Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1888-02-25
STRONG DISCONTINUE.
Democratic Dissatisfaction In the Sou
and on the Pacific Slope.

STRONG DISCONTENT.
Democratic Dissatisfaction In the South
and on the Pacific Slope.
The more sagacious Democratic pa
pers in the East and South are careful
ly, but quite earnestly, suggesting to
their party the obvious dangers in the
coming Free-Trade campaign which
MI. Cleveland has precipitated on the
party Even MI. Carlisle and his
wisest Democratic advisers have shown
natural solicitude as to the unexpected
prominence of an issue on which the
Democracy has an impossible campaign
before it in Pennsylvania and on which
the New York, New Jersey and Con-
necticut Democrats are divided. The
San reminds the Free Trade Democrats
OF the fact that the first Morrison Tariff
bill resulted in reducing the Democrat
ic majority in the House from sixty
nine in the Forty-eighth Congress to
forty in the For.y-ninth Congress, and
the second Morrison bill reduced that
majority from forty to twelve. the lat
ter majority being the narrow margin
in the present House.
From the Pacific coast we get equal
ly decided Democratic expressions of
discomfort and apprehension. Take,
for instance, the Democratic San Fran
cisco Call, which sets out by making
these very SUI .gestive observations:
1.-THE notion has got out somehow that
Mr.. Cleveland is the strongest man in
his party; but the message which he
has transmitted to Congress will set
the thinking men of the party to
thinking. Can the party go before
the people on the tariff platform the
President has constructedp Demo-
Gratis who remember the excitement in
labor circles when General Hancock
N ade remark which permitted the
impression that he was not in prin-
siple in favor of protective tariff will
experience some apprehension of the
result should the party nominate a
man who has gone out OF his way to
make tariff for revenue only the
central plank in the Democratic plat
FORM
Our Democratic San Francisco con-
temporary insists that ga very large
portion of the party is as sound on the
tariff question as any Republican.
They are Democrats on other issues,
and have had no occasion to choose
between free trade and utilization with
the Republican party. They have
seen the way to be Democrats and pro-
tectionists. The President now, in an
official assumption of leadership, de-
clares that the policy of the party is,
if not exactly free trade, full face
attitude in that direction. The Demo-
Gratis in Congress and in the National
Convention will have to choose be-
tween the overthrow of Mr.. Cleveland
and the acceptance of his tariff views.
1t will not be of any use to nominate
Mr.. Cleveland and theE skirmish along
the protection line. Whether Mr.
Cleveland actually proposes free trade
or not, he will be regarded as free
trade candidate. The party under his
leadership will have to bear the brunt
of an attack from all along the pro-
lection line.''
The conclusion to which the Call
comes is that the American people are
Intelligent enough to know that sit
will not -ha-sina ply tho thrae~r,illion,
people whom Mr.. Cleveland fancied
were especially included in the preser-
walton of the protective policy, but the
fourteen millions who are otherwise
engaged in industrial pursuits as WE'LL
The average American citizen does not
need to be told that reduction of the
wages of one-fourth of their number
will bring about reduction for the
whole. The factory operative who
submits to reduction of forty per
cent. in wages will expect his carpen-
ter, his tailor, his produce dealer. and
all others with whom he deals, to re-
duce prices corresponding and if
they do not, he will take up some line
of employment in which the standard
is maintained and thus, in seeking to
help himself, in effect assist to bring
about an equilibrium in rates of COM
pensation for labor H..
These Democratic utterances from
bAC L uClHC COdSt dIG 10 uGlD
such Northern Democratic papers as the
San and such Southern Democratic pa
pers as the Atlanta Consultation to sus-
tain Mr.. Randall in his hostility to the
doctrines and policies of Mr.. Cleveland's
message. But Mr.. Cleveland thor
oughly believes the constant adulation
of the mugwumps, and that they are
right in insisting not only that he is
'better than his party but that he is
''stronger than his party" and he will
not yield all inch to all the protests of
the Protectionist Democrats. The fight
for Cleveland's reelection must be
made on his Free Trade message, and
the result next November will show
how futile it is for even the luckiest of
candidates to imagine that he can con-
troll or direct the whirlwind of Repub-
lican enthusiasm or the storm of Dem
ocratic discomfort that he has been the
means of evoking.-M Y. Mail and E1-
press.