The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-04-06
fHB PARTY AND The PLATFORM.

In voting against the purchasing
clause Of the repeal Of the Sherman
law the Free Press informs us that
Senator Call voted against the admin
istration, against the majority Of his
own party, and against the democratic
platform adopted at Chicago.
When the great debatewas going on
on the silver question, the most schol-
arly and intellectual, perhaps, that
has ever taken place in any legisla-
tive body in the world. the Free Press
must have been in state of ''inocu-
Gus desuetude.n
The repeal Of this measure in the
Senate was done by the aid of repub-
lican votes "a majority of the demo-
cratic Senators in that body voting
against it.
The repeal of the purchasing
clause was only part of the law the
democratic platform denounced as
'.cowardly makeshift," and the repeal
of this clause, without substituting
some other legislation for it, left silver
absolutely helpless. The plank in the
platform from which the Free Press
quotes doesn't stop with merely call
ing it ''cowardly makeship," but it
goes ON further to say: "We hold to
the use of both gold and silver as the
standard money of the country, and
to the coinage of both gold and silver
without discriminating against either
metal or charge for mintage," etc.
A majority of the democratic Sena-
tors wanted the whole Sherman law
repealed mot single section of it, by
substituting in its place law plainly
in accordance with the mandates of
the democratic platform making silver
the co-equal of gold-or, to use the
language of the platform without
discriminating against either metal"
and making mo charge for mintage."
A "makeshift" for what? Both par
ties in their platforms had promised
the people "free coinage of silvern and
when the republicans were in power,
instead of carrying out their promises,
gave instead the Sherman law, which
purchased so many ounces per month,
thereby making silver commodity
and destroying its money value, in
stead of coming it into silver dol
lars. Now, the democrotic platform
denounced this sort of legislation as
''cowardly makeship," a bogus substi-
tute for genuine article, and prom
Used if they got into power they
wou enact no bogus substitute for
sacred promises, and after denouncing
the republican legislation as "cow-
ardly makeshift"-they promised, if
they got into power, they would not
''let go" but ''hold ton 'both gold and
silver" as the standard money of the
countryn without discriminating
against either metal or charge for
mintage.n See!
Yes, the language is SO startlingly
plain that he who runs may read.
The Free Press informs us that the
issuing of bonds is democratic meas
ure. This is news to us, and we think
viii be to the party throughout the
country. The whole teaching and
tendency of the democratic party has
been in the opposite direction. From
the very hour of its birth to the pres
ent moment the strictest simplicity
and the most rigid economy have been
the important planks in its platform.
Its one great idea has been for the
| government to live within its income
not to spend one dollar more than it
collects by just and necessary taxa
ton. So stubborn has it been along
these lines that for long time it set
its face as flint against every species
of internal Improvements.
In its platform of 1910 this was its
declaration:
"The constitution does not confer upon the
| general government the power to commence or
| carry on general system of internal improve
ments"
The reason it said this was because
it did not want the government to go
in debt for anything and it did not
believe that irrational debt was a
national blessing
That year it also made the following
declaration:
| 1T is the duty of every branch of the govern
ment to enforce and practice the most rigid
economy in conducting our public affairs. and
that no more revenue ought to be raised than is
required to defray the necessary expenses of the
| government"
And this party has repeated this
declaration, if not in exact words in
language that means the same, ever
SINCE then.
| Again. In the platform of that
year is the following plank:
Congress has no power to charter a bank
we believe such an institution one of deadly hos
tility to the best interests of the country, dan
gerous to republican institutions and the lib
critics of the people, and calculated to place the
business of the country within the control of a
concentrated money power, and above the laws
and viii of the people"
As early as 1886 it declared that
"gold and silver is the only safe and
constitutional currency but nowhere
has it ever uttered one word in favor
of the issue of bonds in any shape or
form.
1t is the duty of the Free Press be-
fore setting itself up as the exponent
of democracy to post itself at least
upon the fundamentals which this
party grounds its faith.
Should be Retired because he has Failed.