The Portland daily press., 1892-09-10

say that they don't really mean to do 1t,
they have only put it. in the platform
people who regard the platform as a col
league of mine from Mississippi once
said: s'They look on a political platform
like the platform of railroad car; not
meant to stand upon, but only meant to
get in upon" Applause. | do not be-
lieve it is safe to frame platform III
Just that way, and | think if they win on
that platform for State banks, to state
banks we will return.
And have still less doubt as to their
other proposition that we shall have
Absolute Free Trade
in this country.
The Democrats went out to Chicago,
and after the House, which they had
chosen in the previous year, had passed
the entire winter in trying to conceal
their purposes, the party delegates went
out to Chicago and had an attack of
truthfulness. 1t was unaccustomed, and
its violence was prOportioned to its rarl-
ty The result of it was that they said
in their platform exactly what they
meant. They put aside the carefully
drawn plank which was intended to dis
guise the real issue, and substituted for it
by a large majority a plank which de-
clared for absolute free trade; and, not
content with that, they went a step fur
ther and proclaimed that protection was
not only inexpedient, but that it was alb
solutely UNCONSTITUTIONAL; that it was il
legal to have protection, even ii the peo-
pie of the country wanted it. They al
lowed Jefferson and Jackson, who were
both protectionists, and of whom we
hear SO much in connection with Democ-
racy, to drop into innocuous desuetude,
and took up with John G. Calhoun and
the South Carolina Nullifiers of 1880, and
having proclaimed that protection was
all wrong, and also unconstitutional,
they then invited the people of the coun-
try to sustain them on that ground
We used to have a class of people in
Massachusetts, who used to go about and
say that there was no difference between
the parties think that that particular
form of foolishness can hardly survive in
this campaign. The Republican party
stands for protection,-no for given
set of rates or given set of schedules,
but for protective policy as national
policy; and the Democrats by their own
platform and declaration stand for free
trade policy; and the question in this
election is, whether you are going to sub
cUlGuto 1lCC u AUG IOl PAObOSOiOhs yOee
are protectionist in any degree your
place is with the Republican party; if
you are free trader in any degree or
measure and there can be no degree or
measure really in free trade, it is this or
nothing, your place is not with the Re
publican party, but with the Democratic
party, because those are the two prin-
ciples. now contending for supremacy in
this country.
You remember when the Mckinley bill
was passed there was considerable cutlery
against it, You had your election in
Maine before the bill passed and before
the panic began. Some of us were less
fortunate some of us were caught out in
that panic when the elections came on in
November, and it is an experience that
any one would be likely to remember. In
my district, for example, they circulated
fish carts-that may seem a curious sort
of political argume Mt but they did it in
this way: Just before the election they
sent around fish carts Lynn offering
fish at great advance over the market
price and when people to whom they Of
fered the fish, after the usual blowing of
the horn to bring purchasers to the door,
asked them the meaning of this advance,
they said it was
OWlnS TO pne MCKINNEY Dill.
That may seem more or less humorous,
but 1T was not SO humorous at the time,
for it worked. But the people have gone
by the panic stage; the Mckinley bill
has been in operation two years and the
amount of suffering it has caused is not
so obvious as it was in the predictions of
the Democratic orators. In fact, the Nc
Kinley bill in its operation is it's own best
defence.
We do not even stop there. We have
a report from the commissioner of sta
tistics from New York, Mr.. Peck. He
made a report in which he showed that
prices had declined and wages had adj
vanced since the passage of the McKin-
ley bill. The appearance of that report
created some excitement among the
Democratic brethren. The Boston Her
aid said it was stab at Cleveland. 1t
was the truth, and possibly the truth is
stab at the Democratic candidate. APP
plause. The next morning they re-
vised their estimates, and they said that
the appearance of the report was in OPP
perfume and that was the kind of report
that ought to be made after election and
not before; and then not satisfied with
that ground they changed their ground
again and said that Peck didn't know
anything about statistics anyway. Mr..
Peck has, however, always stood high as
statistician; he has received a medal
from the French government for some of
his work in statistics. Nevertheless
they intimated pretty plainly that Peck
was lying, they also intimated that the
5000 manufacturers from whom he re-
ceived his statistics were also lying.
They then went step further and said
it was Hill game, that Peck was a
friend of Hills. it turned out that
Cleveland had appointed Peck when
governor of New York. Nevertheless
they said it was because Peck was a
wicked Hill man, that Hill was wicked,
and any man who had anything to do
with Hill must be wicked too; and now
l see Cleveland has gone to New York
and made it up with Hill, and am curl
Gus to see what they will say about Mr..
Cleveland now because he appears to
have become Hill man also. Laughter
and applause.
But this is not the worst of it. There
has been another stab in the back, oc :
curing no later than this morning.
There is a commissioner of labor statis-
tics out in Indiana named Peel, Demo
GRAFT like Peck, and he has published
report which shows the same thing