Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-07-23
Party issues In zoos.

AAFts ISSUES IN AoVSs
Mr.. Bryan is perhaps right in his
forecast that the tariff, though always
an Important issue, will not be the
paramount issue between the Demo
cratic and Republican parties in the
election of President and Congress
next year.
1t is probable that on this question
the Republican party will shift its posi-
ton close to the .ound always held by
the Democratic party. The Republi-
cans will certainly declare for the priD-
ciple of tariff protection, and they may
be expected to add to this declaration
q promise to revise the Dingley act in
the interest of the masses. The angry
protests against the robberies of the
Dingley act that are coming from the
rank and file of Republican voters seem
TO make some such concession impera-
tive
BY all traditions of the party the
Democratic platform will declare for
revenue tariff, and 1t will be wise
to add the recommendation that the
sources of tariff revenue be chosen
with a view to giving fair and adequate
incidental protection to American IN
dustries and to the people employed In
them. II might be we'll to go further
and add a proviso that any Industrial
product that is monopolized by trust,
or unlawful combination in restraint
fhka f~cA<N Cf
the combination is dissolved.
But barring some such proviso as
that last named there is not likely to
be the clear-cut line Of division be-
tween the tariff planks of the two par
ties that has existed in former con-
tests The Democratic principle of rea-
sonable and moderate tariff schedules
is proven so eminently correct by the
| logic of Republican tariff robbery that
the Republicans will be forced to give
1t recognition in their declarations of
next year.
President Roosevelt's Democratic
policies. for the regulation of Interstate
railroads and great corporations en-
gagged in interstate trade have proven
so popular with the Republican masses
that the Republican convention of next
year cannot escape giving them the
strongest kind of Endorsement, with an
unequivocal promise to continue them.
! The series of trust prosecutions
which the administration is preparing
to push, from now until the elections
Of next year, will still further commit
the Republican party to the Democratic
principle Of defending the rights Of the
many against the aggressions of the
few. So there seems little prospect
of sharp divisions in the platforms of
the two parties on these important is
sues. The great difference will be that
the Democrats will be sincere in their
promises, while scores of the most
| powerful leaders in the Republican
party will reluctantly consent to these
Democratic principles with the secret
purpose of betraying them.
A year in advance of the meeting of
| the national conventions it seems prob
able that the deepest and the broadest
| lines of division in next years contest
will relate to the preservation of the
rights of the States against the dan
gerous aggressions with which the Re
publican party threatens them, to the
reckless extravaganza with which the
| peoples money has been voted away,
to the bold usurpations Of legislative
! powers by the Executive and to the
! frightful expense of our imperialistic
insular policy.
The supreme issues on which the
Democrats next year should take their
flrmest stand will be for defense Of the
constitutional rights of the States, for
preservation Of the system of govern
ment under which this country has
grown to be the greatest in all history,
and to check the tendencies which
would make of the President an execu-
| tive as autOcratic as the Gar.