Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-14
WEDNESDAY EVENING,

cratic editor will again point with
pride" to the fact that the President
has kept us out of war; - because
Germany wasn't in position to take
up the glove he threw down - and
hopping rapidly to the subject of ma
tional preparedness, lest this flirting
with pacificism be frowned upon in
that quarter-our friend will praise in
no faint-hearted fashion the admins
tration's army and navy bills. OF
course, he will ignore the fact that the
army law is inadequate and that the
navy measure is a joke, and he won't
discuss at any length the foolish policy
OF the Wilson crowd in building an
eleven million dollar armor plate plant
when the Bethlehem Steel Company
has offered to make plate for the gov
ernment at it's own figure, but then,
Democratic platform criticisms must
not be expected to go off the party
reservations, so what would you have?
To be sure, the emasculated Bryan
resolutions on peace and prohibition
may prove stumbling blocks and who
shall say what a Democratic editor
will write by way of a comment on a
suffrage plank in a community where
suffrage may be unpopular. But when
he gets down to the tariff our friend
will be right at home. He will re-
member that four years ago the
Democrats were crying for a reduc-
ton on duties and promising to lower
the high cost of living" If they were
permitted to enact their kind of
tariff law. He will be able to tell his
readers in feeling terms of the Won
derful success of the Underwood
measure, how it has reduced the price
of meats about ten cents upward
pound, how sugar has fallen from five
tt nine-and-one-half cents a pound
and how the new tariff has cut down
the grocery bills and household bills
in general by adding about twenty
five per cent. to all kind of living ex-
penses. Here is where our Democratic
friend will be able to rise to the
heights of eloquence. And then he
can turn to the virtues of the war
stamp" tax levied by the Democrats to
have been brought in by their admir-
able tariff law. There may be those
who will wonder why, if the Under
wood law is such a remarkable sue
cess, the platform calls for a.
tariff commission, but you will never
gather the fact from our Democratic
editor that the tariff commission idea
is o sop to those Democrats who are
crying loudly, with millions of Re-
publicans, for a return to the sanity
of protection for American industries
and American workmen. No, indeed,
that's not his job. A tariff commits
sion is designed to take the tariff out
of politics, he will tell you, just as
President Wilson wishes - which is
why. we suppose. the President
kicked out of Office first thing when
he went in the only tariff commits
sion the country ever had
OF course, he will add his need of
praise to the administration ship pur-
chase bill which up to this time the
President has been unable TO shove
down the throat of protesting
Democratic Congress, but which the
will swallow at a gulp, but
he won't say a word about the ship
ping bill which has forced every
American-controlled ship off the
Pacific ocean and sold us out to the
Japanese. And that economy plank
what grand thing it is to have the
party think of economy just now after
a Democratic Congress has spent
millions upon millions more than any
previous Congress ever did. Every
body must admit that the economy
plank is timely, indeed.
Altogether it will be a mastery
document, brimming over with
and pork, peace and per-
haps s-preparedness, onomy and
promises to expend millions on almost
anything that will catch votes. 1t will !
strike the keynote of popular favor,
like a chapter front Joe Millers Joke |
Book, and will go ringing down the
corridors of time a matchless pre-
of Democratic hopes and
hobbies and the forerunner of Demo-
cratic despair.