Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1892 — THE PRESENTCAMP AIGN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PRESENTCAMP AIGN

Mr. Cleveland in the process of boiMng his letter appears to have incW®ntally scalded several Republican editors.

A man can’t grow a good crop of chin whiskers now without a Republican declaring that it was due to the McKinley bill.

In order to be thoroughly efficacious, Mr. McKinley ought to go to England and develop there his plan for raising the wages of English workmen.

Indiana is lost to Harrison. The whole West is in doubt, and he can’t carry New York. This Is a bad year for Quay, Dudley, Platt, and the rest of the Placated.

Appeal-Avalanche: The platform of the People's party is that the (country is going to the deuce. It Is hardly necessary to add that the People’s party is going there too.

“Nearly the entire cost of every fabricated article, whether useful or ornamental, is labor cost,” says Mr. Ammonia Hartshorn. Why, then, don’t the protected manufacturers raise the wages of their workmen?

Four years ago Vermont gave (Harrison 29,000 majority. The majority for Governor in last week’s election is less than 19.000, which is much the smallest majority ever given in a Presidential year since the Republican party was organized.

Harrison is holding on to Raum. who is discredited, and to John W. Foster, who, discredited himself, has also discredited the Attorney General. And he is holding on because he can’t let go of them. But he will soon get help from the people—more than he wants of it.

No honorable soldier regrets that Mr. Cleveland vetoed fraudulent pension bills. To say that Mr. Harrison vetoes no pension bills is to charge him with participation in fraud. What veteran wants to be placed on a level with bounty jumpers and deserters, and men who never smelt powder?

Not so very long ajo Mr. Harrison met the Democrats’ proposition to reduce tariff taxation and cheapen prices with the sneer that “a cheap coat makes a cheap man.' He now claims that the great object of the Republican tariff policy was to cheapen prices. Evidently the President has added not only a cheap coat but a turn-coat to his wardrobe.

The announcement that Judge Gresham will vote for Cleveland will be worth many votes to the Democrats, especially in Indiana. Judge Gresham is a man whose purity of life and sincerity of convictions have given him a national influence. His sympathies are all with the people, and it is natural that he should join the party of the people, abandoning a party which has now come to look upon the people as its legitimate prey. . The Grand Old Party is just now waging a Salvation Army crusade against the “gerrymanders” in New York and Indiana. It is not making any efforts, however, to overthrow the gerrymanders in States like Ohio and Maine. In Maine the gerrymander is so unfair that while the Republicans havelosf a third of their plurality in the State they have increased their numbers in the Legislature. Indeed, it is estimated that the Democrats could carry Maine by 30.000 majority and yet fail to carry the Legislature.

Chicago Herald: The proper comment to make upon Judge Gresham’s action is not to speculate as to its probable effect upon Democratic chances in the coming election. It is rather to call attention in the most emphatic way to the fact that he leaves the Republican party because that party as at present constituted and managed has become an actual menace the rights and liberties of the people. Its leaders hesitate at nothing that is corrupt Its success means the further promotion of boodlerw and scoundrels to exalted public station. Its platform favors the robbery of all the people for the enrichment of the privileged classes. I In vww of these conditions, what could Judge Gresham, as an

honorable man, do except turn his back upon the Republican party?

The National Association of Democratic Clubs has done most effective work for party success, and Democrats ought to give it their active cooperation everywhere. There should be in every election district a Democratic club to co-operate with the League as well as with the local committee. League clubs and local clubs ought to work together under the League’s plans of thorough organization and complete knowledge of the politics of every neighborhood.

The Republicans have been industriously spreading the report that State Statistician Peelle, of Indiana, had issued a report showing that Indiana workingmen have been receiving higher wages since the passage of the McKinley bill. Mr. Peelle now announces that he has made no such report; that he will make no report until next January, and that he has no data upon which to base such a report, as no report of wages received before the passage of the McKinley bill has ever been made to his office. Not having the data, he refuses to do what Peck did—evolve them from the depths of his consciousness.

The American Economist which has gained for itself an enviable reputation as oae of the most reliable tariff liars in the country, publishes a picture this week of a dozen bottles of beer, in a basket with the following inscription beneath: “Taxed 60 cents per dozen. Price 60 cents per dozen.” Of course this is a He. Bottled beer to the consumer usually costs 15 cents a bottle, and if purchased by the dozen cannot be obtained for less than 10 cents a bottle with the bottle returned. Every beer-drinker in Memphis knows that he could not buy a dozen bottles of beer, and keep the bottles for 5 cents a bottle.

Courier-Journal: The results of the late elections in Georgia and Florida are better than the most sanguine Democrats had expected. With majorities in each State double what had been counted on, they are, indeed, all that could be desired, and leave no longer a doubt that the South will stand true to the Democracy in the coming national election. The people have spoken with such emphasis that this verd’et will be accepted as conclusive. It settles the question of a solid South. It will demoralize the Weaver party in that section, and recall wavering Democrats to their duty. It proves that the Southern people understand the situation; that they have not been blinded to their real interests by the agitators of an impossible third party; that they realize that the Democracy is their only hope for the relief they so much need, and their only barrier against a party which by disfranchising them would deprive them of all power to aid in securing that relief. The effect of these elections will be most beneficial to the party everywhere. It will give new courage and confidence to the Democracy in the East and West, and will add new inspiration to the gallant fight it is making for Cleveland and Stevenson. The tide in the South, as in the North, seems to be with us. If the Southern elections do not mean that, then there Is meaning in nothing.

