The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-01-26
THE OUTLOOK.
DEMOCRATIC PROSPECTS FOR
THE COMING CAMPAIGN.

DEMOCRATIC PROSPECTS FOR
THE COMING CAMPAIGN.
Henry Watterson'> brilliant Speech--
lnder the Banner of Revenue Reform
We will March Steadily to Victory.
NEW YORK, Jan. 21.-There was meet
ing of the Tariff Reform Club tonight
Letters of regret were read from President
Cleveland and Secretary Fairchid. Among
the speakers was Henry Watterson Mr..
Watterson spoke as follows:
The outlook is most encouraging. Con
sldering how the painted harlot of protec-
ton is whistling to keep her courage up
| as she stalks across the graveyard of false
| vows and broken promises she has made
mainly to the working people, should call
| it assured.
''For more than year my fear has been
that we might not be able in advance of
| our National Convention, to close ranks
and move in solid column against the
enemy on distinct lines of our own delib-
crate choosing; and as | believe that moth
| ing clears the political atmosphere like
| plain speaking right out III meeting. |
| have given the Administration and the
country the best the shop has afforded in
the way of disagreeable persistency and
| the sincerest candor. 1t was obvious to
| my mind that unless we could agree in
| Congress we should not agree in conyen-
| ton. The tariff plank in the last National
Democratic platform was not intended to
| be straddle, because although the plat
! form committee had been adroltly packed
| IN the interest of protection, the revenue
| reformers were still strong enough to hold
| their ground and to carry all their points
| But it WAS made to seem a straddle.
| Hence nothing short of declaration which
| might not bear two constructions would
satisfy the demands of reform in the next
National platform, and any one could see
| that this could not be obtained without
| fight and possibly a split. Just in nick of
time the President came to the rescue
with the wisdom of an impetuous courage
and the craft OF a common sense deriving
| its strength from its integrity. This brave
and honest man, this puzzle to the poll
| tic1ans and contradiction of all experience,
with single stroke of his pen, did what
might for years have baffled the efforts of
the greatest statesmen and philosophers.
BY that act he has reversed the situation
from one of cowardly indecision to one of
enthusiasm and confidence He has forced
the enemy back behind his earthwoIks
and warned stragglers to come into camp
Upon the lines Of that message | would
| rather be beaten than win upon those of
lying substitute. But we shall not be
beaten. The President words are pres
ton from our march of progress and
| reform. They lead US out of the bushes
and into the highways. An honest Demo
crat may now hold up his head, look the
world in the face, and call his soul his own
| without a furtve side glance at the Re-
publicans. Let us go to the people of the
East, as we have gone to the people of the
West and the South. with the truth.
1.-The period of agitation has passed;
h., H. L.. l, Il
| of the nation. The period Of affirmation
and construction is upon us and its vocal
organs are not those of exclamation, but
| of practical business. So is it with the
movement for revenue reform. Its friends
| have for years sought by agitation to
| direct the interest of thinking men to the
evils of the tax system full on inequality
and false pretention. They have succeed
ed, and now they are prepared to apply
! definite measures and methods Of reform
! to the disorder. But these are in no wise
| preclpltate or extreme. They contemplate
no revolution. They propose at one and at
| the same time to reduce taxation and rev
| enue and to effect this on the lines laid
down so admirably by the President in his
| message.
unfortunately there are those who,
| masQuerading as Democrats, make it the
business of their lives to play into the hands
| of the enemy. They are Protectionists
! first, Democrats afterwards. In the end
| when the process of the redistribution and
| readjustment of party forces, now going
| forward, is completed, they will find
final and fitting abode, where they prop
! erly belong in the castle Of those robber
| barons, whose men alarms are at this
| moment out in every direction, collecting,
| through the tariff, tribute of the people.
Then, indeed, shall we know who is who
| and what is what, and the star-eyed God
dess of Reform shall carry in the circlet Of
truth which graces her fair young brow
no false jewels to dim its luster. Mean
while, my friends, we have nothing to fear
in the immediate future. That is full of
most genial, most gratifying assurances.
The party of reform in Congress will be
found to unite upon a measure of reform
in harmony with the Presidents message
Wait little and you shall see how they
carry themselves upon the floor of the
| House under the leadership of Carlisle
and Mills and of my brilliant and eloquent
friend, the latest successor of Henry Clay,
who, If he were now living, would scorn
to break the promise he repeatedly made
| to the people that protection should not
outlast the maturity of infants now fifty
and a hundred years of age. With our
host at Washington it shall be, as it was
with the Irish at Fontenoy, steady they
march adown the slope, steady they mount
the hill steady they load, steady they
fire, moving right onward still; and on
ward, and onward, until all the mud
, works of fraud are carried, and every job
!, is fired out of its lurking place, and that
abomination of all denominations the high
protective tariff, limited by the Constitu-
) ton exclusively to public purposes and
! proclaimed by its authors temporary
war expedient, is reduced to a revenue
basis and the needs of honest government
economically administered
A Reward!
Especial Cor. STATE CHRONICLE.