The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-19

Democrats who believe in tariff re-
form and Republicans who believe in
protection are able to get together
when both recognize that the money
question is superior to the tariff ques-
ton. (Applause.) A Populist leader in
this State well expressed the idea when
he said that while he believed in Pop
ulist doctrines yet he was willing to
lay some of them aside until he could
get others. For instance he said while
he believed in the government owner
ship of railroads he did not want the
government to own the railroads as
long as the Rothschilds owned the gov
ernment. Great applause.) 1t is this
willingness to lay aside minor differ
ences in hours of danger thar, ~charac-
terizes our people and gives the surest
proof they are able to rise to the re-
quirements of any emergency.
Sometimes they accuse us Of raising
sectional issues. One of the best evi-
dences that the platform adopted at
Chicago does not raise a sectional issue
is fond in the language of the plat
form adopted yesterday in New York.
Let me read it to you. After unre-
seryedly endorsing the platform and
the candidate of the Chicago conyen-
tion the New York platform contains
these words: 1t declares as its deliber-
ate Judgment that never in the history
OF the Democratic party has
platform been written that
embodies more completely the
interests of the whole Deo-
pie as distinguished from those who
seek legislation for private benefits
than that given to the country by the
National Democratic convention OF
1890. tApplause.) There within the
shadow of Wall street, there against
the combined opposition of those once
leading Democrats of New York. who
have left the Democratic party and
either gone over entirely to the Repub-
heans or stopped for moment at the
halfway house, the Democracy of New
York declares the platform adopted at
chicago IS the most Democratic plat
form ever put before the country by
Democratic convention. (Applause) In
the State of Connecticut, they have also
endorsed our platform and in Penn
sylvania, and New Jersey. In these
and other Eastern States the Demo-
cracy is beginning to realize that the
Chicago platform presents to the Am
erican people those great issues around
which the people must cluster if they
are going to retain a government of,
by and for the people. The Chicago
platform contained a plank express
ing a desire for an income tax; not
saying that we are going to ignore
the decision of the Supreme court. nli1
that an income tax should be retained
ana enforced SO far as the decision of
the court would permit and that we
would abide by the principle still, if a
future court, exercising the same right
to reverse the decision recently given
that the present court exercise in over
throwing the precedent of a hundred
years, should go back to the doctrine
we use to have, and declare that under
the Constitution it is possible to make
those VINO have large incomes pay
their share Of the expense Of govern
meht' lAppiause) In my Judgment
the income tax is just 1t is not war
upon property, but it is a demand that
those who have property and who de-
mand the protection of that property
by Federal laws should be willing to
look for that protection and not seek
to use the instrumentalities of govern
ment for their own benefit and then
throw the burden of supporting that
government on the backs of those not
able to bear it .(Applause.) The three
parties which have joined in my NOM
NATION agree that while there are other
issues before the people aside from the
money question yet the money ques-
ton rises paramount to them all and
must be settled first. Other questions
can wait; the money cannot. 1t has
been forced upon public attention. 1t
has been brought before the people
and we have to decide whether we shall
continue the present financial system
wherein few men have undertaken to
run the government or we shall put
the financial policy of the American
people in the hands of the American
people to be framed by them and for
them from now on. (Applause.l I
never lose an opportunity to impress
upon the people the Importance of this
question TO every citizen. The Repub-
lican platform declares we must main
tain our present financial policy not
until we get tired of it, but until for
eign nations get tired of it and con-
sent for us to abandon it. To my mind
no more infamous proposition was ever
by any party and I cannot
believe as / look into the faces Of tens
of thousands of free Americans |
all these States that thev |
are willing to trust the destinies OF the |
people in the hands of foreigners whom