t is a long timezsnce they have
voted to reduce their own wages.