The sun., 1893-08-17
DUTY UF CONGRESS-.
DEMOCRACY MUST REDEEM IT'S
PLEDGES.
Any Undemocratic Act Is Dangerous
Tariff and Finance Are the Questions
Before the People Digging Political
Graves Deeper-GiVe Us Relief.
Democratic ResponslbIllty.

Whatever is not Democratic is dam
gerous. Every Democratic voter has q
share In the dii ection of the party; he
bears his portion of the responsibility
for what 1t does or leaves undone. Thus
his personal interest and his pride of
citizenship are enlisted. He has re-
gard for the consistent execution of
laws he has helped to enact and for the
redemption of platform pledges he has
helped to make Democracy is body
Of highly trained political units. No
professedly Democratic leader has been
able to deceive his people. Other par
ties may obey leaders and applaud the
act which bellies the once applauded
word. A real Democrat trusts the
principles he has adopted and judges
for himself whether they are followed
Or deserted. The Republican party
can promise to reduce the tariff, AMI
then raise it. Such shameless viola
ton of repeated pledges as that party
committed in 1883 could not be initiated
by Democratic congress without an
atonement which would consign to OBJ
scurity every guilty member. Each
individual Democrat has in his memory
and heart the historic struggle of his
party against protective tariffs. There
tore the Mckinley law must be re-
placed with tariff based upon the
general welfare principle of revenues;
tor the party is in power and pledges
must be redeemed,
No act of the party which lately con-
trolled the Government is more un-
Democratic than the Sherman law.
The party is unreservedly under pledge
TO repeal it, and to substitute q meas
ure for the coinage of gold and silver
without discriminating against either
metal. Such are che words OF the ma
tional platform of 1892, passed after
the Democrats in every State conven-
tion had made the demand in language
plain and we'll considered For the
Democratic party, In or out of power,
nothing is safe which is not Demo-
cratic. To temporiZe with the McKin-
ley tariff or to hesitate in suspending
the operation of the Sherman act
would be unsafe for Democratic Con-
gress. In principle, in detail, and in
effect these two laws are against the
thoroughly ingrained opinions of the
Democratic masses. They were bought
by special interests, and their design
did not embrace consideration for the
people. Both have disturbed trade
and offended the natural laws of wealth.
Both have brought losses upon the
producers and consumers. Together
they have contributed to create the
uncertainty which has contracted the
movement of capital and crushed hun
dreds of enterprises. ~ .-...-
The tariff and money questions are
not the accidents of the summer. The
future of the whole American people
enters into their settlement. The
Democratic masses know the pledges
of the party, because they voted upon
pledges. How can the Democratic
Congressman face their people next
year and endure the comparison of
pledge with performance if they are
capable of no better finance than a
blind stand against suspending the pur.
chase of bullion, and of no better tax
alton than q miserable, Intellectual, in
undated rehash of McKinleyism?
These are considerations of import.
The Democratic party has history
and destiny. Its history is the story
Of its constitutional doctrine. It's des-
| tiny is the restoration of the spirit OF
| the Constitution. If Democratic Con.
gress and Democratic President car
| do no better than to put their bended
backs under the Sherman and McKin'
ley laws there will be one chapter
which the Democrats of the next cen.
| tury will pass over in silence if they
can. Whatever is not democratic is
| dangerous.-St Louis Republic.