The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-09
A TERRIBLE SCORING
Henry WattersOn's Araignmentr
of the Wilson Makeshift.
The Great Kentucky Oracle Pointed Y
inquiries Whether We Really Have
"a Democratic Party"

LOUISVILLE, Jan. Sat the meeting Of
the Wattersoa Club OF Louisville. tonight.
Mr. WattersOn was the orator, and he took
for his subject The Wilson Makeshift."
tearing the Democratic tariff bill to tat
tiers as only Mr.. Watterson can do.
shall try TO talk to you patriot
and not as a partisan; as nationalist
and not as a sectionalist or localist and.
though as Democrat always, as an Amer
lean, first. last and forever.
You know that | do not belong TO the
official category; that such personal par
ticipation as L have had in public affairs
has been pressed upon me by circumstance
/ would fain exchange for all time the
irksome duties of the political arena Tor
the more congenial secluson of my par
tIcular employment But it is true as you
have set forth in your invitation, that L
can give in a more compact and con-
nected form than the disjointed oppor-
tunities of a daily newspaper afford.
larger and fuller view of the situation;
and. to make long story short, rh and call call
necessary, here l am with my front faced
squarely to friend and foe. and. alike
1 would not be entirely candid if / did
not tell you at once that there are some
things in the political outlook that jar
against my sensibilities and offend my
judgment.
mean no disrespect to persons in au-
thority when / declare that this seems to
me era of very small things and very
small men. Yet the stream of life goes on,
bearing its awful cargo Of good and evil,
OF hope and fear, and holding TO the least
of the generations the relation ii held 20
the greatest And; surely; never in the
set TO statesmen and philosophers than are
hidden in the dark closets of contemporary
experience. arising out of the unfixed laws
that are to determine and the underlined
boundaries that are at once to separate
and inclOse the accretions and the rights
OF property and the opportunities and the
fG he
old battle between the many and the few,
for the blessings of free labor and free
thought, which, under our system, are sup
posed TO be the birthrights Of all.
THE TRUTH OF HISTORY.
In the national Democratic convention Of
1892 the platform committee appeared with
a tariff plank, which, to say the best that
could be said for Ii, was open to double con-
struction- My own opinion is that it en-
bodied excellent Republican doctrine. The
convention would not have it. In it's place
1t substituted resolution repeating the
declarations of 1876, 1880 and 1885, which de-
mande4 "a tariff for revenue only" This
resolution plain in its terms that
no one could misread IL. So the covert en-
ernies of tariff reform, who masquerade al
Democrats, the better to serve the devil of
protection. straightway set about to have
acceptance. He did no such thing. either
In that letter or in any other utterance.
Then they trumped up the plea that the
resolution was a trick of the anti-Cleveland
men in the convention to embarrass the
Cieyeland men; and, If possible, to delay
ton OF Mr.. Cleveland that the Cleveland
men saw the device and, conceiving that
Mr. Cleveland would be his own platform.
refused TO fall into the snare, thus the
Neal substitute carried no moral force with
II; not even approaching the opinion of the
affair was described as the midnight swirl
or turbulent mob
OF blind-man's buff poets would be states
men and only children would vote. There
was never a more deliberative act done by
deliberative body than the substitution
of the Neal plank for the Villas plank by
the national Democratic convention of 1892.
paign of education covering ten years 1t
was an act of the people setting aside
subterfuge of the politicians. 1t was not
done at the dead Of night, under whip and
spur. but between the hours of and
O'Clock in the evening, when the conven-
ton was wide awake and knew perfectly
what 1t was about II was not planned TO
obstruct the nomination of Mr.. Cleveland,
though If the convention had suspected
that Mr.. Cleveland had any hand in the
original tariff plank which it struck out he
woul not have received one-third of its
votes. Both Mr.. Villas and Mr.. Whitney
were assured by myself and others that no
obstruction meditated, and it is we'll
known that. averse as / was to the nomina-
ton OF Mr.. Cleveland. / regarded il a fore
gone conclusion before the convention met.
and had ceased TO disturb anybody. or to
I'm the most decisive, and, far any
thing in American politics can be solemn,
In the most Solemn-at least in the most
serious way-the convention ended. as L
hoped finally and forever the long struggle
between the forces of light and darkness
In the Democratic party. by stamping out
a double-tOngued assertion of its tariff pol
icy and inserting a declaration which no
human being could misunderstood or mis-
report.
TARIFF FOR REVENUE ONLY.
For the sake OF the argument. supposing-
merely supposing, mind you-supposing me
chairman of the ways and means committee.
i will tell you what would do. BY the aid
Of the best experts and authorities, / would
get together all the needful statistical data.
I would then find clean sheet OF paper.
would lay this on the table-not the little.
round one, but the big, oblong table-in the
ways and means committee room. Then
would open the cupboard containing, among
other perishable contents, the Mckinley bill.
j would take this out-not too gently-and
pitch it into the fire. Then / would draw
upon my clean piece of paper three lines.
Thus:
Article. Duty. Revenue.