Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-01-08
!, The OIney Platform.

Richard Olney, the New Englan,
candidate for the democratic presi
dental nomination thus defined Ger
tain things of vital consequence
which the democratic party must ant
will stand for, at the meeting and dir
ner of democratic leaders at New Yorl
Monday night:
"In matters of foreign policy, the
democratic party will stand for inter-
national morality and decent interna-
tional conduct; for observance OF
treaties and obedience to international
law; for respect for the rights of every
nation, however small; for the refusal
to take by stealth or by robbery what
we have no right to get except by con-
sent of the owner; for continuing our
traditional role as the defender of the
weaker states of this hemisphere, in
stead of becoming their spoliator; for
minding our own business generally,
without meddling with the internal
affairs of foreign countries, and with
out making rumors and trivial events
the pretexts for military demonstra
tions in foreign ports.
In matters domestic, the democratic
party will repudiate the stand pat"
policy and will advocate both econ
omy in expenditures and such tariff
reform and revision as industrial con-
ditions and the interests of the coun-
try at large demand. In that view, il
will stand for reasonable relation be-
tween governmental revenues and
governmental requirements: for clean
administration and official conduct,
free from every suspicion of graft;
for amendments of existing tariff
schedules in the interests of the coun-
try at large, and not in that of special
syndicates or favored industries for
such access to foreign markets, by
tariff adjustments or reciprocity trea-
ties as will enable American produc
ers to dispose of their surplus prod
ucts; for taking from the so-called
trusts" that kind and degree of pro-
lection which enables them both to
monopolize the home market and to
sell to the foreign consumer at prices
greatly below those made to the do
nestle consumer.
In other matters vitality affecting
the democratic party will first of all
stand for a pacific instead of a militant
republic; for appeal to the last resort
Of kings only in legitimate self-de |
Tense and not for criminal aggression;
for an army and fleet commensurate I
with actual needs, but not used either |
as playthings or to bully the weak or |
provoke the strong; in short, for the I
things that make for peace and not for
war
"The democratic party will also
stand for the supremacy of law; for
law for nations no less than for indi-
viduals; for law for the greatest as not
exempted from it's power, and for the
very least as feeling it's care; for law
Tor capitalists and law for wage earn
ers for law for presidents and cabi-
nets as well as for the humblest of pri-
waite citizens"
Mr.. Olney said that after two presi-
Dental terms of "feverish stress aid
beginning with a needless
war with Cuba and eliminating in a
flagrantly wanton war upon Colom-
bia," returning reason and sobriety are
themselves in this nation
and the change is needed and most
welcome. He pointed out the oppor-
tunity of the democratic party as the 4
instrument for restoring the national !
life to sane and normal conditions and
closed his speech with a glowing
ribute to the man who, he said, is
most thoroughly representative of the =
policies indicated in his platform and =
most capable of carrying them out L
Grover Cleveland. q
The democratic party is determined g
o keep fast hold of Grover Cleveland V
8 a possible presidential candidate. p
lie is it's strongest man and, although te
e has definitely withdrawn from the a.
st, he might be induced to come for Ct
7ard, at the eleventh hour, popular II
upport of any of the varied and bril- al
ant array of other candidates falling al
8 yet, the party is unable to decide W
hitch of its available men will best IT
leet the needs of the party-and, Incl l.
entally, Of the country.
But Mr. Olney, in thus completing n,
Is platform word picture. did not at da
] injure his own chances. Whether ar
4 honest expression or mere orator III
al pose, it was fine bit of work. "T