Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1888-08-31
A Long Series of Blunders.

The want of sagacious leadership which
has afflicted the Republican party since Mr.
Conking's retirement from politics has been
conspicuous for years past, and under the
exigencies of the presidential campaign has
become SO noticeable as to obtrude itself up
on the attention OF every observer Time
was when the party had policy that stirred
the Imagination and warmed the hearts of
its members. 1t had objects and aspirations,
which, however impractcable and unjust
in some particulars, were yet of a popular
character and calculated to enlist the sup
port of large proportion OF the public
spirited and patriotic people of the North
Men of the best talent and most unselfish
aims were prominent in its councils, and it
was not wholly controlled by the wealthy
beneficiaries of federal legislation. In re-
cent years its management has fallen ap-
parently into the hands of men having pri-
vate or corporate interests to serve, with the
result that it has lost touch of the needs
and desires OF the people and has become
incapable OF avoiding obvious errors. Only
on some such theory of change in its leader
ship can the numerous blunders it commits
be explained. In 1888 it erred in not act
ing upon the recommendation of the tariff
commission that the war tariff should be re-
duced 25 per cent. Instead OF reducing
suggested, and getting the credit of so popu-
lar an act, the party succumbed to the de-
mands of protected capitalists and the tariff
was made higher upon many articles than
it ever was before. The nomination of Mr..
Blaine was capital blunder, which drove
from the party the leading Republican jour
nails of the pivotal State of New York, and
other Journals of like influence in other
States. The attitude of the party managers
toward Mr.. Blaine and the tariff issue after
the defeat of "the Blaine crowd" in Novem
Der, 1884, has been most unwise. 1t has
kept the so-called mugwump press in oppo-
sition and given the Cleveland administra.
ton a corps of efficient allies The bunder
of sticking to Mr.. Blaine did not quite cul-
inmate at Chicago in June last in a second
denomination OF the Maine statesman, but
the excessive prominence still given to him,
at the expense of Gen. Harrison, is a singu-
lar instance of faulty management Put
forward as "the ablest exponent Of the pro-
tective idea" Mr.. Blaine startles the country
with the declaration that trusts are largely
private affairs" with which nobody has a
right to interfere" and adds, in support of
his views, a lot of assertions which are in
stantly demolished as untounded in fact.
But Mr.. Blaine's blunders are venial CON-
pared with those committed during the pres.
ent year by the leaders of the party in Con-
gress and in the national convention. With
surplus OF over $115, 900, 900 staring them
in the face they make no proposition to re
duce taxes. On the contrary, they are boast
ing of their success in swelling appropria.
tons so that reduction OF taxation shall
seem impracticable! Instead of economy,
extravaganza is exalted into virtue, and
the country is called upon to approve an
excess of expenditure in 1888 80 over 1SS7-SS
of over 500, 100000! The Mills bill, which
proposed modest reduction of some $780,
100000 of duties, was opposed at every step
in the House, and is now pigeonholed in
the Senate till Republican Senators can be
brought to agree upon revenue bill con-
structed on the lines laid down in the party
platform. That platform in itself was gigan-
tic blunder, calling, as it did, for free whisky
"rather than surrender any portion of our
protective system" The Republicans in the
House made first the blunder of setting their
faces against any modification of the tariff
those of the Senate have since made the
scarcely inferior blunder of undertaking to
modify the tariff-an admission that the
platform of the party is all wrong in depre-
eating "a surrender of any portion of our
protective system" A worse blunder, how.
ever, than any that have been mentioned
was the effort of the Republican majority of
the Senate to use the fisheries treaty as an
implement of party advantage. 1t was
treaty in the public interest, securing i'm
portant advantages for American fishermen
in Canadian waters, besides promising
of the trouble We have been having
with Canada since 1918. But it gave the
Senators the opportunity ofcom-
hitting huge blunder, and they committed
it. They fancied that by misrepresenting
the provisions of the treaty, and then reject
ing it, they could make the President odious
before the country as fvoring British inter
ests and as neglecting to stand up for Amer
lean interests. The message laid before them
was as startling as a clap of thun-
der. 1t not only placed the President con-
spicuously before the people as the defender
If their rights, but it showed also the mis-
,hievous partisanship of the Republican |
Senator'S in rejecting the treaty Baltimore
Sun of SATURDAY, last