Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1892-10-26
Democratic False pretenses.

The democratic party, as an or ganization, is party of false pre- tenses. By this We do not mean that i: is composed entirely of in dividual members who would be willing to obtain goods or money under false pretenses, for it is a fact that 1t contains men, who are much better than the party. But what we do mean is that the party leaders will scruple at nothing to gain party success. It has long been boast of the party that it is the friend of the working man, of tho laboring class, and by its palayer and high sounding promises it has succeeded in many instances iu making this class of people believe that their only hope for obtaining s living for themselves and family depend on the success of the democratic party.
 How fallacious these claims are. has been demonstrated time and again by those having it in their power 10 legislate for the benefit oi the workingman, but have failed to manifest their avowed love for this class by their works. It was inJSs7 that the congress of the United States passed law bearing this title:
 An act to prevent the employ ment of convict labor and alien labor upon public buildings and other public works, and convict labor in the preparation or manufacture oI materials for public buildings or other public works, aud to regulate the manner of letting contracts therefor"
 The title of the act shows very clearly what its import was. 1t was a bill calculated te prevent the com petition of convict labor with free
 labor. Grover Cleveland was presi- dent at the time congress passed the act. What did he do with the billi Of course, being the head and front of the party, which claims such
 warm friendship for free American labor, he signed it, is the answer
 which might be expected. But of course he didn't. He stuck it down in the pocket of his fishing jacket and allowed it to remain there until it died natural death. Or in other words he killed the act by pocket veto. Not only this but in his pre- ceeding annual message, Preident Cleveland, openly advocated the employment of convict labor in direct competition with free labor In advocating or recommending the building of prisons exclusively for the confinement of United States prisoners he said:
 "The considerable cost of main taining these convicts as at present, in State institutions, would be saved by the plan proposed, and by em- ploying them in the manufacture of such articles as were needed for use by the Government, quite a large pecuniary benefit would be realized in partial return for our outlay"
 These extracts are of interest to every laboring man in the United States" If this does not prove clearly the assertion made in the opening sentence of this article we fail to comprehend what constitutes proof. But bringing this question nearer home. What is the record of the party in this territory on this subject! A plank in the republican platform, adopted by the republi- can territorial convention tells the story briefly and yet more forcibly than we can by employing other language. While our democratic exchanges talk glibly about the Mormon plank in the platform, a plank that it does not contain, they are silent as clam, dumb as an oys- ter on the arraignment of their party which this plank makes. 1t reads as follows:
 "We charge the leaders of the Democratic party of Arizona with the honest labor of the territcry by arraying against it the of convicted criminals "a competition that placed the cell of the felon against the home of wife and children, the whip of the taskmaster against the dignity of men laboring for love of home and hearthstone-by passing during the last legislature-in which body out of total of thirty-six members the party had twenty-seven a law authorizing the leasing of the convict labor of the territorial prison, and we ask from every laboring man a comparison between this action of the Democratic legislature and the action of the Republican governor in vetoing the measure" Is there a democratic paper in the territory, | pr is there a member of the last leg who will deny the truth of l Lhe above charge. Is there one who will deny, that the legislature. in which twenty seven out of thirty ,ix members were democrats belonged to the party that has made ,uch professions of undying love for he working people-passed iuch law and that republican governor, an official belonging O the party represented by the as being the enemy to he working classes, saved 1t from becoming a law, and saved the free, aw abiding working people from with convict laborf We sk have they denied it! Can they