Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-06-04
The Democratic Platform.

The democratic platform adopted at
Bangor is piece of patchwork represent
Ing the demoralzed condition OF the dem
ocratic party in the State. 1t is of all
col,rs. and of all sorts of material and
workmanship except that which is. good.
honest and true.
The first thing in it is an endorsement
of the administration of President Cleve-
land. Now if the real sentiments of the
democracy of Maine had been DICED in
the platform it would have repudiated the
administration and buried it under anath
emas. Mr. Cleveland has no supporters
in the democratic party except those per-
sons whom he has appointed to office.
They succeeded IN getting an endorsement
of him into the platform, but the mass of
the party spit upon it and denounce it as
dishonest and fraud upon the democra-
cy.
One resolution claims that the demo-
cratic party is the friend of the laboring
man, and has always been so. Was the
democratic party the friend of labor when
it sustained the system of slavery in the
South, and turned the product of the
sweat and toll of the laborng class of that
section into the pockets of the wealthy and
arstocratic slaveholdersp Is the demo-
cratic party the friend of labor now, while
1t endorses the measures adopted in the
South to deprive the colored laborers OF
their civil and political rights and keep
them slaves in reality though ostensiblv
freemenp Friends of labor. torsooth
Let the auction block, the manacles. the
scourge, the terrors of the Ku.Klux. the
brutal murders of unoffending laborers
in that section of the country where de-
mocracy has its strength and power. speak
upon this point and confound the false
hood uttered in the democratic platform.
The second resolution calls for reduc-
ton of the tariff. These democratic
friends (p) of labor desire to have the
tariff reduced. But the laborers them
selves do not ask this. They are opposed
to the Morrison bill. They have remons-
trated against it. They know that protec-
ton to American industries is protection
to American labor, and that free trade is
opposed to the interests of labor in this
country. The resolution is an insult to
workingmen, because it assumes that they
are ignorant and capable of being duped
into acting against their interests.
The fourth resolution denounces the
passage of the river and harbor bill by
the House. As the House has large
democratic majority. the censnre for the
passage of the bill in question falls upon
the democracy. This is an example of
the economy of which so much was prom
ised by the democracy in the national
campaign. Their profession and practice
are wofully at variance. 1t will be time
enough to announce the opinion of the
Senate IN regard to the bill when that
body has acted. II would be a great dis
appointment to the democrats if the Sem
ate should refuse to pass it in its present
shape.
What will our fishermen say to the sop
thrown to themp How will they feel about
the lavish praise of the administration for
the manner in which it has managed the
fishery questions And particularly for the
eulogistic manner in which Bayard, the
Incompetent Secretary of State, is
mmtionedp Why, there is not a
fisherman in Maine who does not
know that the treatment OF the fishing
question by the Secretary of State has
been one ofmonumentalfolly aud stupidity.
The case was in good condition as left by
the last Congress, but now what with the
seizures of our fishing vessels, and the
uncertainties and perplexities attending
the fishing business and Canada, it looks
as though settlement would be difficult
to be reached by peaceful means.
We look in vain for any endorsement 10
the platform of civil service reform. What
Is an endorsement of the President worth
when civil service reform is ignored
One year of democratic rule has been suit
Hcient to make the democracy as dumb as
m oyster over what in the Presidential