Iron County register., 1905-06-15
THAT OHIO PLATFORM.
More Interesting for What It Does
Not Say Than What It
Does Say.


When one does not know just what
to say, one may either keep silence al
together or use a great many words
tnat mean nothing. The republicans of
Ohio seem to have taken refuge in beta
these devices. In their platform.
adopted recently, they say nothing Of
the Panama purchases or of the rail-
road rate question, and for the res.
they fail back on the old and familiar
Ilatitudes. We are informed, says tie
indianapolis News Qnd.), that the
country has been prosperous; that this
prosperity is due to republican ad-
ministration and much more of the
same sort, all of which is interesting,
though hardly vital. 1t seems to Us
that there is a certain reserve in the
Endorsement of the president The cor
vention declares that by the great plu-
rality given to the president "Ohio OBJ
ligated he1 citizens to sustain him and
the republican congress chosen to CO.
operate with him in carrying into effect
the pledges and promises of the repub-
lican platform upon which they were
elected" Thus the president is re-
mitted to the platform of last year, and
Endorsed along with that very congress
with which he may find himself In
conflict at no distant day. The real
question is whether the Ohio republic
ans will stand with the president or
with the senate. They prudently say
that they will stand with both of them
So the corner is turned. On the rail
road question we have this eminently
safe statement:
President Roosevelt's comprehen-
sive enforcement of the republican
laws against monopolies. combines and
trusts in restraint of trade-laws
whose validity the supreme court of
Che United States has sustained-has
our hearty encouragement and support.
We also indorse every effort for the
active enforcement of existing laws
to stop all unjust determinations and
special favors in the form of rebates or
any other device, and we favor such
further legislation on that subject,
with adequate penalties, as may, after
full Investigation, seem to the repub-
lican congress and administration wise
and conservative, yet adequate to pre-
vent unfair advantage to any, and to
promote and insure the rights of all
individuals, interests and localities"
This is so obviously dodge that IL
tC mot ShrauH What ha ,&r1-
wanted to know was what the Ohio re-
publicGns thought of the proposition to
Increase the powers of the interstate
commerce commission, and to fix and
regulate railroad rates.
The tariff question is treated in the
same way The most important event
of recent years is the announcement
of the president that the Panama canal
commission will buy what 1t needs at
the lowest price it can get without
reference to the tariff On the very
day that the Ohio platform was adopt
ed, Senator Scott, of West Virginia,
managed to say very clearly what he
thought of the presidential polcy-and
he does not think well of it. But the
Ohio republicans simply reaffirm the
platforms of last year and declare that
they "stand by the principles of pro
lection to American labor and Ameri-
can industries" So does the president
stand by those principles-and yet
! there is the Panama order.
Such are some of the evasions of this
n 1ot ThDH- fIn ,t
tant things in it. We have another
evasion in the declaration that "the
American navy should be made and
kept equal to every need''-which is
the same thing as saying that a mans
hat should be neither too small nor
too large for his head. A word is
spoken for the building up of our mer-
chant marine, but even this is not
clear The most outspoken declaration
is that on the constitutional amend
ments, which is followed by anotlnr,
concerning the sacredness of the bal
lot There must, it is said, be no "un.
lust discrimination, based directly or
Indirectly on race. color or previous
condition" OF course it did not re-
1uire much courage for an Ohio repuh.
'ican convention to say that.
The rest of the platform is devoted-
mostly to state issues. The suggestion
If Secretary Taft that Ohio should
have civil service reform law is ig-
nored, as might have been expected. A
salary law and revision and strength
oft
AS a whole, the platform is more IN
teresting for what is does not than for
what it does say.