The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-11-25
REPUDIATEs IT'S TARIFF PLANK

The Recieao feels very badly about
Mr.. John A. Wizards interview in
Wednesday nights FREE PRESS and
especially over that part in which Mr..
Willard spoke of the effect upon the
business interests of the country if the
Democrats keep their word and carry
out the free trade promise of the Chi
cage platform. ''In the first place."
says the RerieD, ''the Chicago plat
form will not bear fair and legitimate
interpretation, the constructions that
is sought to be placed upon it. The
view Mr.. Willard takes is the before
election made by Republicans, en-
emies of the Democratic party and
largely recipients of the benefits of
the Mckinley bill, intended to fright
en- and deter timid and ignorant vot-
ers." Is this true? Mr.. Willard is
known everywhere as safe. sound
business mau who is not in the habit
of hanging up man of straw for the
sake of pounding it with stick. Now
what does the Chicago platform say
that twill not bear The construction
which Mr.. Willard puts upon it. The
tariff plank starts out by denouncing
protection as fraud, a robbery of the
great majority of the people for the
benefit Of the few. 1t denounces the
Mckinley law as the eliminating
atrocity of class legislation, and it de-
clares it to be fundamental principle
of the Democratic party that tariff
levied for any purpose other than rails
ing a revenue for defraying the eXpen-
ses of the government economically
administered to be unconstitutional
That is, that any tariff law that has
within it the semblance of protection
is unconstitutional, and accordingly
the Democratic party is opposed to
protection on alleged constitutional
grounds. That is the only construc-
tion that can be placed upon it. Now
who was presenting that platform in
its true light, Mr.. Willard or Mr.
Wise? The latter goes completely
back upon the official utterance of his
party, and tries to get rid of the mat
ter by stating that the Morrison hor-
iZontal reduction bill and the Mills
bill ''were Democratic revenue meas
ures with ample protection to Ameri-
can labor" Now it happens that these
two measures are not under discus
sion, but perhaps the local free trade
organ has not found this out yet.
The organ further says that the
duties proposed in the two above
measures were more than twice as
high as those advocated by Mr. Clay.
The modern free trader loves to dis
cuSs matters from an ancient stand
point. Why not come down to mod
ern times. The face of civiiiZa tion
has entirely changed since the days of
Clay. The difficulties of communica-
ton in those days afforded a better
protection than any law upon the sta
tute books today.
Now the Democratic party won up
on the free trade utterance of it's Chi
cage platform, or upon false pretens-
es. There is a growing belief as the
public notes the appearance of such
editorials as that in last nights Re
rieaU that it was by false pretenseS.
When then framed the Chicago plat
form they did not expect to win COM
plete control of the government upon
it. And now that the responsibility
is upon their shoulders, they are
afraid to follow their own declaration.
The ReUie,o further says that ''the
Democrats also believe that our man
ufacturing industries can be most Sc
curely and permanently fostered by
giving them free raw materials and
then protecting their products by an
equitab BILE system of tariff duties. !"
The latter part of this statement is
true Republican doctrine but it was
denounced as unconstitutional by the
national Democratic party, but that
declaration is repudiated by the Re
riew. The Republicans also believe in
protecting the producer of so-called
raw materials and not confine the
benefits to privileged class, as would
the after-election democracy. By the
way will the Reuieao please define what
it means by the term free raw ma
terials?" There are a great many
people who would like to know just
what Democracy means by this term.
But it is rather late in the day for
Democracy to hedge on its platform.
and it must either keep its pledges, or
confess that its platform utterance
was a meaningless group of words.