Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-11
on REPUBLICAN, GRorND.

With u Difference to the fatuity
that has marked It for so many years,
the democratic party Is today occupying
ground over which the republican
party passed four years ago. In its
platform declarations, as promulgated
from Fairview, by way of Denver, the
opposition party gives splendid en-
dorsement to republican achievement,
under the pretext of raising new issues.
On the tariff the Bryanite plat
form demands revision. The platform
adopted at Chicago pledges the repub-
lican party to accomplish revision. All
the tariff laws for forty years, save
one, have been Of republican origin.
That one was passed by a congress con-
trolled by the democrats, and was de-
nounced by the then democratic pres
ident as a miserable makeshift and a
disgraceful surrender OF party integ-
rity. Mr.. Bryan was a member of the
committee that drafted the Wilson bill,
and as such came in for a full share
of the condemnation visited by Grover
Cleveland on the committee and the
congress alike for failure to enact a
democratic tariff bill. The disaster
that overwhelmed the country as a re-
suit of the Wilson bill is too fresh in
the minds of business men, manu-
facturers and workingmen alike to
make 1t at all likely that Mr.. Bryan
will again be entrusted with the work
of revising the tariff.
On the railroad question, the recent
legislation of the republican party Is
endorsed most enthusiastically. The
Fairview-Denver platform gives full
tongue to the theories of the radicals
who have abandoned their demand for
government ownership in favor OF
something they said was impracticabie.
In this, also, the accomplishment Of
the republican party is made the ex-
cuse for a platitudinous plea in avoid
ance by democracy.
Free silver and fiat currency make
way for government guaranty for bank
deposits. The precedent for this must
be looked for in the Ocala platform,
now forgotten, which had for It's CEN
~ter-piece the ~subtreasury that was to
issue notes against deposits of farm
produce. In lieu of the government
guaranteed bank, the postal savings
bank is commended. But the repub-
lican idea of a postal savings bank is
specifically condemned.
On the income tax President Roose-
welt is endorsed, and, as Mr.. Taft is
especially condemned for representing
the Roosevelt policy, 1t may be said
that the platform endorses Taft in this
particular. The anti-injunction plank
is composed of many words, and
vaguely refers the inquirer to the re-
iected plank of 1896. The republican
policy OF building up an adequate navy
is also endorsed, as we'll as the repub-
lican policy of conserving the natural
of the country. But, with
the p~urblindness of its devotion to
state sovereignty, the democratic party
In favor Of state control of
public domain and forest reserves. In
fact, state sovereignty Is still the dem
ocratic s~hibboleth and is made the para
mount feature of its every platform
utterance.
On nearly every vital issue the plat
form endorses the policy or achieve
ment OF the republican party. On i'm
material points it recurs to past ex-
pressions and reatirms its opposition
TO what has been enacted into law or
achieved under executive administra-
ton. Briefly, the democratic party pur-
sues its tradition and camps today on
ground that has been covered by the
republicans, while presenting its dis
organized opposition TO every positive
reform proposed by the recognized
party of progress.