The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-13
THE rRovO PLATFORM.

The Republican platform adopted a
Provo has nothing in it very remark
able or different from the common
patitudes of the 6. o. p, except two OF
three small items which we will here
point out. First, we notice it pretends
to be favorable to the restoration OF
silver. but it lodges the great oues-
uon which is now uppermost in the
western mind. Here is the Republican
silver plank:
Second-We recognize the silver
question as one of paramount import
ance TO the people, and we believe that
! no nun prosperity can be enjoyed until
silver shall be restored, and we de-
mand its reconciliation on the old
ratio with gold of IS to !.
There are hosts of bimetallists in
various parts of the country who are
regarded as obstructionists in the way
Of silver, who could yet subscribe TO
that tepid, vapid, wishy-washy declara-
ton. 1t utterly ignores the vital issue.
that is Independent resumption of
free coinage by the United States.
That is the test of fealty to the silver
cause. 1t is because the Republican
party is against that step that Senator
John P. Jones has repudiated the party
as an enemy to silver. If this country
is to wait until England is ready, there
is no telling how long we shall have to
wait for The full restoration Of silver
as money. The Provo plank is only
silver-p,ated, and underneath it is
simply a stratum of soft soap"
The next noticeable thing is the
reference to education; st is this:
Tenth-The Republican party has
ever been the friend of the free public
school system of our country, and we
pledge our unfaltering support TO every
measure which shall serve to increase
its power for good.
Indeed? was its friendship shown by
the only Republican legislature of
Utaa? Was the attempt TO take away
one-ffth of the revenue OF the public
schools. in order to give bounties for
beets and canaigre roots, friendship
for the free public schools? Was the
denial Of sufficient means to support
college. friendship to education? Utah
Republican regard for erudition put
beeis before brains and canaigre
growing before scholastic culture No
wonder that the Provo convention
covered the doings and misdoings Of
the Republican legislature with the
Convenient but gloomy pail of silence.
plank, prepared it is said by Arthur l.
Thomas. about the Utah Commission
appointing registration officers from
one political party. And yet no one
knew better than Thomas that Re-
publican commissions did the same
thing, and that he helped in the work, |
and that when he and other Utah COM
mis.ioners were Liberals they appoint
ed none but Liberal registration Of
fcens. 1t is rank hypocrisy which |
prompted the insertion of that rotten !
plark in platform that is weak in |
substance and awkward yet feeble in
composition.
Now look at the suffrage plank:
Eighteenth-we favor the granting
Of equal suffrage to women.
What does that mean? Does it
mean that women are to have equal
suffrage with men? It does not say
so. Does it mean they shall have
equal suffrage with one another? If
so, TO what extent is the suffrage to
be extended? Does the Republican
party Of Utah want woman suffrage
provided for in the state constitution?
Or IS the favor of the Republican
parit to woman suffrage what it al
ways has been-specious and ambigu-
BUS phrases intended to deceive. with
no practical effort to give effect to
whs the suffrage women want
ed2 1t is worse straddle j
-hal even the silver subterfuge.
Tie last plank we will notice now is
he wentieth. in which the Republican {
,ark is eulegized in stereotyped ]
and confidence is express (
d h ''its swift restoration to power I
nd a renewal OF its benefactions to /
heiJnited States" II
What those benefactions are does G
lot'appear Are they the legislation {
With has brought the destruction, | /
,ov,rty. falling prices, wages reduc- S
iorr roaming tramps and all the ills /
Thth Republican sheets say are the c
esuts of the decentralization of silver {
" hat party in 1893? And what are q
he oenefactions of the Republican par
Y b Utah? Why, the platform does h
otirnake solitary allusion to them. t
Therefore? Because there are none to /
rule to- The national Republican v
arty has always been Utah's enemy. I
lot solitary Republican ''benefac- a
on to this territory. can be pointed L
ut. Silence falls in the Provo plat
Urn with sepulchral gloom over the i
endactions of the Republican party Ia
} Utah. 4
The whole document is poor COM
and shifting; and when the v
epablicans in convention resolve to v
1nie their bushes of shame" 1t 5