The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-07-24
The Democratic Platform.

into the minds of multitudes of people who
would never think of such an amusement If
it had not been represented as SO delightfully."-
shocking. The rampant Mckinley organs are
performing a service for. the Democratic plat
form Party platforms, as rule, are not par
ticularly enticng reading, but the lurid at
fractions of the one adopted at Chicago have
been described in such blood-curdling terms
as to give 1t all the fascination of a romance
of piracy.
When the honest citizen timidly secures
CODY Of this awful manifesto of revolution
and anarchy" and, locking himself up in his
room, prepares to feast on horrors, what will
he find? Suppose we take up the platform in
order and see.
In the first place, the Democracy reaffirms
is allegiance to those grand essential prin-
ciples of justice and liberty upon which our
institutions are founded, and which the DEM
ocratic party has advocated from Jefferson's
time to our own-freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, freedom of conscience, the pressr-
walton OF personal rights, the equality of all
citizens before the law. and the faithful obser-
vance of constitutional limitations"
That would undoubtedly be incendiary and
revolutionary in Russia. 1t would insure its
authors passage to Siberia. But in America
it can be read, except by persons of extremely
Next, the platform advocates the settlement
of the financial question by the free coinage of
silver instead of by bond issues, and the re-
tirement of the greenbacks. This may be re-
garded as mistaken policy, but as it is one
that has been vigorously advocated by leading
men of both parties for the last twenty years.
has been endorsed by scores of State Con-
ventions, both Demo cratic and Republican,
and has commanded majorities in both
Houses of Congress, it can hardly be consider
ed a wild explosion of Nihilism. If vote for
free silver is anarchy, then William Mckinley
is at best only reformed anarchist .
The disappointed citizen, still pursuing the
phantom atrocities of which the Mckinley or
gans have warned him, then reads:
We hold that tariff duties should be levied
| for purposes of revenue, and that taxation
| should be limited TO the needs of the govern
ment, honestly and economically administer
| ed. We denounce as disturbing to business
! the Republican threat to restore the Mckinley
| law, which has has been twice condemned by
the people in national elections, and which,
| enacted under the false plea of protection To
| home industry, proved q prolific breeder of
trusts and monoplies, enriched the few at the
| expense of the man V, restricted trade and de-
prived the producers of the great American
staples of access TO their natui al markets.
Until the money is settled we opposed
to any agitation ;or further changes in our
tariff laws except such are necessary 10 meet
the d felt in revenue caused by the adverse
/ decision of the Supreme Court on the income
tax.
Plainly there is no anarchy here Anarchists
do not object to things that are disturbing to
business disturbance is just what they want
The chief objection old-fashioned Democrats
will find to this plank is its intense conserva-
I tism. IL opposes any present change in the
tariff except to raise more revenue Radical
| DpmncrQfc IN Goa fin rpdnc-
tioK of duties.
But the elusive shudder seems to be at
hand. Here is the direful Supreme Court and
income tax plank, which according to the Or
gans, reeks with the blood of slaughtered or
! der
There would be 10 deficit in the revenue
but for the anullment by the Supreme Court
of law passed by a Democratic Congress in
strict pursuance of the uniform decisions Of
that court for nearly one hundred years, that
court having sustained constitutional objec-
tiOns to its enactment which have been over
ruled by the abiest Judges who had ever sat
on that bench.
We decl4 re that it is the duty of Congre S
! to use all the constitutional power which re-
mains after that decision, or which may come
from its reversal by the court as it may here
/ after be constituted, SO that the burdens of
taxation may be equally and impartially laid,
| to the end that we may all bear our proper
ton of the expenses of the government.
On examination the sanguinary character
of this resolution seems to evaporate. The first
of it is simply the cool, unimpasslOt ed state
ment OF an unquestioned historical fact.
Nobody can deny that the PLATFORM account
of the proceedings in regard to the income tax
is litarally correct. The second part, then,
must be that in which revolution turks. Is the
Sedtion in the declaration that it is the duty OF
! Congress TO use all the constitutional power
that remains to it SO that the burdens of taxa
| ton may be equally laid? Or is it in the hint
that the Supreme Court "may hereafter be
constituted" differently? Doubtless the latter,
and yet we all know hat the Supreme Court
has been constituted differently from time to
time If it had not been constituted diner
emily last year from its composition at any time
| in the previous century the income tax would
not have been annulled, at least one bond issue
would have been spared, and perhaps Mr..
Bryan might not have been nominated on a
free silver platform.
Next, the platform demands the prevention
of the importation of foreign pauper labor. de
nounces the profiigate waste of public money,
and insists upon a return 10 simplicity and
economy. The searcher for dime novel sensa-
ground and proceeds to the next plank.
| We denounce the arbitrary interference by
| Federal authorities III local affairs as VIOLA
ton of the Constitution of the United States
and a crime against free institutions, and we
especially object to government.by injunction
| as a new and highly dangerous form OF OPP
preston, by which Federal judges, in con
| tempt of the laws of the States and rights of
citizens, become at once Legislators, judges and
eXecutioners;- and we approve the bill passed
at the last session of the United States Senate
and now pending in the House relative 10
contemptS in Federal courts, and providing
for trials BY jury in certain cases of contempt.
| 1t is startling indication of the extent TO
which Capitalization has undermined our an
cient system of local selfgovernment that this
restatement of the old doctrine, which can
hardly be called SO much Democratic as Am
erican, and which even the Federalists of
Hamilton's day would scarcely have ven-
tured to dispute, should now be treated as Sc
| ditious and revolutionary. But the most adj
vanced of our new fin de steele Federalists
| will find it hard to scent Anarchism in the de-
mand that the subsidized Pacific railroads shall
pay their debts, or that pensioners should be
literally treated. The objections to life terms
| of office is not in accordance with the best
ideas of civil service reform, but it is the view
of the politician, not of the revolutionist, that
| prevailed there. Sympathy with the people of
| Cuba If no q orin ic ono hot ScI,a n