The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-07-02
mo. 81.

do Tic uISct lHlduiOuo Jill eAAoe 49,
crossed the threshold of the Sen
ate" Such policy, if sanctioned
by law, would mean the dominance
of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of
Office holders, and the party first
entrusted with its machinery could
be dislodged from power only by
an appeal to resist oppression
which is inherent in oil self-gov-
erning communities.
Two years ago this revolutionary
policy was emphaticaliy condemned
by the people at the polls but in
contempt of that verdict the Re-
publican party has defiantly declar-
ed in its latest authoritative ut
terance that its success In the
coming elections will mean the
enactment of the force bill and the
usurpation and despotic control of
elections in all the States.
Believing that the preservation
of Republican government in the
United States is dependent on the
defeat of this policy of legislized
force and fraud, we invite the sup
port of all citizens who desire to
see the Constitution maintained in
its integrity with the laws pursuant
thereto, which have given our coun-
try a hundred years of unexampled
prosperity, and we pledge the
Democratic party, if it be entrust-
ed with power, not only to the de-
feat of the force bill, but also to
relentless opposition to the Repub-
lican policy of profigate expendi-
ture, which, in the short space of
two years, has squandered an enor-
nous surplus and emitted the over
flowing treasury, after piling new
burdens of taxation on the already
overtaxed labor of the country.
3. We reiterate the oft-repeated
doctrines of the Democratic party
that the necessity of the govern
ment is the only justification for
taxation, and whenever a tax is I'M
necessary it is unjustifiable: that
when custom house taxation is levi
ed on articles of any kind pro-
duced in this country the difference
between the cost of labor here and
labor abroad, when such differ
ence exists, fully measures any
possible benefits to labor, and tho
enormous additional impositions
of the existing tariff fall with crush
ing force upon our farmers and
workingmen, and for the mere adj
vantage of the few whom il enrich
es exact from labor a grossly un-
just share of the expenses of the
government. We demand such re-
vision of the tariff laws as will re-
move these Ubiquitous inequalities,
Tighten their oppression and put
them on constitutional and equit-
able basis.
But, in making a reduction in
taxes, it is not proposed to injure
any domestic industries, but rather
to promote their healthy growth.
From the foundation of this gov
eminent taxes collected at the GUS
tom house have been the chief
source of Federal revenue. Such
they must continue to be. More
over, many industries have come
to rely upon Legislation for success
full continuance, 80 that any change
of law must be at every step regard
full of labor and capital thus involv-
ed. The process of reform must
be subjected to the execution of this
PLAN dictate of justice.
We denounce the Mckinley law,
enacted by the Fifty-frst Congress,
as the eliminating atrocity of
class legislation; we indorse the eff
forts made by the Democrats of the
present Congress to modify its
most oppressive features, in the di-
rection of free raw materials and
cheaper manufactured goods that
enter into general consumption,
and we promise its repeal as one
of the benefcent results that will
follow the action of the people in
entrusting power to the Demo
cratic party. Since the Mckinley
tariff went into operation there
have been ten reductions of the
wages of laboring men to one in
crease. We deny, secondly, that
there has been any increase of pro-
perry to the country since it went
into operation; third, we point to
the dullness and distress which
wage reductions and strikes in the