The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-06-30
FOR congress-
HER MAN STUMP,
The Republican Platform.

The platform adopted at Chicago is alto
gether out of harmony with the record of the
Republican party 1t declares for honest
civil service reform.
Under Republican rule the civil service
system was a mockery and a farce. 1t was
administered only to place party favorites in
office and to keep them there and to enable
them to get rich by corrupt collision with
underwriters, smugglers and contractors.
The public service was shamefully dishonest,
and even after the change of administration
a desperate effort was made to use the re-
form statute as shield for the corruptionists
through the retention of their tools in place.
They held on to their places with the tenacity of
men resolved never to let go. And finally
they had to be choked off before they could
be made to relinquish their grasp upon the
offices, in which they fondly believed they
were firmly intrenched by the civil service
law.
The platform also demands appropriations
for the early rebuilding of the navy. The
country is astonished at the audacity of the
Republicans in abiding to a subject the dis
cussion of which will tell so strongly against
them, and revive the recollection of the cor
rupt sale of the navy, the contracts and dis
honest schemes that so seriously compromised
the Republicans in the heyday of their power
For twenty years after the close of the war
they held the government, and in that time
expended about SIS, 200, 900 annually, or the
enormous aggregate of $500, 900, 900, on naval
account, and yet, when Mr.. Cleveland was
elected, there was not a solitary vessel afoat
that was deemed seaworthy! What became
of that immense amount of money? There
was no navy to show for it. 1t must have
gone into the pockets of favorites and into
the corrupt schemes of those who so grossly
mismanaged our naval affairs.
The platform advocates the reservation of
the public lands for actual settlers What
was the practice of the Republican party in
the disposal of the public lands, when in
power? 1t gave to railroad corporations mil
lions of acres of the public domain, in area
equal to several of our largest States. The
Democrats have restored to the public domain
nearly one hundred millions Of acres which
will be reserved for actual settlers. The
Democrats are right, both in theory and prac-
tice, in relation to our public lands. The
Republicans are right in theory only, while
their practice has been directly the reverse of
their theory. The old axiom that actions
speak louder than words is in point here.
While the Republicans hold the word of
promise to the ear, in their platform, they
break it to the hope, by their practice, as
their record proves.
Upon the Tariff the present attitude of the
Republican party is reactiOndJy, absolutely
tending backward President Arthur, in 1882,
opposed in his message, the repeal of the in
ternal revenue tax on whiskey and tobacco,
and urged revision of the tariff by reduc
tion of duties. The recommendations of
Secretaries McCulloch and Folger, were
equally definite. The former asked for re-
duction upon articles chiefly used by the poor,
while the latter urged "a careful revision of
the tariff, with view to substantial reduc-
tons" The proposition recently made that
the tax on whiskey and tobacco should be
abolished in preference to change in the
duty on wool, essential to the manufacture of
cheap clothing and carpets, is one that no
Republican would have made until now.
The Tariff Commission, raised by the Re-
publicans in Congress themselves, to investi-
gate the tariff, reported in favor of reduction
of many duties, and of an entire re1isi0n of
the tariff, such as the Democrats now favor.
In 1870, Senator Morrill,, the father of the
Republican protective system, said;
sit is a mistake of the friends of sound
tariff to insist upon the extreme rates imposed
during the war, if less will raise the necessary
revenue"
But the course condemned by Senator Nor
rill, in 1870, is precisely the course now pur
sued by his party. 1t insists that any reduc
ton of the tariff is Stree trade, and proposes
even to increase the duties on some articles,
such as tin plate, which is not made at all in
this country. The effect of which would be
to raise the price of every tin cup, tin bucket,
tin spouting, roofing, and every article made
of tin.
The present tariff favors the rich at the
expense of the poor. Articles of luxury, used
chiefly by the rich, are taxed low. Articles
of necessity nsed mostly by the poor are taxed
high. Iron, coal, salt, clothing, &c, which
enters into general consumption, pay high
tariff Such articles as silks, velvets, wines,
jewelry, precious stones, aud the like. pay as
low as 20 per cent. The Democrats want to
change these inequalities of the tariff, in the
interest of the poorer classes, but the Repub-
licans object, saying that any change is ''free
troda -