The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-08-04
A Desperate Party.

I
tion in Denver and we have been ex
pecting to hear something new il
place of parrot-like denunciation o.
the Democratic party. But the Re
publican league had nothing new t.
offer in the line of governmental pol
icy, or to show that any thing is es
pecially wrong in the country, al
ways excepting, of course, the Dem
oeratie party.
Having left mountain of fnan
cial obligations for Democracy tt
deal with, we hear ''no end" of Re
publican croaking in Denver about
depicting the treasury, increasing
the debts of the nation ana similar
partisan shibboleth. The program
at Denver was reeled off as prepared
but the tame music will fall fiat up.
on the average American ear Few
people have time to enthuse over
pure partisan gush and denuncia.
tion cooked to order. The Courier
Journal thus puts the case:
1t is anything to win with the Re
publicans this year Principles
don't count. Nothing counts but
votes-twice if possible. Nothing
matters except to get back to power,
staked recklessly and lost on Nc
Kinleyism. To that end no deal
will be neglected, no concession Of
principles refused, no infusion I'M
tried, no straddle too great to be
attempted
AS to the silver question the Re-
publlcans propose to be all things to
all men, but with a decided inclina-
ton to abandon former declarations
in favor of sound money and join
hands again with the silver extrem-
lists in an effort to save protection at
the expense of the currency.
AS to the tariff they will reaffirm
only so much of their devotion to
McKinleyism as they think they
can win on. Should they win by
pledge of moderate protection, their
treatment of former pledges Of this
character leaves no doubt of what
they will do when they have a
chance. They are prepared to trick
the country if they can, by any pre-
tense of repentance and reform,
such as they made at the time of
their famous tariff commission.
One Republican member of the
House from Pennsylvania was frank
enough to say that in his judgment
his party in selecting a presidential
candidate and constructing a plat
form in 1896 "would be governed,
not by what is right or wrong in an
abstract sense, or by what this or
that candidate thinks, but by CON
siderations entirely apart from eth
CT morals or statesmanship"-pro-
badly very far apart and partly fin
ancial. Those considerations were
further explained in this simple
fashion:
The Democratic party is going to
pass bill which will be moderately
protective, but will impose lower
taxes on the whole than the McKin-
ley act If business revives next
winter and keeps up pretty well, the
Republican National Convention
will undoubtedly adopt moderate
protectionist platform, contending
that the revival is due to the fact
that the protective principle has
been preserved in the Democratic
bill. If times continue hard, how
ever, the convention will insist that
the reason of this is to be found in
the fact that duties were reduced too
far, and will accordingly adopt a
tariff program, outdoing the McKin-
ley act, if anything.
And SO they hope to catch US
coming and going. This utterance,
and the demand of the Ohio Repub-
lican State Convention, that the
Mckinley rates be left untouched
unless they can be made higher, ex-
press the real purpose of the Repub,
lican leaders, whatever may be the
promises by which, before the cleo
ton, they may seek to bamboozle
the voters. They are for monopoly
protection, the highest they can get,
and to get it they will promise tar
if reform, free silver coinage, more
pensions, comfort for the Populists,
offices for everybody, and anything
else that is good for vote.