The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-02-21
Thu RepubIiean Issues.

ssueS for that party, for next year The
,all IS addressed o., $40 the Repub-
lean electors of the several States"
md (2), $50 all other voters without
:egard TO past political differences"
who are in favor of several PROPOSE
ions, which are expressed. in language
as follows: Elevating and dignifyIng
American labor" extending and pro-
.ecting home industry" - giving free
popular education to the masses of the
people," securing free suffrage and an
honest counting of ballots - effect
ually protecting human rights; IN IN
every section of our common country
promoting friendly feeling and per-
manent harmony throughout the land. ,
All of these expressions commit what
Sydney Smith regarded as a serious
Ofiense. They "overwork the par
ticiple." Some of them are too gen
eral for praise or assault.
What is meant by 'elevating and
digrifying American labor by the
party which is on record for the uni
Yersal importation of Chinese labOrerS?
VIII any action by any party, in Ma
tional convention. have any relation to
the law of supply and demand in Work?
win it affect wages, hours or work in
any way? As good old DR.. johnson used
to say: Gentlemen, clear your minds
of humbug." The most pitiable fall
lacy is the humbug of supposing that
you can humbug others. The men who
work with hands, with tools or with
brain, in this land, know that that kind
of talk in the call is humbug; that it is
uttered by men who take them to be
fools. Sobriety, industry, skill, honesty
and courage enable men to hold their
own at breadwinning. unless hOrdes
them out, or thousands of convicts are
put at work which completes with the
vocation and arts of law-abiding citi-
zens. The party of cheap Chinese labor,
and the party whose legislators are
charged by every Republican paper to
defy and disregard the great demand
for the abolition of the present method
of convict labor, talks about 'elevating
and dignifying American labor" 1t is
the same party, whose leaders in 1880
forced the policy of threatening thou
sands of workingmen with dismissal If
they dared to vote as they pleased. The
ma ,ority of the names signed to this call
are those of men who never did an hon
est days work in their lives. Those not
gorged with monopoly gains, made by
robber law, are political trGmps, glued
to the Treasury, and kept from jail or
exile by the fact that they preserved
the grand old party" by frauds worthy
of the gallOws or the prison, in the
South.
Extending and protecting home in
dustry" means the increase of high tar
LIT duties. Already they make every
man who has to buy the necesSaries of
life pay more than a price and half for
them. They close the markets of the
world to the manufactured products of
America. They have wiped out Amer
lean commerce and destroyed American
ship building. They have caused a
large portion of our factories to stop
and large portion of our foundries to
shut up-because they are gOrged with
reproductions that can not be sent
abroad and are not needed at home,
where there is a glut. Stopping or
shortening upon work means the dry
rot of bankruptcy to the manufacturer
and the quick distress of enforced idle
ness to the workingmen. A prohibition
tariff is constipation to commerce, par
alysis TO manufacturing, starvation to
labor, and conIiScatiOn to the money of
producers and consumers-all because
more stuff is made than can be sold at
home, and high duties cut off q mar
ket abroad. The stuff rOts unsold in
the stOre-houses The wOrkmen 90
idle in the streets, to find hunger and
hopeessness at home. The honest man
ufacturer is taxed at a rUinous rate on
the raw materials needed by him in his
work He has to stop; his hands are
discharged. The few mOnopOlists
grow richer hourly ON the common cor
/ ner they have made on the energies, in
I genuity and miseries of men in these
! States Knowing what protection
really means, knowing the profligacy it
works in taxes and the ruin it works in
trade, prices, labor, production, man
ufacturing and buying, we say: ''Wel-
come the issuer' Civilization. con-
science, events, opinion, needs and man
fest destiny make for revenue reform.
| The Democracy stand for it, and stand
or fall with it.
To ''giving free popular education to
the masses OF the people" no one is OPP
posed. The Democracy say: do it
by States" Every State has its COM
mon school system. Progress from ig-
norance to knowledge is going on ey-
erywhere. The Republicans say: DO
this work through pauper schools set
/ up in States by the central Government,
through political emissaries." That is
their last scheme of paternalism. They
/ TO -n ri
of the yearly S100,000,000 surplus,
which, they say. must be perpetual.
| The Democrats demand that taxation be
cut down TO the line of actual expenses.
All beyond that line is robbery. The
people clearly understand the question.
The other propositions are self-refut-
ing or meaningless. Securing free
suffrage snd honest counting OF bal
( lots'' is work not in the charge or pur
pose of those who put in Hayes and
/ Wheeler. by fraud of count, and Gar
/ field and Arthur, by fraud of corrup
! ton. A committee chairmaned by
Sabin, who is declared by every re-
form Republican to have bought
his election to the Senate, mont
tored by VIM. E. Chandler, who
executed the Florida fraud and the
Robson Roach contracts, and coun-
seled in the interest of those who car
ried the last Convention at Saratoga by
crime, is simply guilty of satire and eff
frontery in talking of free suffrage"
and Ian honest counting" ''Effectu-
ally protecting human rights is Re-
publican indictment of the Republican
United States Supreme Court, for de-
N. In
tional. The party lacking knowledge
M. you,-r osa W lariSlate efficieutlv for