Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1904-08-25
A LOST OPPORTUNITY
HOW DEMOCRATS MISSED BEING SANE
AND CONSERVATIVE.

| william Jennings Bryan Forced Up
on the Democratic Party the Plat
form Declaration to the Effect That
All Protection Is Robbery.
1t is refreshing in these days of par
tisan radicalism to encounter so calm,
so sane and SO intelligent an expression
on subject of high Importance as the
following from the Brooklyn Eagle, an
Independent newspaper Of Democratic
proclivities:
"The Bryan substitute for the Will
| liams draft begins with a characteris-
tic Organism. At this writing the full
| text of it has not come from St Louis,
but it is described as declaring that
all protection is robbery. This is
proposition with which the country
may take issue. 1t is undoubtedly
proposition from which the voters may
withhold the seal of their Endorsement.
| They do not regard protection as rob-
berry. The rank and file of Republic
ans and many more Democrats than
can be counted regard the schedules,
with all their infirmities, as a shield.
Prices paid for labor in Europe are
| such as are suggestive of pauperlsm
here. The difference is Il sort OF credit
balance in favor of the American ar
tisan. 1t is Il balance he is more than
disposed TO keep on the right side of
his ledger. To ask him to vote 1t out
t.. it,xsi ifn n
his own worst enemy
1t was the Bryan substitute which
went through, while the far more mod
crate and guarded draft of John Sharp
| Williams was voted down in the COM
mittee on resolutions. Bryan was IN
the saddle so far as concerned the form
of declaration to be used or not used
relative to vital questions. The Ne
braska malcontent could not control the
presidential nomination either affirma-
lively or negatively, but he could and
did bar the way to the recognition Of
the gold standard as an accomplished
fact, and he could and did compel the
adoption of a tariff plank whose rabid
folly of denouncing protection as
felony must offend many Democrats
and alarm many Republicans who
might otherwise have been favorably
disposed toward tariff revision at the
hands of the Democratic party 1t was
the blind Samson pulling down the
stones of the temple on the heads OF
the Philistines. Bryan could not rule
the convention but he could ruin the
chance of the Democracy to regain pub
lie confidence.
Barring few fanatical free traders
the delegates to the st. Louis conycn
ton know now, and knew when they
voted to adopt Bryan's tariff plank, that
they were voting to adopt lie. They
know perfectly well that protection Is
not robbery and that it is not so re
garded by nineteen-twentieths of the
American people The Eagle well says
"They know what robbery means
They know that the policy of protec
ton is legitimate, even though there
are instances in which it is pushed t.
extremes They know that the only
free trade country in the world is be
coming restive under the system anC
may invoke Il change. And they know
that under the existing tariff this coun
try has broken all industrial records
Commerce in this country is not rob
berry. 1t is giving an excellent accoun
of itself in competition with countrie:
which would asi; .atE,ng G"stI' thav
an opportunity TO underscll the Amer
can producer in his own market"
To SLY that protection is robbery j.
: to say that protection is n felony, an il
famous crime against society and t
say this is To insult the intelligence O
close on 20,000000 voters, who, though
some of them may object to that polio.
for one reason or another, know perfect
ly well that protection is not robbery
The Democratic party has simply los
one more opportunity. TO be sane, safe
reasonable and decent on the tariff ques
ton.