Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-06-16
The Minneapolis Platform.

The party leaders and their obedient
followers at Minneapolis set to work in
earnest when they adopted their plat
form. Out of the hurly-burly conven
tion it sprang forth, turgid with inflated
rhetoric and armored in brazen partisan
assurance. 1t is an old and stale trick
to ascribe the material prosperity of the
Republic to the ascendency of this OF
that set of party principles, says the
Philadelphia Record. Unfortunately for
the Republican brethren, their platform
of 1888 was trampled under foot by an
indignant people in 1890, who in their
ardor of reputation left little more than
corporal's guard to represent this
great party in the popular branch of
congress.
The platform defines the american
doctrine" of protection to be that articles
not produced here should come in free
of tax, while such as may be produced
| here should be enhanced in cost by
tariff duties. 1t is upon this line that
the Mckinley monstrosity was construc-
ted, which, according which, according
to the platform makers, has reduced"
the prices of manufactured articles of
general consumption" The especial
references in the platform to the attacks
upon the wool, lead and lead ore duties
the absurd and arrogant claim that the
paltry reciprocity measures of the Nc
Kinley act will "give us control of the
world" and the studied evasion of the
silver question, are features of this
remarkable document calculated to
excite ridicule rather than to stimulate
discussion. A deliverance so weak and
inconsequent, and so manifestly the
result of an elaborate series of COM
promises with conflicting interests, has
rarely been put forth in this country as
a declaration of principles.
In bringing forward the bloody shirt
as political issue the platform makers
betray their desperation. The Force
bill is as dead as the pragmatic sanction,
and no hot blast of yituperation can
revive controversy over it.
The miscellaneous affirmations and
declarations with which the platform
bristles all over sound like lurid stump
speech addressed to all mankind. They
are in the nature of confession and
avoidance where they are not mere
empty claptrap. Nearly every possible
benefit to the human race is favored,
from the extension of the free delivery
service to the achievement of the
manifest destiny of the republic" The
Nicaragua canal project is indorsed, as
well as the worlds fair; and sympathy
is extended even to the prohibitionists.
The ugly pension question is disposed OF
by pledging to the veterans ga watchful
care and recognition of their just claims
upon grateful people,"
In dealing with the trusts and combin
ations created under the policy of tarif
robbery the platform generalizes vaguely
as though the Sherman antitrust ac
were all-sufficient, asking only for "such
further legislatian as may be required
to remedy defects in existing laws" II
could scarcely be expected that plat.
form designed to uphold tariff system
under which trusts and monopolies have
hourished and expanded into magnifi
cent proportions would deal severely
with these natural offshoots of protec
tiye policy.
To construct platform in defense OF
political denominations which the people
have foredoomed to speedy extinction
would have been difficult if not hope.
less task; and the platform committee at
Minneapolis doubtless done all that was
possible under the circumstances. But
their handiwork will be torn to shreds
almost before the campaign shall have
begun.