The Portland daily press., 1896-07-18

The arguments for the present Chicago
platform point with reTu orseless logic to
this extension Of governmental powers, in
volHing Widespread conhsoation and q
ceYtralizing despotism. The Same dema-
ggguos who have pushed their doctrines
Thus far will, in the name of the farmers
Jf the West declare that having secured
transportation of their products at far
lower rate than is known in any other
country in the World--the lowest rate
consistent with any retlrn to til ose who
have placed their capital III transporta-
zion enterprises-this is Rot yet sufficient;
that the people must have the services of
railways. talegraphs and the like at
rata still lower, or for nothing; and
that this can only he do1e when the
people shall resume the ownerhip' and
assume the management of these enter
prises through the government-tho
managers at the centre OF power to be of
course the sort of men who gook control
of your recent convention. The coal and
other mines csn by arguments equally
logical be absorbed, payment being made
at 1lrst In debased coin, and finally in
unlimited paper. Confiscation having
thus taken place under the forms of law,
the contisoated property must be man
aged for the people, and this can only be
done by concentration of powers in the
oen6ral government, and consequently by
central despotism, not excelled, if in
deed 1T is eQuGlled. in Russia. You think
this picture overdrawn. 1t is but the
logical outcome of the present situation.
Let me- ask you candidly, is this future
platform any more improbable to you
now than the present Chicago platform
and candidate would have been to you
four years ago? Suppose that any one
had prophesied to you then that at the
next convention of your party the con-
trolling spirits would be Altgeld and Till
man openly, and PETER, Simpson and
Stewart secretly. Suppose too, that any
one had prophesied that the President
that you were then nominating, and
whom you were destined to eiect-the
only President you have elected In 35
years-would be treated with every in
suit, both of omission and commission,
and the real bone and 7sinew of the party,
to whom alone it owed new lease of it's
existence, kept out, or virtually driven
out of the convention-brutally, contemp-
tuously, indeoently. Would not such
prophecy have then been thought infinite
ly more absurd than anything prophecy
nowP Remember that
REVOLUTIONS NEVER GO BACK
WARD;
that, like other confagrations, they grow
by what they feed upon. Meet them at
the beginning with right, reason and
courage, and youtcan turn them; tempor-
ize and they will devour you.
On this platform, aiming at present
and prospective anarchy and socialism,
the convention and its galleries placed
the hoy orator of the PIatte.'' Having
amused the ssembled mob at Chicago,
he was repaid Immediately by the nomi-
nation to the presidency.
For the first time in the history of the
United States we have an anarchist and
90 }alist platform, and for tho first time
also, candidate who has never given
the slightest evidence Of craftsmanship.
The only qualification Of this candidate
"THE BOY ORATOR."
is that during his brief career in Con-
gress he made one or two speeches W hioh
amused the House and pleased the CALLER
les, and that during the recent conven-
ton he took the fancy of the mob by
single exhibition OF faring rhetoric. The
most telling phrase of this rhetoric--the
phrase which threw the galleries into
ecstaoy--was as inane az it was repuIsi We
and nothing beyond his speeches is need
ed to show that both in temper and in
telleot he is utterly unfit to deal with the
great questions which now confront the
country, or indeed, with any large cues
6ions whatever.
The scenes at the convention itself in
dictate state Of things against which all
thoughtful men of both parties through
out the country, and you especially, as
conservative leaders, should solidly and
vigorously array yourselves. We have
cirounstantial reports of speeches and
scenes, which, allowing for all uTnalis-
tic exaggeration and enterprise, % would
have brought ridicule upon the Irish
Jacobfn club at Paris in the palmy days
of the reign of terror. Well has one of
your own Democratic organs remarked
that "Lunacy having dictated the plat
form, it was fitting that hysteria should
evolve the candidate
confess that the Republican party has
made much folly to answer for in provid-
ing
ENORMOUS GALLERIES
at its later nominating conventions and
in allowing an irresponsible crowd to
run away with, the convention; and as
member OF such convention have
more than once protested openly against
NfeukOLOGn H1aCUAOSs DuO UlllS ltt5U
CHICAGO CONVENTION
has left its predecessors far behind.
Nothing has hitherto been depicted to
US like its Gladly representatives from
Utah, or like it's gushing men and hys-
terioal women "waltzing towards the
platform, waving flags" and for such a
candidate as they happened to fancy. 1t
was substitution of pandomonium for
calm, weightY discussion.
In this seething mass of folly the
honorsd represen tatives of the old De-
mooraoy were, as they well know, ut
terly lost. Instead of the Democrat is
heretofore known and honored in the
country, the control was assumed, either
directly or indirectly, from without OF
within, by the Altgelds, the Tillmans,
the Blands, the PETERS. the Stawarts,
the Simpsons and their like; men who
had outlived their usefulness, if they
ever had any, both in the Democratic
| and Republican parties; and as if to
show the hollowness of its pretensions
and the hypocrisy of It's claims, its per-
manent presiding officer WAS O Senator