New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-28
ORATOR PUFF ABROAD.

According to The Tribune's London
dispatches our New Jersey Orator Pun
has got the newspapers Of that city by
the ears. Not approaching the eclectic
character Of his thought. or realizing
that a public man can hold two dia-
metrically opposite views on the same
question at the same moment, they have
engaged in a controversy over the tariff
policy Of the Democratic candidate for
| President. in which each side has been
I able to prove It's case TO the complete
/ discontinue Of the other. Both sides
have won and both have lost, and
neither group Of contrOversialists now
knows exactly what 10 think Of the po-
litical genius whose utterances one day
are available TO cheer British advO-
Gates of free trade and on another day
are equally serviceable in comforting
British advocates Of protection.
"The London Daily Express has
been trying to prove that Governor
Wilson thoroughly understands the
folly Of trying to upset American trade
and industry by carrying into practice
the declaration Of the Democratic ma
| tiOnal platform that all duties levied
for protective purposes are uncOnstitu-
| tiOnal II has been able to quote with
effect some Of Orator Puff's assurances
to workingmen in industrial communi-
| ties, and on Thursday ii triumphantly
reproduced that part Of Governor Will
sons Hartford speech to which The
Tribune gave some attention yesterday.
The passage is worth repeating:
Democrats Il mean simon pure
Democrats who always vote the Demo-
cratic ticket-constitute nearly one
half Of the voters Of this country. They
are engaged in all sorts of enterprises,
big and little There isn't a walk Of
life or a kind Of occupation in which
YOU won't find them and as a Phila-
delphia paper very Wittily said the
other day. they can't commit economic
murder without committing economic
suicide. DO you suppose, therefore,
that half Of the population of the
United States or something of that kind
is going about to destroy the very
foundations OF our economic life by sim
ply running amuck amid the schedules
Of the tariff?
"The London Express" says that the
foregoing passage gives "the lie direct"
to the assertions Of The Daily News"
and 1.-The Daily Chronicle" that Gov
ernor Wilson, If elected, will try to put
the United States on an enlightened
free trade basis. Under ordinary cir
cumstances THE EXPRESSES" argument
would be conclusive. But our Orator
Puff rises superior to ordinary circum-
stances. He is law unto himself, and
is likely next week, especially If the
promoters Of the Tariff Chamber of
Horrors get hold of him, to make an
other dellyerance in which he will con
tend that protective duties Of any sort
are a positive injury to every man,
woman and child in the United States
and should be abolished in the interest
Of common sense and economic justice.
1t is not yet safe for 1.-The Express"
to crow. Its free trade antagonists
wisely ignored the Hartford speech.
But their day will come again as soon
as the Governors gyrostatic apparatus
gets to working in some locality where
protected Industries are not yet well
established. Then they will lie able to
show how the Democratic nominee