Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1888-08-07
THE PLATFORM.
THE PRINCIPLES WITH WHICH
THE REPUBLICANS APPEAL
TO THE PEOPLE.

leader, the immortal champion of lib
erty and the rights of the people,
Abraham Lincoln, and to cover also
with wre aths of imperishable remem.
brance and gratitude to the heroic
names of our later leaders, who have
been more recently called away from
our councils-Grant, Garfield, Arthur,
Logan, Conkling. May their memo
ries be faithfully cherished. We also
recall with our greetings and with
prayer for his recovery. the name of
one of our living heroes, whose memo.
ry will be treasured in the history,
both Of Republicans and of the re-
public, the name OF that noble soldier
and favorite child of victory, Phillip
II. Sheridan.
In the spirit of those great leaders
and of our own devotion to human
liberty, and with that hostility to all
forms of desposism and oppression
which is the fundamental idea of the
Republican party, we send fraternal
congratulations to our fellow-Ameri-
cans of Brazil upon their great act of
the abolition of slavery throughout
the two American continents.
We earnestly hope that we may
soon congratulate our fellow citizens
of Irish birth upon the peaceful re-
covery of Home Rule for Ireland.
We reaffirm our answering devo.
ton to the National Constitution and
to the indissoluble union of the
States, and to the autonomy reserved
to the States under the Constitution;
to the personal rights and liberties of
citizens in all the States and Terri
tories of the Union, and especially to
the supreme and sovereign right of
every lawful citizen, rich or poor,
native or foreign born, white or black.
to cast one free ballot in public cleo
tons, and to have that ballot duly
counted. We hold the free and
honest popular ballot and the just
and equal representation Of all the
people to be the foundation of Re-
publican government, and demand
effective legislation to secure the in
tegrity and purity Of elections, which
are the fountains Of all public author
ity. We charge that the present ad-
ministration and the Democratic ma
jority in Congress owe their existence
to the suppression Of the ballot by a
criminal notification Of the Constitu
ton and the laws of the United
States.
We are uncompromisingly in favor
of the American system Of protection.
We protest against its destruction n,
proposed by the President and his
party. They serve the interests OF
Europe; we will support the interests
of America. We accept the issue
and confidently appeal to the people
for their judgment. The protective
system must be maintained; its
abandonment has always baen follow
ed by general disaster to all interests,
except those of the usurer and the
sheriff.
We denounce the Mills bill as
destructive to the general business,
the labor and the farming interests of
the country; and we heartily endorse
the consistent and patriotic action of
the Republican Representatives in
Congress in opposing its passage.
We condemn the proposition of the
Democratic party to place wool on
the free list, and we insist that the
duties thereon shall be adjusted and
maintained so as to furnish full and
adequate protection to the industry.
The Republican party would effect
all needed reduction of the national
revenue by repeating the taxes upon
tobacco which are an annoyance and
burden to agriculture, and the tax
upon spirits used in the arts and for
mechanical purposes; and by such
revision Of the tariff laws as will
tend to check imports of such articles
rs are produced by our people, the
production of which gives employ
ment to our labor, and release from
import duties those articles of foreign
production Except luxuries) the like
of which cannot be produced at
home. If there shall still remain a
larger revenue than is required for
the wants OF the government. we
favor the entire repeal of internal
taxes rather than the surrender of
any part of our protective system at
the joint behest OF whisky trusts and
the agents Of foreign manufacturers.
We declare our hostility to the in
PRODUCTION into this country Of foreign
contract labor and of Chinese labor,
alien to our civilization and our Con-
stitution, and we demand the rigid
enforcement OF the existing laws
against it, and favor such immediate
Legislation as will exclude such labor
from our shores.
We declare our opposition to all
combinations OF capital organized
into trusts or otherwise to control
arbitrarily the condition of trade
among our citizens, and we recon-
mend to Congress and the State Leg
islatures in their respective jurisdic-
tions. such legislation as will prevent
the execution OF all schemes to on.