Morris tribune., 1909-07-10
CRITICIZES JOHNSON.
Platform Obligations Upheld
by Bryan, in Commoner.


are as printed in the Commoner:
"The Commoner has on many oc
casions insisted upon the binding
force of platform, and is not dis
posed to surrender its position. upon
that subject. The Democrats OF
Minnesota met in state convention in
August, 1908, and adopted platform
in which the following plank appear
ed:
"We would call the attention of the
voters of this state to the fact that
there will be pending before them at
| the next election, an amendment to
the constitution dealing with the sub
| ject of taxation. That this amend
ment will open the way for the pas
sage of tonnage tax on iron ore and
that the steel trust is at this time try
ing to have declared invalid similar
amendment voted upon and carried
at the last election. We recommend
the adoption of such an amendment,
to the end that these interests may be
required to bear their just share of
public burdens"
"In message sent to the legisla-
ture during his former term, Cover
nor Johnson complained of the in
adequacy of existing methods of tax
alton and said:
"The State of Minnesota, which
holds the resources, and has yielded
these magnificent incomes to few
private and corporate interests, is
the only party who receives only a
beggarly income"
"The tax commission, created by
the legislature and appointed by the
governor, made report in favor of
the tonnage tax, and the legislature
passed bill providing for tonnage
tax. 1t was the veto of this bill by
Governor Johnson that has raised the
discussion.
"In his veto message he presents
his reasons for vetoing the tonnage
tax bill. If the tonnage tax was
wrong, it ought not to have been en-
dorsed in the democratic platform.
If the governor believed the tonnage
tax wrong, he ought to have re-
pudiated the plank of the platform
Immediately; if he intended to veto
such bill, he ought to have announ-
ced such intention, SO that the voters
could have been informed upon the
subject and taken it into consideration
in deciding how to vote. A platform
is the nature of contract between
the public and official, and the official
is not at liberty to rescind the contract
after the voters have ratified it.
"Even if Governor Johnson thought
the tonnage tax unconstitutional, he
ought to have left the matter to the
supreme court. A majority of the
legislature seemed to think it con-
stitutional, and the governor ought
to have given the benefit of the doubt
to the legislature, especially as the
legislature acted in accordance with
the democratic platform. If the
governor had signed the bill, the peo-
pie taxed by it would have had their
protection because the supreme court
would have decided upon the que. ton
OF constitutionality, but when the
governor vetoed the bill the people
who believed the law just had no
court to appeal to because the ques-
ton of constitutionaIity could not
then be raised.
"The governors veto was not ne
cessary therefore to protect those
who opposed the bill, but his sigma
ture was necessary to carry out the
ideas of those who favored the bill.
eff a democratic official is convin-
ced after the election that the plat
form upon which he was elected is
unsopnd, he had better stand by it
and let the mistake be corrected at a
future time, then take the respon-
sibility of repudiating a contract en-
tered into with the voters.
.sIt has become quite common for
corporations to ridicule platforms,
and to justify the deception of the
public, the trusts have been guilty
of doing this in national politics as
well as in state politics, and the only
protection for the public is, first, to
compel the adoption of platforms re-
fecting the wishes of the voters,
and then to enforce respect for plat
forms. A platform which is not
binding is worse than useless-it is
means of deceiving the public. The
republican leaders at Washington
are now engaged in repudiating
their last national platform as con-
strued by western republicans, and
some of the democrats at Washing
k0r oro ronud;o%irD bo<b %ho Iaftor