The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-07
FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES.


Republicanism stands for centraliza-
ton, broad construction protection and
bounties Capitalization is the despot-
ism of the past modified by the atmos-
phere of the nineteenth century. 1t
distrusts the people, opposes broad
franchise, favors a strong central gov
eminent" conducted as far as may be
possible by the rich and well-born,'
quoting the words of Alexander Ham
ilton; it opposes full local self-govern-
ment as weakening.
Broad construction is the enemy of
individual and communal rights; it
favors the construction of doubtful
powers of government in favor of the
government. and not in favor of the
individual or community, as witness
the opinion of the Supreme Court of
the United States in the escheat cases,
in which six Republican judges con-
Cured in sustaining the arbitrary &C
ton of the government without at
tempting to point out any constitu-
tional authority for the opinion. while
the Democratic judges declared that
the escheat was wholly void and with
out constitutional sanction-the Repub-
icans, as became their frame Of mind
and principles, broadly constituting the
Constitution in favor of the central
power, and the Democrats constituting
it in favor of individual property rights
against the central power.
Protectionism and bounties are wrong
in two respects-unconstitu and
economically unsound. Nearly every
court from Maine to Texas, Republican
and Democratic, has declared bounties
to be without constitutional warrant.
The Supreme Court of the United
States said in the Topeka case, that a
bounty is robbery, though disguised I'M
der the form of law and called taxa
ton; tariff duties can only be levied by
the general government, and since the
power exists in it to levy such taxes
for revenue purposes, it is never pos
sible for the courts to say that such or
such proportion of any duty is for rev.
enue and therefore lawful, and such
other proportion is for protection and
is therefore unlawful. That protective
taxes are unconstitutional, may be seen
to be certain from the decisions in the
case of bounties, an analogous case,
and from the opinions Of such distin-
guished jurists as Judge Cooley.
Protection is economically unsound,
because taxation cannot create wealth;
if the American Paul derives benefit
certain that the American Peter pays
the tax.
Democracy stands for human rights,
for exact political equality; it is the
heir of the civil and political progress
of the ages; it is the party of the
future, as it is the party of the present;
it will certainly bury the Republican
party, as it has buried every other
party in our history.
1t is the party of unselfishness; it
leads a Wilson from a coal and iron
region to vote for free coal and free
iron, upon the belief that one section Of
the country should not prey upon other
sections because it has the power in
Congress to enable it to do so. 1t be-
lieves that individuals know better
what they want than do local govern
ments; that local governments know
better the needs of the community than
does the distant and central govern
ment; it therefore says preserve to in |
dividuals and communities the fullest |!
measure Of liberty consistent with the |
good of the whole.
If there. is any principle that may be |
called fundamental in Republican doc
trines, it is that the powers of govern
ment may be prostituted to private
ends, while the Democracy is founded
on the Jeffersonian rule, Equal and
exact justice to all, special privileges to
none"