St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-08
ruE KISSES OF AN ENEMY.

'lnG
out from Minneapolis that the Min
nesota Democratic association was
going to build UP brand new party
with free trade emblaZoned on us
banners, has called out a variety OF
comment from the press whose
Golfers were worked by the YER
satile string fiend. The absurdlty
of an organization of Democrats
abjuring a party which, when true
to itself and it's principles, can De
nothing but a party Of the WIDEST
freedom of commerce, and engaging
in the arduous and needless task OF
building up a new party to do what
there is now one well equipped to
do, never seems to have occurred to
these gifted commentators.
There is one phase of this COM
ment, made by papers attached to
a party whose policy is the antipode
Of free trade, that strikes us as
singular and significant. The
Pioneer Press assures us that any
effort towards free trade is tine
supremest folly" that there are no
free traders in the country, save
a few inconsequential enthusiasts
whose aspirations float in the azure
far above the solid ground of practi-
cabiIity Even chose who shouted
for free trade are swearing at 1t
now" Then, there is the Inter
Ocean, all wool and yard
wide in its protectatlonlsm,
the defender in the West
of ultra-McKinleyism, giving
these builders fair warning that
their plan will never work. The lit
tie journey into freer trade by the
late, lamentable and unlamented
Fifty-third congress has turned the
tide back with overwhelming force
to the divinely ordained American
system, of which Mckinley was the
prophet; and the party adopting any
such a policy as free trade is fore
doomed to humiliation.
Now what strikes us as curious
and also as significant is this very
disinterested advice from these very
interested parties. When before
did political opponents ever so solic-
itously warn their adversaries to be-
ware Of the pitfall before their feet?
When before would they not have
rejoiced to see them walk confiding-
~ and unWittingly into it? When be-
fore would they not rather have en-
couraged them to take the path that
led unto destruction? Has politi-
cal warfare lost it's ferocity? Is
the sweet spirit of Christianity over
coming these fierce warriors? Is
the golden rule their guide, and not
the eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-
a-tooth rule? Or is the game played
in the same old way, and are
these danger signals only raised to
avert the adoption of a course they
fear may be taken?
If these papers and those who
think with them are so sure that
the path of free trade is the way to
ann1h1lat1on of the party that en-
tiers on it one might expect them.
judging by the horror with which
they have regarded the Democratic
party, to encourage it to proceed
to its self-immolation. If that party
Is the dangerous one, the foe of
prosperity, the enemy of civilization,
the destroyer of industry, the
iconoclast they have pictured it to
be, why should they not lure it along
the way that leads to a sure and
complete destruction? Their very
sollcitude lest it enter on that wav
their warnings Of the disasters to
follow, indicate only the degree Of
their apprehension that the Demo-
Gratis will continue their march. ur-
checked by the panic without and
traitors within, to the emancipa-
ton of Americans from the shack
les of industrial slavery.