Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1910 — PRE-ELECTION QUESTIONS [ARTICLE]

PRE-ELECTION QUESTIONS

The nig'lit before election the New York Globe said: .Suppose that on Tuesday night the news is that New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio and Indiana have gone democratic; that a house has been chosen that will elect as speaker Champ Clark, of Missouri, an original and unrecanting Bryanite of the sixteen to one pattern; that enough conservative members Of the senate have been defeated to give the coalition of Democrats and insurgent Republicans which now exists a majority in the senate. Suppose on Tuesday night that this is the tenor of the news, will the great American people have reason to feel good when they wake -up on Wednesday morning and begin to consider the true character of their political investment? What will they have got? etc., etc. Well, that is about what happened, and we wonder if our contemporary had a “hunch?” As far as we have observed the people in this region woke up Wednesday morning feeling pretty good. We have seen no evidences of great gloom, not even in Republican circles. The people’s equanimity has not thus far been disturbed. But “what have they got?” In the first place they have rid themselves of the black cloud oi Roosevelt ism, and the specter of a third term. They have escaped from the perils of the new nationalism. They have elected in New York a governor who will not take oredrs either from Oyster Bay or Tammany Hall. They have displaced a little st.andpat "oligarchy that imposed taxes upon them at the dictation of and for the benefit of a few interests. They have made even the Republican party understand that the Payne tariff law will not do. and they have also taught it. that it does not own the country.' or have a divine right to govern it. Thev have through the election oi -uch men as Wilson. Baldwin. Toss and Dix, and by the election generally, begun the work of l>uilding up a strong and efficient upposition party in this land from whch they feel they have a right

to expect great things. Looking to the future, we think we can see a good deal else that they are likely to get. among them a lower and more reasonable tariff. They have, we trust, insured the conduct of our government along the old and safe lines laid down by the fathers. They have insured a proper resnect for the courts, and a due regard for the rights of private' citizens, 'whose reputations have been so falsely and brutally dealt with by Theodore Roosevelt. The people will also get much needed light on the management of the public business under Republican administrations, and this may turn out to be one of the greatest blessings won at the recent election. We trust that it may be possible to put through such legislation as may be needed without precipitating a panic like that of 1907. in which there was a general bank suspension throughout the country. Finally, the people have got —and it is a marvelous thing —three hundred hours of absohite ‘deuce at Oyster Ray. It may be broken at any time, but the peaceful and solemn hour* of silence no to date have been much enjoyed. Of that delight and consolation nothing can rob us. Here, then, are some bf the fruits of victory. These hav& already been garnered. They are but the first fruits. Government by denunciation has for a long time ceased, and respectable citizens can go to bed nights without the haunting fear that they may next morning be pilloried as liars, crooks and jackasses before the world. On the whole, therefore, the people have not done so badly. The suggestion that they were moved by hysteria has no fpundation in fact. On the contrary, their choice was deliberate. They knew what they wanted, and much of what they wanted they have already gotten. One other point. The Globe says: Think of the warwhoope that have steadily come from Champ Clark, the proposed new speaker. All right, we are quite grilling ' * * • * * ’ i j 1 „- „

as nothing compared warwhoops” that have for years been pouring through the consecrated lips of the 1 prophet of Sagamore Hill. People who remember these —and wfio ;j can have forgotten them?—will not be terrified by this attempt to make a raw-head and-bloody-bones of Champ Clark: We Congratulate the Globe on the exactness with which its hypothetical question covers the case. But its diagnosis of that" case seems to us to leave a good deal to be desired.— Indianapolis News.

The most wonderful feature of the campaign just closed has been the work of Hon. John R. Peterson. Facing a plurality of mo r e than 6,000 he was undaunted. He made such a campaign as no man has ever made in the Tenth district before. If the result shows he has' lost, he and his friends will still feel that they made a stand such as is seldom made in political campaigns, and with a credit of high degree to himself and the party. His work too has strengthened the local ticket in every county in the district. Truly the Democratic party in the Tenth district cnves John B. Peterson a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude.—Lake Countv News.