Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-09-24
IT rs A SINKING CRAFT.
A Former Republican Gives Good Reasons
For Deserving It.

The Times, published at Plainville
Rocks county, ''about faces" and in
stead of longer supporting the republi.
can party enters the lists for tariff re.
form. Following are some, of the
reasons given for the change:
For eight years we have breathed
the air of arepublican newspaper Office.
For five years we have individually OF
in partnership been engaged in editing
a republican paper. We have labored
for the party at all times, and every
vote we ever cast has been straight
! republican ticket. We have not, how
ever, all this time been in full accord
with all the republican doctrines and
measures. More especially has this
been true in the last two years. We
have, nevertheless, stood by the party
of our choice, thinking that it would
yet rally and by throwing off the barn
acles that have weighed it down, again
take up the support of measures best
calculated for the public good and
again install itself in the confidence of
the masses. This the republican party
has failed to do. When at the nomi-
mating conventions of last year repub-
lican voters, in nine instances out of
ten, declared themselves in favor of
the free coinage OF silver lat least the
American product,) or Of some other
money legislation; and when at these
conventions the intelligent people
throughout the west demanded revis-
ion of the tariff in favor of the consum-
er's interests, and that some measures
be adopted to right the wrongs being
daily committed by the transportation
companies, we endorsed the demands,
believing that the next republican con-
gress would heed the wishes of the
masses, and enact measures to meet
the pressing needs of the times.
"How did our expectations terminate.
Let us see! The only financial legisla-
tion given us was silver bill which had
about as much effect on the money
stringencies as an ordinary steamboat
would toward turning the current of
the Mississippi. The silver law of 1890
was not what the people wished, ex-
pected or demanded. 1t was only
thin ruse Intended to be magnified and
enlarged upon by partisan press in
order to mislead the public and silence
the clamOr for more liberal money leg
islation. Nor can we expect anything
in the future of better nature from
the republican party. Its main manip-
ulators. magnates of the east, are
welded to the gold standard. Besides,
President Harrison is credited with the
intention of vetOing free coinage
measure should one succeed in passing
the coming congress.
Again, what have the republicans
given us in the way of tariff reform?
The Mckinley bill, law whose only
cedeeming features are two free trade
clauses, namely those affecting sugar
and binding twine. These were un-
doubtedly placed as an illusion to catch
the voter, while at the same time the
tariff on the other necessities of life
has in a large majority of cases been
increased. Even large number of
prominent republican papers, such as
the Globe-Democrat, bitterly opposed
the Mckinley bill and did not say
word in its favor until it was forced
down the throats of the party by the
tariff barons of the east. When the
bill was finally passed and became a
law the leaders saw that it must be
fathered, that it must be upheld, and
that the people, if possible, must be
hoodwinked into believing it to he just
the measure they desired. To this end
all the big republican papers, and in
listed in the cause and told to trumpet
from one end of the land 10 the other
the reduction in binding twine and
sugar that had resulted from free trade,
profound silence as to how prices had
been raised in~tin, glass, and hund
red other articles that enter into the
daily necessities of life. At the same
time no mention was made by the
republican press about farmers having
been forced in years past to pay 16 to
Is cents for twine when they should
have purchased it for half the money.
''It is long story, the facts which
have driven thousands of republicans
from the party in which they once had
pride and confidence. But to sum the
whole matter up the trouble with the
republican party is that it has been led
for twenty years, body and soul, by de-
signing politicians, men whose only
objects and aims were to feather their
own pockets. The congressman which
have represented us have not gone to
Washington to legislate. They have
gone there to pay political debts by ap-
pointing their satellitious machine
supporters to office, and have spent
the time for which they were paid to
ranreSoDt the hOdv DOIitic in ssnuftinO