The Issue

Already the Republican press is seeking to confuse the issues before the peopie of the state of Michigan iii the political campaign which is now upon us. Upon '.all national issues the Democrats stand squarely on the Chicago platform. But this is not to be a national campaign. Primarily it will be a state campaign. The issues which affect the people most are those which lie nearest home. The proper administration of the afrairs of a township or of a municipality is of more importance to the people thereof than the admlnistration of the affairs of the state. Likewise the affairs of the state are of more direct importance to us than Lhose more remote questions whieh deal with the country at large. The questions to be settled in üüs "off year" elecüon are oí interest only to the people of tliis state and should be settled upon theli merit as such without hiding be'imd the shield of questions which are not at issue and which will not be in any affeoted by the result of the coming election in Michigan. The Kalamazoo Telegraph says: ■ The Republicans of Michigan wi',1 not take issue with the fusionists on any oL the planks in the Grand Rapids platform relative to the var to equa! and just taxatíon and to corporate control. But the Republieans do take issue with the fusionists on the Chicago platform. An attempt was made tü cover up the Chicago platform beneath a lot oL state issues, but it will not work. Members of congress are to be elected not on state but on national issues; and in these elections, which are the most important this year, the people will clearly bear in mind that the fusior isis stand on the discredited Chicago platform. Governor Pingree and the entire Republican state ticket will be elected on the state questions precisely as they are outlined by the fusior ists. There being no dispute as to these questiüitó, the fusionists might just as well and bly will, many of them, vote for Pingree. But when it comes to members of congress, the voters will remember the first plank in the fusión state platform." And when it comes to members or congress, the level-headed voter will remember that they are not in it. We have a Republican president committed to the gold and bond policy of his party, who stands ready with his veto to kill off everything Democratie that comes his way, and should we elest twelve Democratie congressmen in Michigan this fall it would be of no avail unless a two-thirds majority is secured in both house and senate, -which contingency may be catalogued among the improbabilities. But the Telegraph says that the publican wlll not take issue with that portion of the Democratie platform which relates to státe matters. It was not expected that they would. They have been promising reforms along the unes oí the Democratie platform so long that the memory of man runneth not to the time when the flrst of these pramises was made. But in spite of their ancient character these RepubUcan promises rerr.ain to be fulflllecl and will so remain tntll a Democratie g.ivernment takes the management of tate affairs. The Republican convention may meet and resolve for equal and just taxatlon, or control of grasping corporations, for retrenchment and economy and a thousand and one other things which need reforming at Lansing. But the people will remember that it was an overwhelraingly Republican legislatura which defeated upon diract issue these very reforms at the last regular and special sessions of the legislature. "VVe can i-ely upon the unimpeached testimony of a Republiean governor to prove that the Republican has gone over to the trusts and eotporations body and breeches. Of course the Republicans of Michigan will not take issue wtth the Democrats upon these questions. They will endorse all that the Democrats have said, make a campaign on national issues, and then, if they return to the control of the state, continue in the future, as they have in the past, to Kill off under one pretext and another the reforms which they have endorsed.