St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-19
NOT DEMOCRATIC.

The GLOBE has not hesitated to
declare that the Democratic party
is in a condition where courage bor-
dering on audacity is the highest
prudence. 1t cannot go back to Ran
dallism; it cannot stand still on Cor
manism. With what assurance, on
the record its congress has made,
can it again go to the country and
ask its confidence on pledge to
eliminate protection and substitute
revenue tariff? 1t invited the
country to cross that bridge with it
in '92, and the country will hardly
care to trust itself again to the same
structure.
The GLOBE has taken this posi-
ton because it believes it is the
only course that will lead the party
out of the morass of defeat and onto
the uplands of permanent vic
tory 1t is treasured in this by the
reflection that it was only when the
party has asserted it's Democracy
that it triumphed, and that so long
as it equivocated and tried to pla-
the Randalls and the Germans, it
remained in an inglorious minority.
1t believes with Postmaster General
Wilson that eve must get the party
out of its present chaotic and de-
spondent condition, and that can be
done only by making it stand for
something affirmative and aggress-
i've and right"
For advising that the Democrats
drum their false and traitorous lead
ers out of camp, strike tents and
take up the line of march with firm
and unfaltering tread towards a
true Democracy we have been chided
by men who really believe them
selves Democrats, and papers that
assume to be, for advocating an I'M
Democratic policy. Measured by the
standard of the German act-if that
is the standard of the measurement
of a Democrat-we must admit that
the policy we urge is not Democratic.
Gauged by the straddle of "a, or
even by the plank of '92, if they are
standards, it is not Democratic. But
measured by the standard of the
fundamental principles Of Democ-
racy, which would demand of the
citizen a contribution for the gov
ernmental support proportionate,
not to what he consumes, but to
what he has, then our movement is
towards a purer and truer Democ-
racy than the party has taken posi-
ton on since the war It is also to-
wards that policy declared for by
the Democrats in their national con-
Vention in 1856, when they said:
1.-THE time has come for the people
of the United States to declare them
selves in favor of free seas and a
progressive free trade throughout
the world, and by solemn manifesto
lions to place their moral influence
at the side of their successful exam
pie" 1t is in line with that declara-
ton of a special committee of the
house, in 1858, for the complete aban-
donment of the protective policy
land a resort at as early a period
as may be practicable, exclusively
to direct taxation" The Demo-
cratic party must go backward to
it's former position before it can go
forward
But for those Democrats who think
a revenue tariff a divinely ordained
Democratic institution we commend
the utterance of a man whose De-
mocracy was never questioned; one
saturated with its vital principles,
and one who refused to follow the
philandering, trucking, expediency-
hunting crowd who, in 1872, nominat-
ed Horace Greeley as the Democratic
candidate for Observation-Disclosures
-O'Conor, the candidate that fateful
year of the uncompromising De-
mocracy Of the nation. In 1884 he
was invited to join the American
Free Trade League, which proposed
to abolish tariff taxation after 1890.
Mr.. O'Conor wrote:
q cannot concur in the suggestion
that simply advocating as a pre-
liminary step what it calls AN anti
protective revenue tariff the Free
Trade League strikes at the root
of the mischievous tree [ think it
leaves that root firmly imbedded in
the rank soil Of habitual malyersa-
ton, growing stronger each. hour.
and continually maturing kindred
alliances. 1t merely affects a branch
and wastes it's force in Intellectual
murmurings. The proposition that
the change cannot be sudden or
immediate, inasmuch as there is
time required to educate the people
seems to me, with great respect TO
be fallacy. The circulation of ar
guments against lettering trade will
never be effectual whilst the ramifi
cations of this pernicious but most
convenient and plausible fraud are
lnslnuating themselves into every
avenue of the peoples daily walk in
life, and becoming inwrought with
their usages, and, consequently. with
their tastes and feelings. No reform
was ever wrought in this way. Short
sharp and sudden the remedy for
political mischiefs has always been
and ever must be-"
II is A BOOMERANG.