Chicago Times: The third-party movement has run its course. The outcome of the State election in Georgia demonstrates that the electors of the country, wiser than would-be leaders, understand precisely where the fight lies. The populists are opposed to John Sherman’s management of the finances of the country. John Sherman stands for Republicanism. The populists ate opposed to the plutocratic tendencies and achievements of the Republican party. The populists are opposed to corruption at the ballot box; to that abuse of the electoral system which gave, in 18T6, the electoral vote of Florida to Hayes, when the people of the State had voted for Tilden; to that corruption which Dudley practiced When he wrote his “blocks-of-five” circular, and which a judicial favorite of President Harrison, advanced since then to higher place, showed when he sought to protect Dudley from condign punishment. The populists are opposed to the high taxation of the people, which McKinleyism. otherwise Republicanism, has foisted upon this nation. Their thought and hope was directly and positively to secure the election of their own nominees. Herein they did not take the true measure of the popular sentiment If Republicanism is to be overthrown the agent of its downfall will be the Democratic party. It must be necessarily. It is the only possible agent for carrying out the Ideas which the populists in common with the Democracy uphold when they arraign Republicanism. There are practically but two candidates and two parties in this contest. The elector who is against Cleveland is for Harrison, though he may not vote for the Republican candidate. His vote for Weaver is aid and comfort to Republicanism.

A PROCESSION OF O. O. P. DISAPPOINTMENTS. One by One the Winded Lie* Have Fallen Before the Democratic Huntsmen —Republicans Are Now Occupying Tuelr Last Redoubt. Flight et the Roorback*. The Republican campaign has upto date been a procession of disappointments to the party. Every move made by the Republicans has been promptly met by the alert and smiling Democrats. When Congress was about to adjourn the Republicans immediately made the charge that the Democratic House had failed to cut down expenses, and that the Fifty-second Congress would also be a billion uollar affair. The Democrats piomptly showed that nearly eighty millions of the appropriations of this Congress were a legacy from the previous Republican Congress, which could not be eliminated, and that had it not been for the Democratic House the appropriations would have been forty or fifty millions more. Thus was campaign he number one nailed. Then it was claimed that the McKinley bill had lowered prices and raised wages, but Senator Carlisle showed that in the principal protected industries wagerhad been decreased while in the principal unprotected industries wages had been increased. The claim that the McKinley bill had lowered prices became embarrassing from the fact that the Republicans were trying to convince the farmers that they were getting more for their products, and to satisfy the general consumer that he was paying less for these same products. Obviously this was an impossible undertaking, and so the conflicting untruths killed each other. Campaign lie No. 2, came to a bad end. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Blaine both told us that reciprocity had opened up new markets for the United States. We do

not like to speak of these eminent gentlemen as circulating a campaign lie, but it has assumed the exact counterfeit of one, and must be treated as such; for the Statistical Abstract issued from the office of Secretary Charles Foster shows that while in 1891 under reciprocity we exported not quite a million dollars more of our products to the South American countries and islands, we imported from them fully $30,0 )0,000 more of their products than we did in 1890. Thus reciprocity has made the United States a splendid market for Brazil, Cuba and other countries. And so perished campaign lie No. 3. The next charge was that the Democratic party had come out for the first time unequivocally for Free Trade, that they proposed to burn up the custom houses and perpetrate other heinous offenses against the holy tariff. A reference to the Republican campaign documents and newspapers of four years ago shows that exactly the same untruto was circulated then, and so the Republicans have done the Democrats the favor of taking all the scare off the free-trade scare, as the results in Maine and Vermont show. Campaign lie No 4, therefore, came to a natural death in Vermont, and the body was interred in Maine. Then came the wholesale accusation that the negroes in Mississippi, Arkansas, aad other States had been disfranchised by the new ballot laws, coupled with the suggestion that the Congressional representation of those States should be cut down. The vote of Arkansas proved, however, to be up to high-water mark, showing that the illiterates of that State were not so sensitive as those of Maine and o r her Republican States. But we have called the attention of those Republican papers that were crying for a reduction or representation in Mississippi, not only to be the fact that Massachusetts and other Northern States had property qualifications, but to the fact that under the secret ballot laws, some 18,00 u voters had been "disfranchised" in Maine, 10,000 in Vermont, and 76,000 in the Presidents own State of Indiana; and, strange to say, there has been no talk of a reduction of representatives in any of these States. Campaign lie No. & is therefore in a dying condition, and Dr. Tom Carter can give no hopes. The Republican party is now occupying its last redoubt. “Harrison has given us a safe administration, and it will never do to disturb the business of the country by a change of administration and a modification of thetariff.” So say the desperate advocates of Plutocracy; but it will not avail them. The business stability of the United States has been demonstrated not to depend on the election of a Republican president; and, as a matter of fact, there has never been so much distress among the working people of the country as during this administration. The farmers of the South are grasping at every straw for relief. The farmers of the West have repudiated the high protection party, and they, too, are borne down by burdens which make the talk about prosperity a mockery to their hearts. The Republican party has for years lied the party of the plain people —the Democracy— out of their heritage. The people have been tricked and cheated until their eyes are opened, and there is good ground for believing that the efficacy of Republican falsehood has lost all its virility. One by one the winged lies have fallen before the Democratic huntsmen, and the hunt is nearly over.—Appeal-Avalanche.

More Flg:rer» Ordered. The very interesting announcement is made that the Republicans have hit upon a better plan to secure statistics than through the Commissioners of various States. They have given an order, it seems, to Census Superintendent Porter for a wholesale job lot of Aggers Showing that wages have been raised in *ne hundred cities of the country. This looks like business. Instead of

bothering with a statistician here and another there, they determined to gc straight to headquarters for Republican figqers, and the National Committee placed with the Census Superintendent the order for the required reports. There is no disputing the wisdom ol this course. As a purveyor of Republican statistics, the Census Superintendent has no superior, and the Republican National Committee can rest assured that ’ts large order will be promptly and carefully filled.

AND THE ROAD IS WORSE FURTHER ON.