The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-06-01
HOW THEY REFORn.

There is strange inconsistency in
the action of Democracy in contrast
with the pledges it made in 1892. 1t
does not excuse the party to assert,
as some of its ultra free trade repre-
sentatives are now doing, that it has
been betrayed by few members of
congress who are interested in the
great trade combines of the country.
Democracy is in control of congress
and is responsible for it's action, and if
it agrees to the BILL which it is al
legged has been framed by the repre-
sentatives of a few trusts in their in
terest, that party must bear equally
the responsibility therefor. The rep
resentatives of Democracy in con-
greSs, who at times assert their 10y
atty to free trade and the Chicago
platform, and almost in the same
breath declare their willingness to
accept the senate tariff bill, are
equally at fault with those whom it is
claimed have betrayal the party.
If they were honest in their profess
sions to the utterances of their party
at Chicago, they could easily defeat
the alleged manipulatOrS in the in
terests of the trusts by declining to
be party to the betrayed, but they
have as yet showed no desire to stand
by their professed principles, but
have, whenever the occasion pre-
sented itself, voted to support the bill
with it's iniquities."
The walls of wrath which have been
poured forth by some Of the ultra free
trade journals, has been confined
solely to several alleged conspiratOrs,
or as the Democratic association Of
this state was pleased to call them
"Benedict Arnolds." But this will
not clear the skirts of Democracy for
any deal of the kind alleged cannot
be cOnsummated without the consent
of nearly all of the partys representa-
tiveS.
This acceptance by the party Of the
changed front, which seems to have
the hearty approval Of that great
apostle Of reform, Grover Cleveland,
has led the party into a queer posi-
tiOn. 1t denounced protection as a
robbery and a fraud and on the stump
declared that it allowed the great
trade combines to Systematically rob
the people, although as regards the
great industries carried on in this
country where there is general COM
petition, they failed to prove their
assertions. But after making this
charge, they turn around and frame
legislation, by which one of the most
powerful combines in the world is
given a chance to rob the people of
from $50, 900, 600 to $50, 900, 900 per year.
In other words the consumers Of sugar
will contribute annually into the COT
fers of the sugar trust sum equal to
so cents for each man, woman and
child in the United States. This is
not the assertion of political oppo-
nent of the measure, but is the esti-
mate of an expert, writing at length
upon the bill to the St. Louis RepubLic,
leading Democratic paper.
'The whole range of taxation might
be searched in vain,' says the Chicago
Inter Ocean, ''for parallel to this pro-
posed robbery. Itdiscounts the worst
revenue system ever devised for the
benefit of favored few at the eX
pense of the many, SO colossal are its
proportions. And all this, be it re-
membered, for the protection of a
process of manufacture which, it is
conceded, can be carried on more
cheaply in this country than in any
other on the face Of the globe"
Such is Democratic consistency.