The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-06

party whose only sacred precept Is the
Sshibboleth which maketh them known,
one of them to the other; a shibboleth
drawn from the gamblers table; stand
pat" a prophet born of cowardice and
fear to move.
Mr.. Williams took up the repub-
lican platform, which, in speaking of
the access of the republican party to
power after Mr.. Cleveland's second
administration had expired, used this
language:
we then found the country, after four
years of democratic rule, in evil plight.
oppressed with misfortunes and doubt
ful of the future Public credit mad peen
lowered revenues were declining, the
debt was growing, the administrations
attitude toward Spain was feeble and
rnortifying, it's standard Of values was
threatened and uncertain. Labor was un-
employed. Business was sunk IN the de-
preston that succeeded the panic of 1898.
Hope was faint and confidence was gone.
Paraphrased Republicans.
The speaker paraphrased in great
detail applying the paragraph to the
Harrison administration and the con-
ditions when Cleveland succeeded to
the presidency in 1898. Going from
the repeal of the Sherman purchas-
ing act, which repeal he termed
nostrum applied to the panlcky con-
ditions Of the time, Mr.. Williams de-
clared the gold basis was established
by the democrats, aided by repub-
ican legislators who thought they
saw in it the final disruption of the
democratic party" He traced the rise
In wheat prices, which, he declared,
elected Mckinley. He went on:
A greater falsehood was never urtereu
than that wheat, or anything else, went
up because MI. Mckinley was elected.
Let the republican party beware and let
all men who love their country beware
of carrying this doctrine OF government
created prosperity any further. IT the
idea Is once firmly imbedded IN the human
mind there will be no saving it's teachers
from the wrath to come--state socialism.
Antitrust Plank.
Let us see what the republicans have
to say for themselves In connection with
the great trust question. This Is the IAN
guage Of the platform: Laws enacted
by the republican party and which the
democratic party had failed to enforce
have been fearlessly enforced
What has the republican party done
in this regard? One Of the chairmen
of the republican convention Il have
forgotten whether 1t was the temporary
or permanent chairman) says 1t has en-
Joined the beef trust. We would not have
known 1t if somebody had not told US.
The injunction does not seem to have
any practical effect upon the beef trust
think it the permanent chairman
Of the, republican convention who said
that the democrats killed trusts with wind
and the republicans with law. Where
are the corpses? There Is but one that
I know of. and it properly belongs to
Governor Van SAINT. 1t is the spoil of
his sword and his spear.
Tariff Matters.
I read from the republican platform
again: Tariff rates should be readjusted
only when conditions have so changed
that the public interest demands their
alteration"
E"Public interest" in this connection
considering the voice which has uttered
the words, is good Public interest, y
from the man who wrote 1t and the
convention which adopted 1t, really means
protected interests.
How can public interest demand the
alteration? How can it make the demand
heard? There is only one way that
know of to make a demand Of that sort
heard, and that is to vote down the mer
who say that all Is well enough and thai
the gospel of humanity as far as the
tariff Is concerned, is all included in the
phrase, "stand pat.
Will any sane man say that Ameri
can public interest has not already de
manded some alterations" in the tariff
The trouble is and will be as long as the
republicans are in, power that private in
terests won't allow any.
n The curious thing about man who i
obtaining benefit by special legislation j!
that he insists upon playing two antago
nistic roles. One day he Is an industrial
baron boasting of having conquered tn,
markets Of the world and of being abb,
to keep them, because his goods are bet
ter or cheaper The next day he i
knocking at the doors of the committee
rooms Of the national legislature begging
tiy,,,, - tn,,o ojy,Sf :,
pauper labor of the very market in whicl
he actually sells his goods. What sor
of condition is it that will justify pub
lie interest in demanding an alteration?
Suggests a Plank. ....
Suppose the following plank had bee
presented to the republican convention
does anybody believe that it would hav
been adopted? namely: Demanding
reduction of tariff taxation upon trust
produced articles to the point where for
eign competition may enter the America
market whenever trusts and combine
seeking a monopoly had raised their price
to the American consumer above a jus
and reasonable profit, thus using Ameri
can law as shelter to protect them |
extortion upon the American people Will
they charge them prices higher than thos
charged foreigners for Identical articles.
Suppose that an actual condition of tina
sort had been shown, as it has beer
would anybody advocating anything
have indicated with a view to meetin
that condition have obtained any hearin
from that convention? ~
Elective Franchise.
With regard to the republican plat
FORMS plan for congressional actio
to determine whether, by special dis
elimination, the elective franchise
any state has been unconstitutional
limited, Mr.. Williams made the chare
of duplicity. He said:
Whether or not the suffrage has bee
'unconstitutionally limited" is a mate
for the courts to determine, and a repo
of a republican committee on elections
the last congress SO confesses 1t. If
man be .unconstitutionally" denied tt
suffrage, then, after a determination
that effect he can vote-that is his rem
edy and the right remedy. Having vote
of course, there could be no reduction
representation on this account. But g
this deceives nobody. The real object
the republican party Is to reduce southel
representation, without reducing that
Massachusetts, Connecticut and 9th
states.
Mr.. Williams predicts that this r,
publican plan will serve to unsett
n business generally and disturb affai
inathe south. He calls it the "ente
ing wedge to a new period of southe1
reconstruction"
What Democrats VIII Do.