Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-06-14
asrlntn1tt Gltrn1tirlr.
additional Editorial on first page.

Additional Editorial on first page.
THE so-called Democratic party is il
lustrating its incapacity for government,
and so it has been always for fifty years.
1t was opposed to internal improvements
when the construction of the National
Road was agitated by Mr.. Clay, more
than half a century ago. "Why build
such a road through that wilderness?"
said the Democrats of that day. Why
give land and money to aid in the con-
struction of railroad to the Pacifc?"
said the Democrats a generation after
ward.
The National Road opened up and pop
ulated three great States. The railroads
built by government aid have added
half dozen prosperous States to the
Union, with two or three others ready to
come in.
So with the manufacturing and pro-
ducing interests of the country. "Open
up the ports of the country to the COM
merce of the world" has been the de-
mand of the Democrats ever since South
Carolina threatened to go to war because
of tariff.
Prior to the war of the rebellion the
landed barOns of the South. who owned
their laborers, and whose interests were
wholly agricultural, controlled the coun-
try and directed its policy. Cotton grow
ing was antagonistic to tariff duties.-
All persons acquainted with the history
of the country know the result, so far as
its material interests are concerned, and
they know, too, that the nation was prac-
tically beggar in the money market
One year before the outbreak of the civil
war Buchanan's administration paid y
per cent. for public loan. The manu-
factures of the country amounted, prac
tically, to nOthing-railrOad building
amounted to nothing was no en-
terprise among the people-the money of
the country was being shipped to Europe,
to pay for goods that should have been
manufactured here-money was scarce
and high, although at the height of Cal
ifornia mining operations the laborer
was poorly paid, and employment uncer
tain.
The exigencies of the civil war made
it necessary to raise large sums of money
to carry on the operations of government.
One of the methods resorted to was the
leyying of high duties upon goods ship
ped into the country from abroad. The
result was the establishment of all kinds
of manufactures in this country, giving
certain and profitable employment to tens
of thousands of workmen, and building
up busy towns and cities. As the neces-
sites of the country lessened these duties
were reduced, but aimed TO be kept at a
point that would protect the material in
terests of the country against foreign
competition.
This has been the policy of the Repub
lican party. Under it the country has
grown in wealth and power-men have
found employment as they never did be-
fore, and such wages as they were never
paid before.
The so-called Democrats propose to go
back to the old order of things. The Re
publicans have the Protection standard
"stiu high advanced" and propose to
keep it there.
Five months hence the People will be
called upon to pass judgment upon the
wisdom of these parties.
TIE National Democratic Convention
of last week endorsed the Message of
President Cleveland. Read this view of
the Message, from the New York Sun,
the ablest Democratic paper in the coun-
try, but opposed to Free Trade:
So far does he go upon the familiar lines
of the free trade speeches in Congress and
elsewhere, that we find him betrayed here
and there, no doubt uncOnsciOusly, into
an exhibition of slight irritation against
American manufacturers as class, al
most as if they were conspirators and
public enemies.
And this, from the London Morning
Post, one of the leading organs of public
opinion in Great Britain:
The message will produce profound
sensation in Europe as well as in Amer
ica and will strengthen the free traders
cause throughout the world.