Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1892 — A “Keynote” of Misrepresentation. [ARTICLE]

A “Keynote” of Misrepresentation.

Speaking of the proceedings of the Chicago convention in regal'd to the tariff, Senator Hale says: All incidental protection of the American laborer in his competition with unpaid and pauper labor abroad, all recognition of great industries built up under the protective system, were ruthlessly tossed aside and kicked out of the presence of the convention by the Democratic party there assembled. And President Harrison, the chosen leader of the Republican party, in his letter to the New York League of Republican clubs writes in the same strain, thus: The majority report seemed to recognize that some regard might be had in the tariff legislation of the interests of our American workingmen; that in making the tariff reductions injury to our domestic industries should be avoided, and that such changes should be regardful of labor and capital connected therewith. All of these declarations were stricken out by an overwhelming vote of the convention, atad the resolutions adopted must, in the light of this vote, it seems to me, be construed to be an affirmative declaration that Democratic legislation upon the tariff will be without any regard to its effect upon the wages of American workingmen, and without any thought of its destructive effect upon American industries. This gross misrepresentation and perversion of the meaning of the proceedings and final declaration of the Democratic convention may be accepted as the Republican “keynote.” Senator Hale states the truth when he says: “The platform originally suggested contained a distinct reference to the difference between labor in this country and abroad *as a factor in making up tariff legislation.” But it is not true that when they “kicked out” this reference the Democrats showed the least indifference to the interests of American laborers. The truth is they showed the highest reg;trd for the interests of labor by kicking out the utterly false assumption and pretense that the so-called protective tariff protects or in any way benefits ■American workingmen as a class to the smallest extent. They manifested the highest regard for the true interests of workingmen by kicking out a sophistical assumption that has been used for many years to delude them into the support of a system which has filched from their earnings an aggregate of many hundreds of millions of dollars. The Democrats have boldly expoused the cause of workingmen by kicking out the doctrine of greedy imposters that laborers can be benefited by taxes of any kind. The Democratic party rejects with Contempt the pretense put forward to hood-wink workingmen that labor is better rewarded in this country than elsewhere because of the tariff. It denounces the Republican tariff as a fraud, the whole purpose and effect of which is to invest the few with authority and power to rob the many and to fatten. their bank accounts under shelter of law out of the earnings of the toiler. It denies without qualification that the substitution of a tariff for revenue only for a tariff for spoliation mainly would be disastrous to a single industry that ought to survive and it denies emphatically that any industry ought to survive which . can not stand on its own legs and which must fall unless borne, a heavy burden, cn the shoulders of industries which must stand alone or not stand at all. The Democratic party will not permit itself to be placed in a false position before the workingmen of this country nor before their employers. It stands on the solid ground of truth and honesty and will defend its position against all comers.—Chicago Herald.