The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-05
THE WAY n PLAIN.

x0& WAX - RAAA&s
 The Republican leaders are really doing the Democrats . great favor. They arc making the road to Democratic success 60 plain that 'the wayfsring man. though . fool, need not err therein" That wsy leads along the road of tariff reform. tar- in revision and tarif reduction as prominent and dominant issue. The Re publican party is responsible for the pres ent unequal taxif laws and the trusts which grow out of those laws. That party has the power to correct those evils but 1t is afraid to exercise that power. It knows that the trusts and the protected monopolies hold the money of the coun- try and to antagonize them means ruin
 The leaders of the party are not only afraid to modify the tariff but they have no desire to do 1t. The recent speeches of Secretary Root and Senator Lodge in Boston prove conolusively that they have no serious intention of changing the pres- ent laws. and Secretary Shaw has added his voice to the others. In a speech de- livered in Peoria, H., a few days ago, he paid his respects to those who wish to deal with the tariff and the trusts in this way:
 I would like to have our Democratic friends who are advocating this remedy Vest of Missouri and Morgan of Alabama, Mir. Richardson of Tennessee, MT. Shep-- pard of New York and a hundred others explain whether they would remove pro- monopoly produced goods. Shall the pro
 lection be removed until the alleged monopoly goes into bankruptcy. and then be restored. or shall 1t be removed per- manently, and our industries one by one turned over to foreign competitors? And if the removal of protection Is to be tenn porary. who Is to say when 1t shall be restored?
 That is rot and the speaker knew 1t. No Democrat wants or proposes to bank rupt any American industry. Some of them. it is true. deserve no consideration and if they could by legal means be bankrupted and driven out of the country they would be entitled to little sympathy. but the Democrats are not going into the bankrupting business. A tarin schedule can be devised which would be fair and just to the people and which would not injure any legitimate business. It would lessen the enormous profits which are now made by some corporations and to that extent benefit the great body of the people, and 1t might drive some of the trusts out of business. which would be a glorious consummation.
 But the leaders who control Republican policies do not want the tarift interfered
 with and will not suffer it done if they can prevent 1t. Even the President, with
 all his plstitudes about tariff revision is
 no more in earnest than some of the oth- | CTS who have talked about it. All this is plain, and it makes plain the path of Democrats. If our party will ignore the | rainbows that allured Democrats away I from principle, and will get back to the old low tariff doctrines of dozen years ago. one of two results must follow. The Republicans will be forced to defend the present law or they must abandon 1t and. partially at least, come over to the Dem ocrats. Either course would weaken our | opponents. and might divide them. It is the road to Democratic success and it is
 the way to give relief to the great body
 of the American people. watch your opportunity" said old Pittacus. and il
 was maixm of Piiny that opportunities
 lost can never be regained."
 Both these maxims are appropriate and timely If the Republicans show that they
 intend to adhere to the present ruinous
 and unjust system they will be compelled
 to fight on the defensive all the time. and
 if they abandon that system they must
 come over to the policy of the Demo- | crats. We can best them in either case
 if we so at 1t in the right way. and that way is not difficult to find. The Demo
 cratic party must do some forgetting as well as some remembering. It must for
 get 1896 and 1900. and 1t must remember the platforms of other days which were
 both Democratic and right Is there
 enough patriotism and devotion among Democrats to accomplish what is fairly possible?