Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-10-09
REPuRLICAN PROMISES.


Few promises made in the Republican
national platform of 1886 will remain
unfulflled if the second session of the
present Congress is. as fruitful as the
one just ended. The record of i'm
portant measures passed-and passed
in spite of bitter opposition from an
obstructive and filibustering minority
eclipse that of any other Congress since
the war. 1t includes first of all the
Mckinley Tariff bill, framed and con-
cluded in full accord with the idea that
protection is sound principle of gov
ernment, and not merely policy to be
put on or off like shoe. This bill
redeems the party pledge which was
foremost in public consideration when
the voters of the country returned it to
power. The Dependent and Disability
Pension bill probably ranks next in
Importance, and is substantial evidence
that the Republican party does not in
tend to see the old soldiers in want or
need. The Customs Administrative
bill saves the manufacturers of the
United States from the unjust competi-
tion which they suffered from fraudulent
undervaluations and other corrupt prac-
tices, and is the fulfillment of the plat
form pledge that customs duties should
be honestly collected. The party also
promised to take steps for the restoration
of silver to its old and proper monetary
position, and the bill providing for the
monthly purchase of 100000 ounces of
silver by the Treasury Department is an
advance movement in that direction
Pledges to the Territories to endow
them with Statehood have been redeemed
in the admission of Wyoming and Idaho.
The Antitrust and Anti-lottery bills
have been further fulfillments of the
party,s pledge that the course of its
should be in the interest
of the people and for morality.
There are other measures pending
which have passed one or the other
branch of Congress, and have every
prospect of being enacted into law at
the next session, which will distinctly
redeem platform pledges. Such are the
Federal Elections bill, by which a free
ballot and fair count will be assured
in every State; the Shipping and Subsidy
bills, by which the creation of an Ameri
can commercial fleet will be encouraged,
and the Bankruptcy bill, which is SO
generally urged by conservative business
men.
The labor of Congress aside from these
measures which looked to the redemption
of Republican pledges has been full of
wise and benefcient legislation. The
bills which were passed providing for
meat inspection, for land grant forfeit
ure, for enabling the State to control the
original package traffic, for the addition
of six warships of various grades to the
navy, for quadricentennial celebration
of the discovery of America by Worlds
Fair at Chicago, for the classification of
worsted cloths as wooden, for the pre-
vention of the introduction of contagious
diseases from one State into another,
and for establishing international rules
to prevent collisions at sea, as recon-
mended by the Maritime Conference,
are fair examples of the character of the
general work of the session.
The voters of the country, if they de-
termine their ballots by reason, must |
surely indorse this record by returning |
another Republican majority to continue
the excellence of the record of Congress
ional work. We have had nothing
TO compare with it from Democratic
Congresses.