Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-02
THE LINES BEING DRAWN.

that Governor Hill is being bet
ter appreciated as statesman
as the days roll by. His speech
at Albany, at the banquet on the
last day of the year, was notable for
force and sagacity. His opinions upon
the line OF policy that should be pur-
sued by the Democratic party are un-
doubtedly those which will prevail in
the national convention this year, and
in the representation of the party in the
house and senate. Republican abuses
are to be attacked in detail. The ex-
cesses OF the "Billion Dollar" Repub-
lican congress are to be attended
to singly in bills which will demand at
tention from the Republican senate. If
they are disregarded there will be a
sentiment of overwhelming indignation
in the country at large, irrespective of
sectional lines and of politics. The ac-
cord between Mr.. Hill and the Messrs.
Crisp and Springer is too marked to be
ignored. They are not going to take the
risk of defeat on abstract propositions,
which partake of the vagaries of the
doctrinaire. Their work will be care
fully directed and progressive. The ap-
pearance in either house of
congress of man like the
governor of New York is of course
highly significant. He is bound to
exert marked influence in the deliber-
ations of congress, and he seems to be
able at his will to sound keynotes of far
reaching influence, instinct with ideas
that are apt to sway the masses. In
this respect he remarkably resembles
the late Thomas A. Hendricks.
There is one respect in which, on the
surface, Mr.. Hill is not in accord with
western Democratic sentiment, and
that is on the silver issue. But it is
to be noticed that he only believes in
postponing the solution of the problem,
while he proclaims himself to be BIZ
metallist. 1t looks very much as if that
will be the final outcome of the next
campaign as respects the Democratic
party. 1t means no surrender of the
silver issue, but the compression of the
issues of the campaign into the most
practicable shape, and one on which
the voters of the country can be most
readily rallied.
OF course, there are many Democrats
who will not be pleased at this treat
ment of the silver question, and at the
moderate scope of the tariff legislation
which is contemplated for the present
session of congress. But, under all the
circumstances, it is probably the very
wisest thing that could have been done.
There is nothing to prevent Democrat
from throwing himself heart and soul
into all the reforms which will be pre-
sented by the leaders of the party in the
house and senate, while there is de-
gree of moderation in the programme
which will secure to the Democratic can
didate for president many votes which
would be lost on more radical de-
parture. The plan resolved upon ad-
mits of a gradual and we'll considered
attack on the Republican lines, in the
interest of raw material and of relieving
the tariff from its most offensive fea-
lures. Governor Hill has taken his
stand on the idea of tariff for revenue
with incidental protection. This is the
ground which has always been advanced
by Jefferson and Jackson, with of course
the cardinal and dominating principle
that the expenses OF the government
must be kept rigidly within the lines of
an intelligent economy.