The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-10-05
About Face F.!

In military parance this command means
to turn about and look the other way in an
opposite direction. This is just what that
Grand Aggregation known as the Republican
Party is about to do on the tariff issue. For
ground and lofty tumbling in the political
arena, no acrobat or knight of the saw-dust
ring that ever figured in Barnum's Fore
paugh' or Rohinson's circus, however expert,
could excel the leaders of that political
organization.
After protesting to regard the tariff as
something sacred, not to be touched with
profane hands, and after iterating and reiter-
ating the atrccious libel of free trade"
against the Democratic party, they them
selves are preparing to reform the tariff, to
pose as tariff reformers, and to lay their un-
hallowed hands upon what was ingeniously
and ingenuously called by Henry Clay, the
American System, and what is called today
by themselves the Protective System"
''To this complexion have they come at
last, " driven by the memorable logic of events
and by the force of irresistible circumstances,
lust as the mariner is driven to seek safe
harbor for his storm tossed craft through
stress of weather. They are about to become
what they have so falsely and inadvertently
asserted of the Democrats, free traders.
That is, they are about to do themselves that
which, for attempting to do, they have pro-
claimed the Democrats free traders. They
will pose, next winter, as tariff reformers,
driven to do so through the necessities of the
country and by the force of public sentiment
which is, more than ever, arraying itself on
the side of the Democratic platform of lsSs,
which received a popular endorsement at the
ballot box of 100. 900 majority, but the voice
of that majority, expressed for Mr.. Cleveland
and his tariff policy, at the polls, was stiiied
by our rotten borough electoral system, which
has time after time thwarted the popoular
will as it did at the last Presidential election.
But it was only for time. Tariff reform
has been gathering fresh impetus. The cla-
NOR for free raw material is growing louder
and louder, aud is leudest heard from the
manufacturers themselves. Congress must
hear it and heed it, or a whiTlwiud Of indig
nation will sweep away all opposition. This
the Republican leaders begin to realize, and
they will get down from their protection
perch next winter, just as easily and as rapidly
as possible, while the masses will not com
prehend what ails them, aud viii rub their
ewes in wonder and establishment to witness
the still yaulting and ground and lofty tum
bling oftheir slilted protection leaders. And
in 1892. so thorough will have been the revo-
luton in public sentiment on this and kin
dred subjects, that Grover Cleveland, the
man who had the wisdom TO conceive snd
the courage to recommend these reforms,
viii be reiusiated in the chief executive
office Of the Union, by the high acclaim Of
the American people He will thus be yindi-
Gated by their intelligence and high sense Of
Justice, aud history will record his triumph as
one Of the purest, most sagacious and far
seeing statesmen Of this or any other age.
These are the porients Of passing events, the
shadows before Of the near futare.