The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-17
THE DEMOCRATIC DUTY.

THE DEMOCRATIC DUTY.
If the Democratic party and Demo-
cratic administration were to conduct
affairs with view to pleasing their
political opponents. they would be
placed in q, very perplexiag situation.
But, fortunately, this is entirely un-
necessary. The present Congress and
President were elected on the basis of
platform which is very specific in
every plank, and it is their duty to
carry out the wishes of the majority
of the people as expressed at the polls.
Quibbling over the point raised by
some Republican carpers that the ma
jority did not express their views at
the polls. would be only waste of time.
1t is ballots that count on such ques-
tons, and if some citizens did not
vote, their silence gave consent, and
there is no going back of the returns
on any such excuse for dispute.
The will of the people is that the
tariff which was framed on a high
protective principle shall be reformed.
so as to be regulated by the revenue
necessities of the government when
economically administered. Leaving
other matters at rest for the present,
that is task required of the Demo-
cratic administration. 1t is one from
which there must be no shrinking. We
DO not believe there is any desire or
disposition on the part of the Congress
or the President to avoid or tamper
with that issue The tariff will be re-
formed. the principle on which it will
be regulated will be to provide revenue
for the government.
But that does not seem to please a
number of our Republican fellow cit
liens. They demand the smashing of
the tariff. They howl for "free trade"
They insist that nothing short of that
will fulfill the pledges of the demo-
cratic party to the people of the coun-
try. One would suppose, if unac-
quainted with the sophistry which en-
ters into and saturates the whole sys-
TEN of Republicanism, that t!ose per-
sons and papers making these demands
were radical and extreme free traders,
instead of rank and rabid projections
lists
They seem to be infected with a
sickening dread that the terrible rros-'
tration of American Industries. the
breaking up of American manufac-
lures, the tidal wave of cheap gods"
and the general wreck Of business in
terests. which they s,ros1p ;ticaied as
the results of free trade, will not ma
terialize and that sucn failure viii be
detrimental to their political prospects.
Another class take the opposite tack.
They claim that the financial and trade
disasters which capped the climax of
Republican misadventures, was due to
the mere dread of the free trade which
is sure to come, and that the reality
viii be something awful. of which the
threat of free trade" was but a pre-
lude-a few rumblings before the
dreadful tempest of distress and ruin.
So we hear alternately that the Dem
ocratic party will forfeit the respect of
the country by violating its promises
as to the tariff. and that it will wreck
the nation by carrying out its an
nounced policy and inaugurating war
fare upon protected industries. The
Democrats will and the Democrats
won't; they'll be doomed if they do and
doomed if they don't. They will be
wrong either way, and Republicans will
be displeased no matter what course is
pursued.
But they may as well understand at
once that no attention will be paid to
their nonsense one way or another.
When the voters went to the polls in
1891 and 1892 they knew what they were
about. The issue was squarely drawn.
They voted for Democrats in 1891 be-
cause they were against the Mckinley
high tariff. In 1892 this was made still
more emphatic. A vote for the Re-
publican ticket was a vote for protec-
ton; a vote for the Democratic ticket
was vote for tariff reform or, in
other words, a tariff for revenue only.