Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-24
AN EMPER0R'S STAFF
The Corps of Cabinet Heads Sur
rounding the EX-President.
PICKING A PLATFORM TO PIECES.
Planks Inserted That Raise Issues Not ut
All Necessary.
GRnHER,S GRIMNESS LIKE RISMARCKS
GRIMNEsS LIKE BIsMARcHS
rRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT


cities and of State Legislatures, gorged with
profitable Offices, fees and contracts. have
no such moral upon the interior Democracy
as Cleveland'S men.
But the new Democracy is very different
from any Democracy previously known in
this country. 1t takes from Cleveland
austerity rather than cheerfulness; slight,
rather than assists; is gaining at the religion.
centers 10 identity itself with them.
The hair-splitGng Germans in the West
are greatly delighted to find the grimness Of
Bismarck in the ex-President and the
princely character of his military staff.
Harrison was not named at all, except as
the President, in the platform of these men,
and then because his officeholders went to
the convention. Suppose Cleveland's office
holders had kept out of the present conven-
tion. Would the multitude alone in the
galleries have been able to control its de.
cisions? The fact is, the experience of gov
ernmental authority qualities every man
ten times over the common, ordinary man,
to conduct public matters to a result. Just
as the sergeant and corporal carry out in.
structions so does the fairly well-paid and
clean otficeholder learn how TO accomplish
q concentrated task.
While the platform saws something about
monarchy coming over, both the candidates
for President are mental monarchs ameng
their kind, and both have had the experience
of next to absolute power Harrison is
older than Cleveland as campaign orator,
but not as an office holder
The Two Candidates Face to Face.
Released from the environment of these
conventions, we shall now see Harrison and
Cleveland face to face. Their characters,
their administrations, their enemies, their
friends will be the subject of inquest.
While the Democrats will be cultivating
the farms in the West the Lutheran
preachers etc, the Republicans will be
sweet with Tammany Hall, with Hill, etc.
Let il not be forgotten that Hill plumes
himself on being an admirer of Harrison.
He said to me not long ago, when l re-
marked that he had done the President very
proud when he jcame to Albany: 'Ies, L
looked right inYo his eye on the public plat
form, and 1 said to him that welcomed him
no; only as eur Chief Magistrate, but an up
right, able man."
The Democratic platform bids fair to
meet the principal shock of Republican at
tack as lately in Ohio the platform selected
by John Sherman to make the breach de-
feated bright, clean man like Campbell
The first and longest part of this platform
is aimed at the coIOred people, whom Mr.
Cleveland has been. to mild extent, court
ing. This plank was made in obedience to
the demands of the South, which has on the
spot been whining about a Federal election
bill in case New York is lost. Having got
at the head OF the committee a man from a
late slave State, he puts in the first para
graph OF his platform an attack on any Fed
eral election bill
An Unnecessary Issue Made.
''Thus," said conservative Democrat to
ne, from the North, ''the Southern men
have fully made the issue which does not
exist on the other side. Our party easily
defeated the election bill, and would have
done so again, but mere Jones and the South
have forced 1t up to the top of the platform,
and it is the first thing we shall have to
meet, one way or the other
The tariff clause at first presented in this
platform belongs to the literature of strad-
ding tariff platforms in both parties for
some years past. The most honest such
platform was made in Cincinnati, in 1872.
As Charles Sumner remarked to me: ''It
recognizes the truth and says the truth"
Said Sumner: This truth was that we find
honest differences of opinion among our
selves on the tariff and therefore leave that
subject out of our platform"
SAYS the Cleveland platform: '1t is not
proposed to injur any domestic industries,
but rather to protect their health and
growth. ANY change of law must be at
every step regardful of the labor and the
capital invested in manufactures; the
Custom House must continue the source of
Federal revenue; justice demands that the
process Of reform be circumspect"
1t is asserted that Cleveland himself
either framed this plank or that it was SUBJ
mitted to him, and hence his opponents
saw chance to attack him and wound his
feelings and self-pride of authorship, while
at the same time dragging into their column
those ultra free traders whose reason had
taken fire from Cleveland's rhetoric
Lots of Money Must Be Raised.
Most of the remaining portions of this |
platform favor expenditures which must
leave the tariff very high. The building of |
the navy is one Of the greatest sums taken |
out Of the Treasury, but Mr. Whitney |
claims to have commenced and the platform |
demands big navy. AT the same time, it |
views with alarm any spunkiuess in the |
Federal Government The immigration |
clause is an attack on immigration under |
cover Of desiring TO protect it. The fact is |
that different races OF immigrants hate each |
other more than the Americans dislike |
either.
The platform takes no steps against the |
pension system which Mr. Cleveland used |
for football whenever his quill had been |
freshly sharpeneG. Not only are a large |
navy and a tull pension list indorsed. but |
all the rivers of the republic are proposed |
to he improved, including the Mississippi, |
which is merely the Wing platform of |
Henry Clay's time. The Nicaragua canal |
Is indorSed, and We must protect it against |
foreign control
Congress is called upon to give big ap- |
preparation to the Chicago Worlds Fair
The public school plank consists of advice |
to the States, while lodging the subject of |
Federal appropriations for education, for |
600, 600 of black men have no adequate |
schools The Lutheran question was largely |
the motive for this curious educational ex-
plotting.
All railway operatives are taken under |
Federal wet-nursing, a tremendous step in
the direction OF making the railways Fed
eral wards instead of State lines. Yet an
other part of the platform denounces the |
centralzlng power at the Federal capital.
Disposal of the Labor Question.
1t has not been usual for National plat
forms to give much advice to State Legis-
latures and reject that advice to Congress
Hence, the labor question is thrown over to
the States.
Mr.. Villas comes from Wisconsin, in which
State Alexander Mitchell & Co., for wears
before the war maintained their private
currency in opposition to the State bank
notes of every description. Mr.. Mitchell's
son Is now in Congress, and he has some
times been referred to as a possible Demo-
cratic candidate for President Was it this
connection which caused the platform
10 take the momentous step of