The Springdale news., 1888-08-17

embarrassing questions of the Chi cago platforms will be beneath his notice. If he can key his party up to this same pitch, it will be alto- gether indifferent to such small matters as taking the taxes of of whiskey and increasing thom on clothing, as the platform declares should be done. That is one of the things that would "divcrt attention from" the single poiat" and thus weaken the campaign" :"
 Mir. Blaine will understand before long, if he does not now, that the slngle fact of the adoption of the Chicago platform has already sc weakened the Republican campaign that no amount of furious and voc.- ferrous rant can restore the Republl- can party to the compactness of op- inion that characterize ed 1t bofore that platform was adopted. John Sherman presented the question of the campaign accurately when hs sad in his speech to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce some weeks ago that there was no difference of opinion on the neces- sity of reducing the surplus. He agreed with President Cleveland that 1t must be done. The only diff ference was on methods. The method proposed by the Chicago Convention Is "sueh revision of the tariff as will tend to check im- ports" and "the entire repeal of in-- ternal taxes rather than the sur. render of any part of our protective system. '
 This is very clear and explicit, and the Democratic position is equally clear and exphelt. Both positions will Do thoroughly dis cussed Tn tho campaign, and Mr. Blaine makes one of his character istlc blunders in supposing that for this discussion he can substitute his own magnetism and by shaking his dagger of lath In his rage and wrath at the devils oi the Southern Confederacy and is allies the Brit ish Free Traders, so thrill the nG- tion with the spectacle that it will forget that there will soon be su plus of s2oQ,000.000 in the treasury not for the benefit ot the govern. ment, but of MT. Blaine's host, Baron Carnegie.
 Nothing w,ll be easier than for Mr. Blaine to distract tho attention of the Republican party from the inconspicuous figure of it's Presi- dental candidate to himself by the speech ss he will make in the "ln- dsustrial States, "but how will this help when as his psrty candidate tor the Presidency the returns showed that in the most important of these States he was himself weak CT than his partyy
 While he can obscure Harrison, he, cannot obscure the issue. It is greater than any man or than either party. It has the making or breaking of parties in it, and it is not to be met by ths ianfaron and folderol of fdemogoguery tha. froths itself into A towering rage to escape reason.
 President Cleveland, and with him the Democratic party. have ad- di essed themselves to the calm common sense ot the people. MT. Blaine and the Protectionists with him will assume thas the people have no common sense. He returns to the United States from the Scotch Highlands, whore he has ex- perieneed the benefits of protection to the Baronial class to which he owes so much, and ho brings back with him the theory of the Scotch cynic-that there are 60,000,000 people in the United States mostly fools"
 He made this mistake once before on that memorable occasion when he "took the American people into his confidence" and read them the Mullvan letters. He must contin- ue to make 1t as long as he remains in public life, for it IS an essential part of his nature to continually overestimate his powers of decep- ton in oyerestimatlng his own inn portance. In this campaign, he is a very interesting dema7ogue, but tho issue is between Cleveland s message and the Chicago platform, and that issue tho Republican par ty must meet-or surrender!
 The Southern Confederacy and British Free Trade will be most ferociously pummelled, no doubt; k,, rnitber has anvthIpv to do with