The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-08-22
Democracy Its Own Destroyer.

OeHlOCTdCY us SWl OeStTOfSI'
There is a studied effort on the part
Of the Democratic press throughout the
country, now that what Mr.. Cleveland
called the perfidious and dishonorable
senate tariff bill has been passed, to tie
itself blindly to that measures coat
tails, in the hope that in spite of its
"perfidy and dishonor' the bill will lift
the country out of the business sink
hole into which Democratic incOmpet-
ency had plunged it; and with it lift
up the bedraggled and disconsolate
Democracy, as well. This effort is well
indicated by the Democratic Rochester
Herald, which concludes strong edi-
torial prediction of better times with
these significant words:
We shall not do our Republican friends
the injustice Of thinking that they would
regret an extensive and genuine revival Of
business before the presidential election OF
1896. They are doubtless as anxious as the
Democrats to see prosperity generally re-
stored. But there can be no doubt that
their political calculations for 1896 include
theory that such restoration will not
take place. In this they are likely to be
the victims of serious error. 1t is proba-
bic that they will profit politically from
the hard times in the elections of 1894;
but unless all present signs aud all COM
parisons with the past are misleading, the
developments of the following two years
will rob them of their main political reli-
ance.
The "main political reliance" of the
Republican party is the knowledge of
its own competency and of its enemy's
perpetual incompetency. This knowl-
edge does not depend merely upon self
pride. 1t is based on vivid demonstra-
ton. The Democratic party has pas
sionately declared tariff protection
fraudulent and unconstitutional, and
then, by it own admissions, has re-
duced that fraud and that unconstitu-
tionality only 6 per cent. If business
revives permanently after this reduc-
ton, i. will be not because that reduc-
ton was so great, but because it was so
slight. 1t is the "perfidiOusness" and
the "dishonor" of the new tariff, as
viewed by Democracy's own leader,
that gives the business interests of the
country new hope and confidence. 1t
was because, forgetting history, they
feared the Democratic party would not
exhibit "perfdy and dishonor;" in
other words because they would
fulfil its pledge to "root up, tear, pull
down and eXterminaten tariff protec.
ton as an economic policy, that those
interests had previously lost hope and
confidence and had sustained the cost
liest panic in our annals.
Militant and enthusiastic Republi
canism accepts the recent object lesson
of Democracy's intrinsic unfitness
merely as fortune of war, and not as
a necessary condition of successful bat
tie. 1t knew, without this new dem
onstration, that its enemy was politi-
cally dangerous only when in an envi-
Gus minority; and that it would pro-
vide its own funeral accessories when
once elevated to temporary control. II
good times return in the next two
years-and we hope and believe they
will-they will simply afford another
contrast between the prosperity as.
sured by continued protection and the
frightful havoc wrought by threatened
free trade; they will simply be a new
proof that the Republican policy is
best.