Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — CAN’T DODGE THE ISSUE. [ARTICLE]

CAN’T DODGE THE ISSUE.

The Democrats Mast to.tbe Scratch on the Tariff. It is all very well for the democrats to beguile the hours with speculation on finance, but they need not flatter themselves that the campaign is to be fought on any monetary issue. On the contrary, thfe one thing the people of this country are fully determined upon and propone to keep steadily in mind is the restoration of industrial prosperity. The tariff overshadows every thing else, and wilThold its own at the front. The democrats would like nothing so well as to shift the line of battle, but they cannot do it- The people won’t haye it. Four years ago the democrats declared; “We denounce the repobl lean system of protection as a fraud, a robbery of the great mass of American people for the benefit of the few,” and the great mass of the American people responded by the vernacular of the ballot: "That is so.” Since then they have changed their minds. They have come to the conclusion that the republican system of protection, so far from being a fraud and a robery, is their especial friend and benefactor. This is a conviction, a sentiment, and a purpose, a trinity which will not be put asidb by any other consideration jess practicable. Experience has demonstrated to the American people that they robbed themselves by falling victims .to the democratic fraud of free trade. They will allow nothing to come between them and the utter overthrow of the party which led them to be their own worst enemy. Mr. Cleveland is by no means alone Tn his effort to divert attention from the tariff. Wherever democrate discuss the political situation they are dumb as oysters about the tariff, ahd seem to be thinking of nothing but gold or silver. This is equally true of the Olney boomers in Boston, and of Senator Jones, of Arkansas, at Little Reck. However they may differ on finance and however ready they may be to discuss the difference, they are all perfectly agreed in the policy of ignoring the tariff. But the tariff will not ignore them. Our butchered industrial prosperity is not to be downed. The truth is, the American people have at last satisfied themselves that it is preposterous and ruinous folly for them to pursue a policy which puts out the fires Of domestic industry, and if the democratic party wants to stand in line again for public favor it must accept this decision as a finality. Perhaps it will, but mere evasion will not atone for the desolation actually wrought, and still going on. —Chicago Inter Ocean.L.:-