Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1900-07-12
Fresh Items of Interest from the
Capital City Relating to
Matters Political.
POINTS ABOUT REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
a Howl Goes Up over Liberties Taken
with the FatefuI DOcument-Some
Things That the People Will Re-
Observation-Disclosures of the Adj
ministrntlOn.
[special Correspondence.l

II meet on the TepuDllCdu udllOudA
platform the more Disguised they be-
come with their own stupidity.
Anxious hours were spent at the white
house in preparing a platform which
would indorse McKinley's policy and
yet placate the rebellious and critical
voters.
1t appears that the editing and final
arrangement of the platform of Phila-
delphia was then left to ex-Congress-
man Lemuel Eli Quigg, a faithful
henchman of Senator Platt's. 1t is now
alleged by administration representa-
tives that that gentleman took grave
liberties with the fateful document
which had been sent over to the conven-
ton with the white house o. X. upon it.
Congressman Grosvenor is regarded
in congress as the official mouthpiece
of the administration. He sends up a
howl about the platform that dis
counts any criticism the democrats
have made on the document. Gros-
venor insists that the administration
forces had prepared plank indorsing
the action of congress in placing Porto
Rico outside the constitution and an
other specifically mentioning the ship
subsidy bill favorably.
Of course Quigg denies that he did
anything which was not ordered by
the committee on resolutions, but the
actremains that the republicans them
selves have discovered too late that
their platform is altogether too weak
and evasiye to suit even the Mckinley
republicans, let alone bring back the
anti-McKinley forces into the party
fold.
The platform is too long and still it
says too little. tits chiefly remarkable
for the things it omits to say. The only
issues upon which it is at all definite
are those which are not at all in ques-
ition. 1t devotes about 1000 words to
threshing over dead issues of the past
campaign and about 200 words to the
live issues of trusts and imperialism.
The trust plank is so carefully word
ed that it could not possibly offend
the most sensitive trust which is eX-
pected to contribute to the campaign
fund.
1t says 1--WE condemn all conspir-
acies and combinations intended to
restrict business, to create monopolies,
limit production or to control prices,
and favor such legislation as will eff
fectively restrain and prevent such
abuses, protect and promote compe-
tition and secure the rights of pro-
ducers, laborers and all who are en-
gagged in industry and commerce"
Well, there have been about $50 just
such trusts organized since the be-
ginning of McKinley's administration,
and they have been doing just the
things which this plank mentions,
but this republican congress refused
to pass the antitrust bill. The adj
ministration will never, under any
circumstances, have an opportunity
TO restrain trusts better than that
presented at the recent session of
congress, when every branch of the
government was under republican con-
troll. The fact that it did absolutely
nothing to restrain trusts shows
where it stands.
Republican EnrOntery.
In the face of the unpublished Rath-
bone and Nicely postal scandals in
Cuba, the republicans nave the eff
frontery to state in their platform
that they favor for public service in
Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippines, "those whose fitness has
been determined by training and ex-
perience." Rathbone, Nicely, ct al,
were lauded as just that kind of ma
terial until their rascalities were eX-
posed by a jealous military contin-
gent. which felt it was not getting
its share of the spoils in Cuba.
With a fine disregard for the facts,
this same platform 'commends the
republican policy in maintaining the
efficiency of the civil service" The re-
publicans seem to think that the pub
lie has forgotten that only a year
ago the administration took 10000
places from under civil service and
distributed them as party plumber,
On the Philippines the platform
leaves the inference very clear that
the constitution is not expected to APP
ply to those islands, but that they
are to be kept as colonial dependen-
Cies. II promises "the largest meas
ure of self-government consistent
with their welfare" That is the
vague promise which every tYrant has
always held out to the people whom
it proposed to subjugate, and the
American voters have the issue of inn
perialism clearly before Them. Nc
Kinleys reelection means the contin-
Nation of the senseless war in the
the subjugation of a peo-
pie fighting for liberty and the ex-
ploitation of the islands for the profit
of moneyed interests.
independence and self-government
are promised to Cuba, but not word
as to when the pledge shan be full
filed, Probably in the next century
sooner, perhaps, If the carpet baggers
can steal everything worth having
from the island in less time, and no
longer find the island useful.
A Slap at Organized Labor.
Considering the fact that congress
refused to pass the eight-hour law APP