The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-09-11
The Catchings Letter IN the Campaign

The report that because the tariff leg
islation is not satisfactory, the Demo
cratic campaign bookmakers will endeavor
to give unusual Importance to q few select
ed authoritative Democratic documents, de
livered in speech or in writing, d%enouncing
the Tariff bill, marks n new situation in party
experience. For the first time it is thought
necessary for n party to run its national
campaign on lines of self-denunciation rs
we'll as Of praise. A campaign OF reform
Is invoked by the organization already in
power and seeking to be kept there. The
arguments for reform and the abuses de-
handing reformation are alike founded
on the party's own record! 1t is like the cat
chasing its own tail.
without examining the list Of docu-
ments which are thus to blaze with a double
edge another way to Democratic triumph,
we are moved to say that. President CLEvE
LANDS last contribution to the subject, the
CATCHTNGs letter, should be stricken out.
As good n reason for this as any in it
consists of the awful nonsense found in the
deadly blight of treason and counsels of
the brave in their hour of might" passage,
cribbed from the %splendors of LALLA RooKH:
81 take my place with the rank and file Of the Demo-
cratic party who believe in tariff reform and well
know what It Is; who refuse to accept the results en-.
bodied In this bill as the close Of the war; who are not
blinded to the fact that the livery OF Democratic tarih
reform has been stolen and worn In the service OF
Republican protection. and who have marked the
places where the deadly blight OF treason has blasted
the counscls of the brave in their hour OF might"
We do not wonder that Mr.. CLEVELAND
has not been blind to the fact that the livery
of Democratic tariff reform has been stolen
and worn in the service of Republican pro-
tectionism. IL any one, after reading
the following quotation from q speech
delivered in the House of Representa-
tives in December last, is not satisfied
that the first thief and the first wearer Of
the Democratic livery in the service Of Re
publican protection, was the cuckoo Chair
man OF the Ways and Means Committee,
the Executives most protruded spokesman,
the Hon. WILLIAM l.. WILSON, he must
carry q vacuum in his skull. Laying the
Tariff bill, the much harped-on WILSON bill,
before the House for its subsequent con-
sideration, Mr.. WILSON thus spake:
THE bill on which the committee has expended
such a nxious labor no more processes 10 be purged OF
protection than to be free OF error In details. We
must recognize that great interests do exist whose
existence and prosperity 1t Is no part Of our reform
to imperil or curtail."
The man who first put the uniform on
afterward so nightly objurgated by an
Executive trying to make out that his coun-
sells had been blasted in the hour OF his
might, was this same WILLIAM J.. WILSON.
He it was who first began to serve Re
publican protection, although wearing
the Democratic livery; and efforts to
prove that his title to wear that
honored dress is any better than that of
the Democratic statesman who followed
his track in open advocacy OF protection,
will add to the Democrats humiliation
the sickening sensation that their am
paiGn is to be fought with lies: and
that the disgrace Of their representa-
tives is TO be covered over with pro-
testations of honor and virtue where
neither exists. Strike out the CATCHINGs
letter, il the approaching Democratic cam
paign is to exhibit any creditable effort
to eliminate the disgusting and repellant
self Qualification of Mugwump humbug.
Strike il out any way. 1t will surely be in
the Republican campaign book.