Evening journal., 1894-04-11
The HlLL ASSAULT.

THE HILL ASSAULT.
Asapretty fair estimate Of SenatorHill's
speech, as It affected the Republicans
and as It is likely to affect those Demo
Gratis who lean to Republican fallacies.
we quote this paragraph from the Phila-
delphia Ledger.
Senator Hills speech was a strong ar
raignment Of the incompetency Of Demo-
cratic leadership. somewhat weakened
oy his effort 90 blame everything upon
President Cleveland. Mr.. Hill Is psrti-
san of pronounced type, and has no sym
pathy with the Populists or their Social
istic schemes. He is therefore strongly
sntagonistic TO the income tax feature OF
the tariff bill Mr. Hill would have
tariff for revenue only. but, If possible. he
would get all the revenue from tariff
His assault upon the Wilson bill as 1t
now stands, and his predictions Of Demo.
cratic defeat, II Il should be adopted,
seem TO be a formal notice that he will
fight IL to the bitter end. The Democrats
assuredly are In a bad way. They can
scarcely frame a tariff act that will get
the full party vote in the Senate and
they have such a small majority that
they cannot afford to lose any votes
that may not be replaced from the ranks
Of the Populists.
There is no doubt that Senator Hills
speech was strong in dramatic effects /;
there Is no doubt also that It was
weakened by his attack on President
Cleveland Furthermore, there is no
doubt that what musicians call the motif
of his speech is opposition to Cleveland.
Senator Hill shows too plainly that
opposition to Cleveland and not advocacy
to the Democratic doctrine is the
stronger sentiment with him. He never
makes a speech, he never nominates a
candidate, he never opposes nomi-
nation, In short, he never says or does
anything where this motif does not ap-
pear as the key note of the speech or the
act, as the case may be. Above all
things Senator Hill is in opposition to
Cleveland, to Cleveland's friends, to the
Democratic principles, and TO the Demo-
cratic party, provided that in opposing
the latter he opposes the former. Instead
Of having the Democratic party as his
guiding star, as the measure and inspi-
ration Of his political conduct. he sets up
an imaginary image Of Cleveland and
fees from that Cleveland is to Hill a
black fate, sort OF political fury from
which he appears to be always escaping.
That is the motive of his political con-
duct
The Philadelphia Ledger says truly
'The Democrats assuredly are in bad
way. They can scarcely frame a tariff
act that will get the full party vote in
the Senate" Now that is precisely what
is the matter The Democrats cannot
get the full vote when men like Hill are
more affected by their hatred Of Cleve.
land than by their love Of Democratic
principles
The opposition Of Mr. Hill to the
income tax, is simply an incident. He
would have opposed the tariff bill OF
some other question. He used that ia
conceal the ulterior motive, as has been
shown by his attack all along the line, for
an assault on President Cleveland and the
actions of the Democratic party
In opposing The tariff bills of Morri
son and o; Mills, Sam Randall adopted
the subterfuge Of pretending to save th'
business interests But he really
meant 20 kill the bills. He would not
have allowed any sort OF tariff bills to b'
successful That is precisely the posi-
tion of Senator Hill in regard to the
present bill. While he advocates q Ger
tain kind Of revenue and tariff that IL
not proposed, and thus, seemingly. putt
himself in perfect accord with the Demo
cratic party, he is really unwilling tina
any tariff bill should pass now. His op
position. though centered upon the IN
come tax provision of the tariff bill, il
meant for the whole bill II that werl
taken out he would find some other pre-
text. He is opposed to the bin, and tn
Ledger and the rest Of the Republican,
count him as the opponent Of the bill.