The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-16
THE ISSUE.


The three stalwart Republican states
of the west, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa,
have held their conventions and have
expressed themselves as to the funda-
mental political issue. Tariff is the
cornerstone of the platform of each of
these great states No matter what
their opinions may be concerning cur
rency, no matter in favor of whom
they may express their presidential
bias, no matter what their desires may
be as to such internal improvements
as may cheaper freight, they agree in
this, that return to a soundly protec
tive policy muct precede a return to
national prosperity.
The selection of the presidential
candidate is a minor inciden. of the
campaign; the alingnment of the Re
publican party in protective cohorts is
the great event. Thus aligned, it will
carry every commonwealth of the north
and. as we believe, will break the long
maintained solidity of the south. Mc-
Kfnley or Allison, Morton or Reed,
Quay or CulIom. it matters little which
shall lead the Republican party to vic
tory. provided protection is made the
battle cry of the party.
Thus talks the Chicago Inter-Ccean.
and beyond question it expresses the
devout wish of all eastern Republicans.
when it insists that in the coming cam
palgn tariff will be the paramount ds-
sue. 1t is all in vain, however, for the
Inter-Ocaan 10 cry THE tariff, the tar
iff the tariff is the issue" when every
body knows that finance is the question
which presses most for settlement on
the country, and is an issue which all
parties must meet in this year of grace
whether they will or no. Politicians
sometimes make political issues and
on them fight marvellous battles, dis
play wonderful valor. if you may be-
lieve the combatants. and achieve mar
velous success or fnflict awful defeat
upon their adversaries, if again you
can trust the account given by the
supposed victors. These politician-cre-
ated issues may, for a time, too, keep
in the background real issues that have
grown up from the midst of circum-
stances that have created them, but
the time comes at last when these ma
tural issues so press for settlement
that they can no longer be kept down,
and they must be met and settled.
Such we take it is the question of
finance in the United States. Politi-
clans have paltered with it in a double
sense, 10! for many years. Political
parties have temporized with it. and
even now dread it, fear it. would run
away from it, decry it, close their eyes
to it and cry aloud the tariff, the tariff
is the issue; but there, unmoved, con-
fronting all parties and all candidates
stands the seIf-created issue which the
politicians cannot dodge or longer trifie
with-money. What have you to say
on this question, Major Mckinley?
Your platitudes about protection, the
wages Of the working man, the crea-
ton of new industries. the encourage
ment of others, we all know by heart
But what have you to say about
money? So with you, Allison, Morton,
Reed, Cullom, Morrison, Matthews, Car
Isle. Whitney-all. what have you to
say about money? That is what the |
people must know, and what they will !
know before they are through with |
to cover everything from the fiat soft |
money fake to the gold mono-metailist |
will not serve the purpose. When the |
people ask you a plain question about |
money, it will not do to shout tariff |
back at them, either in advocacy of |
tariff for revenue or protection. This |
natural. self-created issue of finance |
will not give place to pogitician-cre- |
ated issue; and if the great states of |
Ohio, Iowa and Kansas have made some |
other issue the cornerstone of their
platforms, they must reconstruct them |
and put in the rejected stone; and if |
they feel chagrined at this, they may |
comfort themselves with the reflection
that it is not the first time that the
stone set at naught by the builders |
has afterwards become the head of
the corner.