New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-03-26
DENocRACYs lost CAUSE. "

Twenty years ago Mr.. Cleveland began his
war on the protective system by declaring: 1T
rs a condition, not a theory, which coDfronts
''us" To-day in inviting the Democratic party
to renew that war he insists on 1.-THE enunclation
"of a principle rather than the denunciatlon OF
"a condition" If the ex-President's second call
unto the breach had any present day relevance,
if it could awaken any genuine political I'M
pulses and passions, were addressed to q
party in the least willing to fill the wall up with
its dead in vindicatiOn of the theory that inter
national exchanges should be made free, 1t might
be accepted as politically as we'll as academIcally
significant If the Cleveland programme did
not come into head-on collision with so many
ifs-lf the policy Of dropping all other incon-
venient and disruptive issues could be forced on
the Democratic voters who are now misguidedly
wasting their energies denOuncing the trusts
and shouting for government ownership Of the
railroads; If Mr.. Bryan could be persuaded to
take a six years trip around the world and i'm
merse himself in anthropoIogy or the compare
tive study of religions; if Mr.. Hearst would
stop organizing Independence Leagues and other
offshoots Of JeffersOnianism and Lincolnism; If
Democratic national conventions were all as doc
lie as that Of 1904 and candidates guaranteed
safe and sane would only run a few hundred
feet second faster than ex-Judge Parker-in
tain philosophers would have them, might
be persuaded to think that Mr.. Cleveland had
discovered a means of salvation of no incon-
siderable promise to the weather beaten Democ-
racy.
But as things are the eI-President seems to
US to be talking In vocabulary more or less
unintelligible 10 the present generation. He as
sures the American public IN the midst of an
unparalleled period Of industrial and CONNER
cial progress, that the tariff under which this
expansion has occurred is responsible for the
domestic injustices OF which the voters are now
complaining-for freight rebates to favored shin
pers, for combinations In restraint of trans
portation and trade, for the watering OF stock
values, the abuse OF directorate powers. and
widespread laxity in the observance by corpora
tons Of their obligations TO the law and the
public. The people have the idea that 1t is
easier TO correct those evils directly by limiting
the powers OF corporations and extending the
legal safeguards against selfish and corrupt
manipulation Of our great public utilities. But
Mr.. Cleveland thinks there is better way than
the direct way. He would have us end our ills
by removing all protective taxes and letting the
United States take its chance. share and share
alike, with other nations in the riEalries Of in
dustry and commerce. We should then have
cheaper prices and lower wages, and with a.
the temptations to Overcapitalizatlon, specula-
ton and corporate Encouragement.
Twenty years ago the plea which Mr.. CIeve-
land now renews had still some political efficacy.
II rallied the South, which had striven from
1920 on to effect an untaxed exchange of its
slave labor products for the cheap labor manu-
features Of Europe 1t excited the West, too.
whose industry had not yet become diversified
and whose agricultural staples still had TO seek
In large measure the foreign market But to-
day, with the old sectional antagonlsm vanish
ing and the South and the West doing their
share in manufacturing, the tariff agitation Of
the SOS is out Of date. Most of the Demo
cratic leaders who count know that II is MORT
bund, and they will only smile at the suggestion
Of dropping the real issues Of the day and
pledging exclusive devotion to a pale memory Of
the past. The Democratic party is incapable of
agreeing on any logical and consistent pro
gramme. But it has not yet reached that stage
OF decadence at which 1t would be willing 10
Identify itself with a single Ossified "lost cause"