New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-02
DIR. STORES COMING OUT OF THE WOODS.

DIR. STORRS COMING OUT OF THE WOODS
We CODY elsewhere in full from The indie
pendent" letter in which the Rev. DIR. X. ,.
Storrs, writing from the woods" frankly
states his views of the Chicago platform and
the campaign now in progress. His thousands
of friends and admirers will be glad to know
that DIR. Storrs finds it increasingly probable"
that he shall vote for the Republican candidates
and that he still stands where he has stood
throughout his life, a stanch supporter Of those
fundamental principles which his party has al
ways maintained and is about to re-establish
in control of the National Government.
DR.. Storrs is entitled, by long fellowship with
the Republican party and by the sincerity of
his convictions, to the right of free criticism,
and he does not hesitate to exercise it. He
canddly avows his disappointment that on the
temperance question the Republican platform
is less explicit than the Republican record. But
a party, if bound by those principles which It's
representatives choose to embody in a formal
declaration, is not confined to any meagre ex-
preston of them DR.. Storrs has no difficulty
in perceiving that the Republican party is ir~
revocably committed by its acts to an honest
and fearless temperance reform. Neither he
ceived and to deceive others can forget that
Republican Legislature in New York has
passed High License bill which Democratic
Governor vetoed at the dictation of Democratic
rum-sellers; that Republican Legislature in
Pennsylvania has enacted a temperance meas
ure Of such practical efficiency that it has closed
two-thirds of the rum-shops in Philadelphia;
and that in New-Jersey a Republican Lcgis-
lature has passed and passed again over Dem
ocratic veto a law so far-reaching that it drove
the party of free rum into a panic, and so care
fully framed that it has just been upheld in
all its parts by Democratic court Of last re-
sort. Such is the record of the Republican
party right here at the centre of conflict,
where the present battle is to be won or lost.
DIR. Storrs clearly sees its significance, and
ought not to be troubled by the phraseology
of resolution.
However deeply DR.. Storrs may regret the
verbal limitations of the Chicago platform, it
should not be suspected for moment that he
bears the remotest resemblance to the eX-Mug-
wumps, for he is not and declares he never
could be Free Trader. He firmly believes
in the principle and operation of the protective
system, and only regrets that the platform does
HUI COHldlH cAphNlu lSdili VI viz
fundamental Republican doctrine-tOO often
embodied in practical legislation, it would
seem, to make its repetition essential-that the
tariff must, in the very nature of things, be
adjusted from time to time to new conditions,
not by its enemies but by its friends. If the
Republican platform does not at length renew
this obligation, neither does it rehearse the
Decalogue nor avow its faith in the axiom that
straight line is the shortest distance between
two points.
We are heartily glad that Dr. Storrs has
obeyed his inclination to publish a frank state
ment Of what he conceives to be the short
comngs of the Chicago platform. His lucid
exposition of the benefits which flow from
protective tariff, his accurate Identification Of
Democracy with free trade, his frank recog
milton of the fact that its own deliberate action
has made the Republican party the bulwark Of
temperance, his glowing tribute to the Re-
publican candidates, and, above all, the search
ing examination which merely serves to show
that the Republican platform was drawn to
represent underlying principles rather than to
crafty an individual preference-all will prove
to be powerful aid and stimulus to the cam
pagn..