The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-27
EXPOSING THEIR OWN DIsHoN.
ESTX

Inefe is considerable instruction to
be secured from a reading of the plat
form on which the Republican candi-
date for election to congress from
Speaker Henderson's district has
chosen to stand. That platform con-
tains these words: eve deny that the
Dingley tariff breeds and shelters the
trusts"
When the platform adopted by the
Iowa Republican convention at Des
Moines was published, the st. Paul
G / o b e denounced it as pure and
simple lie and a fraud, just as it had
denounced the platform adopted by
the Republican state convention held
in this city. There could hardly be a.
more convincing sustainment of the
position Of this paper on the Iowa Re-
publican platform in it's reference to
the tariff and the trusts than Is fur
nished by the sentence quoted above.
The Iowa state Republican platform
read in the light of the sentence quot
ed not only shows the dishonesty of
the position occupied by the Repub-
| l1can politicians of Iowa, but 1t may
be taken as faithful exemplification
of the attitude of the Republican pol
1ticians in national affairs from the
president down on the same subject.
The aim in all cases is to convey
to the people without declaring so ex-
pressly that the Republican party, and
that party alone, can be depended upon
to protect the people against the
wrong and injustice practiced upon
them by the trusts and admittedly pos
sible under the operation Of the Ding
ley tariff; while there exists at the
same time a settled determination on
the part Of the authors of such state
ments to leave the trusts and the tariff
undisturbed.
The meaning of all this political
juggling is plain. There Is a universal
sentiment among the American people,
the mass Of the voters, that trusts and
tariff are breeding injustice and in
equality in our social and Industrial
life; that they represent the extension
to a class of special privileges and ad-
vantages, secured through government
tai favor, which ought to be brought
to an end. It Is to meet and allay this
sentiment that such palpably dishonest
public utterances as those of the ordi-
nary Republican platform are devised.
The st. Paul Glob e, for it's sake
and the sake of it's party, Is perfectly
content that Republican pledges and
assurances shall continue to be given.
1t believes that the people have con-
Guided, without regard to party inter-
ests, that performance rather than
promise is the need of the hour. Prom
ises of this character have been lavish
through Republican platforms and Re-
publican speeches during the past
twenty years, but there has not been
one ounce of performance essayed. The
Dingley tariff is a Republican enact
ment which has taken the place Of
the Mckinley tariff. The only respect
| in which the Dingley tariff has been
| proclaimed by it's Republican authors
to be great advance on the Mckinley
| tariff in the direction Of freer trade is
in it's clause providing for the negotia-
| ton of treaties with foreign countries
for reciprocal trade. The fate Of every
| reciprocity treaty sought to be nego-
| tiated under that clause of the Dingley
| law must be accepted as the full meas
ure Of Republican willingness to modify
| to any extent whatever the so-called
! protection existing under both the
Dingley and the Mckinley tariff laws.
If the Republican voters of this
country, and especially of the North
western states, are welded to their idol
Of protectionism so as to give in this
election their sanction to the attitude
deliberately chosen by the existing ma
the trusts and the tariff, so be It. But
those who, like the st. Paul Glob e,
believe in the removal of all artificial
barriers existing against the trade of
civilized nations, and who are con-
WINGED that this nation can maintain
it's present prominence, commercially
and industrially, among the nations by
tearing down those barriers will none
the less earnestly continue in the prop
agation of true American doctrine.
They are confident that whether this
| year, or two years hence, or ten years
hence, the American people will sure
ly and completely wake up to the dan
gers which are involved in the present
policy Of governmental subsidy of in
dustrial monopoly.