Wichita eagle., 1888-06-27

- STORE.
ROTTEN PLGNKS.
An Investigation DiscIoses Some Very
Weak Spots in the Democratic Platform.

Weak Spots in the Democratic Platform.
Aside from the tariff work of the Demo
cratic platforn-nakerS at st. Louis, they
put together several very rotten planks,
composed mainly of sheer impudence.
Most brazen and offensive of these is the
| one which reads as follows:
ain every branch and department of the
| Government under Democratic control
the rights and the welfare of all the
people have been guarded and defended;
every public interest has been protected and
the equality Of all our citizens before the
law without regard to race or color has been
! steadily maintained"
This coming Immediately after the in
famous Louisiana election frauds by which
! the colored Republicans OF that State were
wholly denied the right of exerting the
! least influence by their votes and virtually
| dlsfranchised, is an insult to the intelligence
and sense Of decency Of the American
people Only few days ago, one of the
most prominent Democratic papers of the
South, the Chattanooga Times, deliberately
served notice on all concerned that manhood
suffrage, for blacks and whites alike, was
not thing to be tolerated in the former
slave States. To quote its own words:
CHASTITY and most costly failure. Its history
for eight years is written in plumber, oppres-
sion and bloody reprisals of the harried and
rabld white citizens. II can never be tried
again under the same conditions An attempt
to renew it would be the beginning of civil war
OF the guerilla pattern, that would convert the
South into desert"
DO the foregoing sentences sound like the
equality of all our citizens before the law,
without regard to race or colora' The Chat
tanooga paper merely contesses what every
man not hopelessly Ignorant knows. The
TACT IS that Northern supporters of the
Southern party simply wink at the grossest
violations OF the constitutional law of the
land In candid mood almost any Demo-
crat will admit that negroes do not have
equal rights in the South, and three times
out of four he Will add they ought not to
have right of suffrage in the sense that
white men possess it. Nevertheless, the
st. Louis convention dareS to make the
rights of the colored race plank in its plat
form!
Another piece of pure impotence is the
following:
cit has adopted and consistently pursued
firm and prudent foreign policy, preserv-
ing peace Wsth all nations, while scrupu-
lousy maintaining all the rights and inter-
ests OF our OVID Government and people at |
home and abroad"
If, says the Cleveland Lender. the bully |
ing of Mexico IN the Cutting case and the |
weakened treatment of the fisheries dis |
pute with Great Britain had been matters |
almost forgotten in the history OF fifty years
ago, there might have been some shrewd-
ness IN the adoption Of such plank, what
ever was thought of its honesty With |
both OF these exhibitions of incapacty, how
ever, fresh IN the memory Of the public, the
bold lie is sure to react upon its authors.
NO Democrat can point to single incident
connected with the foreign relations of the
United States since Clevelands Inaugural
ton which lends 1t dignity or honor, or en-
ul!es II TO the confidence of the people.
In an involved and obscure "challenge
to searching inquiry" concerning the de-
Votlon or the Cleveland administration to |
us pledges regarding finanaial reforms, the
platform is intended TO convey the impress
SION that something important has been
lone toward the reduction of taxation the |
OF the currency system, and
the payment Of the public debt. All that is
nothing but bombast. The currency re-
mans fortunately as the Republicans left
Il in 1885. The debt has been reduced no |
more than it had to be through the opera
lon OF the fiscal system handed over to the
Democrats when President Arthur retired.
the accumulation of money in the Treasury
has been greater and more dangerous than
ever before, and the payments on the inter
sst-bearing debt have been very small in
comparison with the resourcessof the Gov
The financial situation has been
more critical under Grover Cleveland than
ever before in many years. as every intelli- I
gent man knows, and altogether the Admin I
Istratlon has nothing 10 boast of in this
great department Of the Government.
so 1t IS, IN greater or less degree, with {
he rest OF the platform. Its planks are :
often with deceit and hollow with bravo I
TO- The whole structure viii be ridiculed
y the American people and smashed at the I
'ols. The country wants something better c
'nd more solid than impudence and false t
lood. r