Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-07-11

yRfDAY svEN1ac. JULY ii. ,so9.
Tho Platform.


The committee on resolutions at Chi
cago has made long deliverance after
long consideration, but the things that
sre said are worth the words and time
used In saying them. 1t is drawn up In
an unusual way, for a convention plat
form, and the change is at least agrcea.
BILE for the novelty. Brevity has strong
advantages 10 recommend its employ
ment for such utterances, the chief one
being that the issues made are more
wildly defined and readily caught. But
they may not always beas clearly defined
Ia few words as In many and in the
Chicago deliverance the position of the
Democratic party is very plainly marked,
and no one who reads IL intelligently can
fail TO understand 1t. General Butler,
it il true, In seeking to amend it, de.
claredthat its meaning was obscure upon
the tariff issue, but he cited nothing in
proof save that the committee had de
liberated thirty.six hours in making 1t,
and he thought that IL they could not
sooner find out what they wanted to say,
his constituents would be long time in
discovering what they meant to say.
But il was smarter than 1t was wise to
say this. The committee's long dellbera.
tion ought TO have enabled them to find
out distinctly what they wanted to say,
and to say it accurately and this is just
what they did. The tariff declaration,
agreed upon by the extremes Of thought
in the party, and only objected to by
Butler, shows that when the two parties
got together with a sincere desire to
harmonic their differences, it could be
done. In truth they discovered tha,
they differed very little. They agreed
upon the abstract truth Of the free trade
policy and they agreed upon the ne
cessity existing to protect existing home
manufacturers. Therefore they agreed
that the Democratic party was not in
favor OF tariff for revenue only, but
that it wanted tariff under which
American labor can compete success
fully with foreign labor, aud that will
be ample to cover any increased cost Of
production which may exist in conse
quence Of the higher rate of wages pre-
vailing in this country; and with this
exception, federal taxation shall be ex-
clusively for public purposes.
That is an easily comprehended
declaration. 1t seems plain enough for
any one TO understand, and sansible
enough for every one to agree to, Free
traders and protectionists have been
wildly lighting one another on an
abstraction. When they really come to
consider what wise statesmanship de
mands, under our present situation,
they see clearly that our industries can
not be suffocated under the free com.
petition Of foreign cheap labor, and that
duties must be laid for the protection of
home manufactures until the home
cost OF production falls to the level OF
the foreign cost after which they
can be left TO float without cork jacket,
and federal taxation can be laid exclu
sively for public purposes, and shall not
exceed the needs of the government
economically administered. 1t is, as We
have suggested, a very surprising thing
that this sensible adjustment of imagin
ary differences of opinion was not sooner
made, and that last winter the party
was thrown into convuisiOn that
caused people to predict its rupture by the
disagreement Of the very men in
their places as members of Congress
who have agreed as members Of the com
mittee on resolutions in the national
convention. Morrison and Converse
represented the two seeming antipodes
of opinion in Congress, and in the con-
vention came TO the most harmonious
agreement. In Congress, Morrison
would hear TO no modification of his bill,
and it is now shown that pure stubborn
ness was at the bottom of the congress.
mems difference. Eaton, of Connect.
cut, always sensible, was ready to show
their folly to the factions, but they
refused to listen. 1t is really charming
to find how powerful is the medicine of
harmony, prescribed by q national con-
vention to perspiriDg and aspiring
statesmen.
The Unit Rule.
Speaker Carlisle said in Chicago that