New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-08-21
GorERN0R CLEVELANUS COURSE


of President honest candidates take occasion
to show in what sense they understand the dec
larations of their parties. If there has been
any oversight or ambiguity in the platform, the
honest candidate has opportunity to say what
he, at all events, intends and believes and what
may be expected as the result of his ELECTION
IF opponents have contrived to create doubt
about the purposes of the party, the candidate
has opportunity to remove that doubt.
There has never been greater need of such an
explicit statement than there is now from the
candidate of the Democratic party. Upon the
vital issue which controls the votes OF more
men than any other, the question on which the
convention spent all the time employed in any
consideration of principles and policies, 1t is
publicly affirmed by Western Democrats that
the platform means tariff for revenue On,y !;
Mr.. Morrison, VINO reported itand Mr.. Watterson,
whohelped to frame it give that Interpretation.
On the other hand it is asserted by General
Butler, who was third member of the sub
committee by which the platform was shaped
that the declaration is dishonest and rascally
political trick, designed to mean one thing In
New-Yolk aud another in Illinois. Governor
Cleveland had opportunity to say frankly by
what principles he would be governed. lie was
compelled to do this, if an honest man. Not
dong it, he would necessarily be trying to
take advantage of an ambiguity which might
have been unintentional in a convention, buJ
which had been brought to his notice by the
public declarations of leading men Of his party.
In plain terms. he was forced to state his pur-
poses honestly, or else to take advantage OF q
dishonest political trick.
He refuses to say one word on the tariff qucs-
ton. lie expressly accepts the platform with
it's demonstrated ambiguity, and thus enters
deliberately upon an attempt to deceive, which
in the heat Of a popular convention might have
been inadvertent He considers the matter for
weeks. He cOuSults his iblcst friends about II,
and TO more than one al 1itS that he finds great
difficulty il determining what to say OH the
tariff question. Finally he deliberately chooses
His choice marks the character Of the man be-
yond possible doubt. He chooses to cheat the
people if he can, and rs far as he can, in order
to get Office
This candidate has taken the same course on
other subjects. The labOring people have del
mite interests which they wish defended AS
to some of these interests, the platform which
Governor Cleveland accepts was designediy
ambiguous, as General Butler showed in the
convention. An honest candidate would have
felt il ms duty to remove that ambiguity. Gov
ernor Cleveland was the man clearly bound to
do SO. because his Official action upon
important bills had seemed to the
working people hostile to their interest.
But he deliberately chooses to take full adj
vantage of the dishonest and tricky course of
the convention and dismisses the matter with
empty platitudes. " Contented labor Is an ele-
ment of National prosperity ne solemnly says
A schoolboy ought to be spanked if he does not
know this, and public man who states it as
discovery deserves to be despised. Working
men should receive legislative attention, he
says " to the end that the wants and needs of
the employers and the employed shall alike be
subserved" What worker does not know that
every conceivable injustice by employers or
CAPITALISTS can find shelter under Il statement
so vaguel Not one of the definite provisions
for which working people have asked is
noticed by the Governor, and it is perhaps
natural that he should shrink from pledges
at war with his official record.
The treatment of the Civil Service question
is equally disingenuous. Since Governor
Hoadly led in the slaughter Of Mr.. PendetOn,
the mover of the Civil Service act, declarin g
that fixed tenure should not be established
for subOrdinates until the Democrats had
"turned out the rascals" the unmistakable
purpose of the Democratic party has been to
treat all pledges and all laws with this mental
reservation-that they are to be carried out
after "the rascals' have been Ousted and the
Offices filed with Democrats. No man has ex
nosa1 thIs dishonesty of DurnoSe more merci-
lessly than Mr.. Curtis, who now supports
Governor Cleveland without any assurance that
his every hungry and very thirsty party" will
not by legislation bring about a general be-
heading Of officials in order to make room for
Democratic partslns. IN his piatitudes on this
subject, the candidate takes care to avoid any
assurance that the dishonest aims Of his party
are not his own.
1t is not worth while to criticise the phrase
Ology or the intellectual nforority OF IA letter
SO weak as that of Governor Cleveland, which
The Sun pronOunces 1.-The feebcst and most
unstatcsmanlikc document that a like occasion
in our history ever inspired That Governor
Cleveland was small man, the world already
knew. That he was not pure or patriotic
man. it discovered when he allowed himself to
be made "A candidate by corrupt officials, as Il
reward for not furnishing their misdeeds. 1t
remained for him 10 prove himself essentially
"A false and dlshUncs; man, and this he has done.
His letter deliberately takes advantage Of al
the dishonest tricks and all the falsehoOds of
his party platform, and makes them his own.
He goes before his cOuntrynen deliberately
choosing to seek Office BY false prctcnces.