The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-19
Blaine and the Chicago Platform.


Mr. Blaine does not appear to have much
respect for the platform OF his party. lie
hes already said q great deal that is cal
culated to destroy whatever respect his
party has for it. The platform declares for
free whisky Mr.. Blaine saysthat to make
whisky free would he great mistake.
Free whisky, he declares, would undo all
that has heen done in behalf of temperance
by prohibition and high license.
The platform condemns trusts, and calls
them schemes to Cypress the people.
Mr. Blaine, in his speech at Portland the
other day, refused to condemn them. lie
| commented on President Cleveland's action
in calling the attention of congress to them,
and advising legislation for their suppress
sion. He said that they were "largely
private affairs with which neither President
Cleveland nor any private citizen had any
particular right to interfere"
Is MIR. Blaine trying to defeat his party
He must know that there is a very bitter
feeling against trusts in all parts of the
country. Perhaps he is interested in some
of the trusts which are now engaged in
robbing tho people, and therefore cannot
see anything wrong in them. If he does
not think that there is any great opposition
to them let him visit the south and hear
what the cotton planters have to say about
the baggng trust.
But Mr.. Blaine declares that the present
high protective tariff doesn't foster trusts.
He knows better than that. 1t would not
be possible for the bagging combination to
get profit on bagging that is about equal
to the original cost of that article if 1t were
not for the prohibitory tariff II congress
were to put bagging on the free list, or cut
down the tariff on it one-half, or thirds,
the bagging combination would go to pieces
at once and bagging could be obtained at
reasonable prices.
Senator Sherman, who is much more of
a statesman than Mr.. Blaine, but who has
not the latter's magnetic qualities, and
hence is not as popular with his party, does
not assent to Mr.. Blaine's assertion that
neither President Cleveland nor any private
citizen has anything to do with trusts.
When President Cleveland called the atten-
ton of congress TO trusts, and the way they
were expressing the people, he promptly
II Dill III inc SbIlhU6 10 make
them illegal Indeed, the republican, as
well as the democratic, leaders very gener-
ally condemn trusts, and Mr. Blaine's de-
Tense of them must appear very strange to
the country.
But, after all, Mr.. Blaine is not states
man. In his long public career he has done
nothing for the people. No legislation of
importance has ever originated with him,
and he has never defended any cause that
was close to the hearts of the people. He
is a brilliant man, and has the faculty of
making himself popular with the masses,
but his record shows him to be dema-
gogue. He is the friend of the monopolists.
not of wage-earners. Doubtless he gained
his impressions of trusts from his friend,
Mr.. Carnegie, while making coaching
tour with the latter through Scotland. MIR.
Carnegie knows all about trusts. He is a
member of some of the biggest combiua-
tions in the country-combinatio which
have yielded him as much as S., 900 a day
for 300 consecutive days.
But what does Gen. Harrison and the
republican campaign managers think of the
way Mr.. Blaine is knocking the republican
platform to pieces. Do they propose to fol
low Mr.. Blaine's lead and abandon their
platform. or repudiate Mr. Blaine and stand
square!y by the principles enunciated at
Chicago?