Hill's Platform

In his speech accepting the nomination for governor of the Empire state, thrust upon him against his will by an admiring constituency, Senator Hill formulated a platform upon which he said he would confidently appeal to the plain people of the state who had always sustained him in the past when he espoused their cause. In epigrammatic statement it is unique. It is broad and liberal. It contains the quintessence of democracy. It surpasses the most labored efforts of the professional platform makers and is as follows: I shall present to the people the issue of democracy versus plutocracy; the issue of no public taxation except fo public purposes ; the issue of opposi . tiou to centralizaron of all powers in the General Government; the issue of personal liberty and against religious intolerance, the issue of good government, liberal and just excise laws, economy in public expenditures, the promotion of the dignity of labor and protection of its rights, municipal home rule and the uprooting of corruption and the correction of abuses everywhere, whether in republican or democratie localities. There is no better democracy than this. It remains to be seen whether the senator can be elected on this platform. That he will make one of the most aggressive campaigns on record there is no question. He will cali up all,of his wonderful energy and ability as a campaigner, and that is much, to win success, and under the circumstances he should receive the support of all democrats. Whatever criticisms he may have merited and received at the hands of his fellowpartisans for past acts, his present attitude is in line of the people's cause and of true democracy. He stands where he does not to gratify any ambition of his own, but in spite of himself, and by the imperative summons of his party. By no act or desire of his own is he bear ing the responsibilities of party leadership in the present crisis of the New York democracy. He did not seek this leadership, he struggled against it, but it was thrast up on him, as such leadership in times past, at critical periods was forced upon Seymour, Marcy, Tilden, and others. Under the present circum" stances democratie principies are at stake, and no antagonism toward the man who heads the ticket should be allowed to obscure the real issue. The real issue is the overthrow of the outrageously partisan republican apportionment by which they hope to intrench themselves at Albany for the ten years to come, thereby turning backward, in all probabil ity, the reform movement in the nation. No new honor is conferred upon Hill by this nomination, but it compels him, for the party's sake, to stake his political future on desperate chances. Then the defeat of Hill would accomplish nothing in the way of better government for the state. The defeat of Hill means the election of Mr. Morton, whose nomination was dictated by Boss Platt, the king of spoilsmen, backed by the worst element in the republican party. There is nothing in the situation that need require any self-respecting democrat to bolt his ticket. The duty of each would seem to be plain, therefore. He should vote against the common enemy of his party.