New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-04-09
MASKS.

Has the Democratic party entirety changed
it's character again2 Some apparently, think
it has, for they attribute to new leadership
and purpose in the party its partial sue
cess in recent local elections where severe
defeat occurred last fall. A Protectonist
and q Democrat was elected Mayor OF
St. Louis by majority of 1879, they
say whereas the majority in the same city
against Mr. Cleveland for President, ne being
a trade Democrat, was $500. 80 the
Democrats nearly carried Rhode Island, it can
be said, for a Gubernatorial candidate who may
possibly have some leaning toward protecaon'
but the State voted against President cleveland
This is not q good use of figures. There Is
abundant evidence that other influences did
cause the large difference in the relative
strength of parties at the TIVE elections, ana no
evidence whatever that it was caused by the
present opinion of candidates on question with
which the Mayor of St. Louis or the Governor
of Rhode Island has nothing to do Ii the
case of Democratic PrOtectioniSts is rs dcs-
perate as these differences would indicate, they
may as well quit. They were unhappy enough
when, after all their promises and threats and
solemn warnings they found almost every
the Mills bill.
The Democratic Protectionist IS an anomaly.
The genuine Democrat is person who cares rs
little as Governor Hill for political CONVICTIONS
and uses various professions of belief as mere
counters in the game for spoils, or else he is
Free Trader. A Protectonist who cares moth
ing for protection is as glazing an absurdlty as
a Protectionist who believes in Free Trade.
The Southern men who have faint and
shadowy desire to see their new Industries de-
Tended by adequate duties, but who meanwhile
vote for Free Traders in order to show their
superiority to the negro, arc not after all moro
ridiculous than the Northern men whe begged
Democrats to vote for Mr.. Cleveland as a good
Protectionist, and got kicked into a corner for
their pains.
There is ample evidence that the character
and purpose of the Democratic party have not
changed at all. There are some men in it who
thought it shrewd to avow free-trade beliefs
last October, and who do not now think It
shrewd; that is all But the time-Serving
tricksters do not make the party what it
is. They dwindIe into insignificance when
the stern conflict comes between the
earnest men who believe that protection
is right and the other earnest men who be-
lievc that protection is wrong. The character
of the Democratic party is fixed by the fact
that large majority Of its active and con-
trolling men arc persons who sincerely think
protection wrong. Whether the number
of them is little smaller or not smaller
than it was six months ago, before the verdict
of the people was rendered, does not mattor
at all. The party is essentially the same, be-
cause its ruling majority IL a body Of men who
forget as little as the Bourbons ever forgot, and
learn even less.
The masks and pretences which this party
may put on, when it has local election TO
carry, warrant no opinion whatever about its
character. One might rs well suppose that Mr..
Booth changed his nature with his clothes when
he appears one night as othelo tho Jealous
Moor, and the next as Hamlet, the melancholy
Dane. The same party puts up person who
Is called Protectionist for Mayor Of ST. Louis
which supported with passionate zeal in that
same city General Frank Blair, when he was
living, because he declared that he knew moth
ing about the tariff. 1t is tho same party which
supported MIR. Cleveland as a Free Trader. even.
while it voted for Protectionist members Of
Congress in this or. that district. It's ruling
purposes do not alter with the masks it puts on