The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-11
The Republican Platform.

The platform adopted by the republican
national convention contains absolutely
nothing that will assist the Republican party
/ in the presidential campaign. The impress
sion that it makes is that the Republican
party is party without principles, and that
1t is gradually drifting toward the point
where its dsintegration will begin.
| The doctrine Of protection as set forth in
the Mckinley tariff is reafflrmed and the
Blaine policy of reciprocity is commended
in the strongest terms. 1t will be remem-
bered that there was no mention of reci-
procity in the Mckinley bill when it passed
the House, and that Mckinley, Reed and
other republican leaders in the House spoke
sneeringly of 1t when Mr.. Blaine proposed
it to the committee which has charge of
the bill in the Senate. 1t required
all of Mr.. Blsine's influence to
get his party to accept IL, but when 1t be-
came apparent that it would be popular
the fact that il was not originally feature
of the Mckinley bill was ignored. And yet
reciprocity is practically free trade. II was
invented by the fertile brain Of Mr. Blaine
to check the rapidly growing hostility of
the people to the doctrine Of protection and
to turn public opinion from the popular
democratic doctrine of tariff reform. When
the Republican party became committed to
reciprocity it virtually admitted that it no
longer had the confidence In the principle of
protection it once had
And what does the platform say with
reference to the silver question: Does it
commit the party to the free and unlimited
coinage Of silver9 1t certainly does not
The silver plank is a straddle. It is neither
one thing nor the other. 1t favors the use
OF both gold and silver as standard money,
but under such conditions as will make it
certain that a silver dollar will at all times
be equal in value to gold dollar. 1t is evil
dent that this is something entirely differ.
emit from the demand the silver men are
making. When the present silver law
was passed President Harrison said it was
long step in the direction of free silver
coinage. 1t is a republican law, and Sena-
tor Sherman is the author of it. But Sena.
tor Sherman is doubtful of the wisdom of
it. In speech in the Senate last week he
said enough to justify the inference that he
would vote to repeal the law If the oppor-
tunity to do 80 should present itself. The
Republican party has no policy with respect
to silver, and 1t does not desire to adopt one.
The platform favors force bill, but the
force bill issue is practically dead. The at
tempt to revive it cannot succeed. When
the republican Senate in the last congress
refused to pass a force bill Senator Hoar
said the refusal meant the death of the Re-
publican party. 1t is quite certain the
party is losing its vitality, and it is equally
certain that it can never get a majority Of
Its members to favor force bill legislation.
In the Senate last April Senator Teller, one
OF the strongest republican leaders, said he
had read the force bill many times, and he
declared that in his judgment "a more in
famous bill never passed the doors of the
Senate" While republican leaders talk
in that way there is no dam
ger OF force bin being
passed. What benefit, then, does the Re-
publican party expect from declaration
in It's platform in favor of legislation like
that proposed in the force bill?
The platform is very fair synopsis of
President Harrison's messages The CON-
mittee on platform must have been guided
in its work by those messages. The repub-
licau press and orators will not get much
inspiration from the platform during the
campaign.