New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-14
COMMITTING HAREk1RL

The River and Harbor bill has a new name
"1he Suicide bill" some Democrats call it, pre-
| dieting without hesitation that the people
will bury with their votes in November the
party responsible for such extravaganza and
knavery. One paper declares that the Demo
cratic National Convention might as well not
meet at all. Another suggests that the party
has been drawn into this fatal blunder by the
false cry that the tariff had given it the over
whelmng victory in 1890, and could be relied
upon to give it victory next fall. No doubt
this notion made the party more reckless, but
it has too long record of misbehavor TO escape
on the plea of temporary insanity.
The people have trusted the Democratic
party several times since the War. In every
instance its own bad conduct brought about its
defeat. 1t was not true to the trust placed in
it, it diSrCgarded its professions and prom
Uses, and suffered its worst elements to direct
| its course Never Gained or sobered by the
sense of responsibility. that party has so often
] disappointed and disgusted its friends that they
half dread even while they desire its return
to power. Its infinite capacity for laundering
has become proverb. If it is temporary in
sanity that makes the party mischief, one must
admit that it is kind of insanity which regu-
larry attacks the Democracy soon as that
party gets any power.
The record OF this Congress is not yet com
plete, but it has gone far enough, in the iudg-
ment of the most sagacious Democrats. to rem
der their defeat extremely probable. The first
act of the Democratic majority in the House,
the defeat of Mr.. Mills in the interest of Tam
many and its allies, shook the confidence OF
thousands of Democrats and Independents in
the fidelity Of the body to its professions. The
refusal to frame a definite Tariff bill as an
exposition Of Democratic purposes showed the
kind of cunning which is always short-sightcd.
The selection of points in the tariff for attack
was so unwise that !" The Newly ork Times"
pronounced it folly.' The reduction of
duties on woollen goods below those proposed
by the Mills bill, according to the declaration
of prominent wooen manufacturers who are
Democratic members of the House, was pc
culiarly calculated to deprive the party of all
it had gained in the East The vote on the
Silver bill was dOuble-edged bunder, cutting
both ways. 1t damaged the party with sound
business men throughout the country, because
a great majority of the Democrats voted for a
particularly reckless and dangerous measure.
But it also reused the wrath of the silver
fanatics and the mOre-mOney cranks, because
the enormous Democratic majority did not pass
the bill. Both ways, the party deserved to
suffer; it had no business to get votes in 1890
by promising free coinage, and it had no bust
ness, if compelled to vote for free coinage at
all, to make the measure as dangerous as it
could be to the currency and credit of the
Nation.
Now comes the Suicide BILL with an aggre-
gate of appropriations greater than any other
Congress has ever made, and with refusal to
furnish money for the actual necessities of the
public service. Millions for plunder; not enough
for pensions, for justice, or for the service of
the people. From this time, no doubt vOcifer-
Gus economy will give the people diet Of
cheese parings, because the iobbers have run
away with the cheese.