Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1891 — Advice to Indiana Republicans. [ARTICLE]

Advice to Indiana Republicans.

From an article in the Indianapolis Journal under the above heading, we make the following extracts: “Assuming that the principles of jibe Republican party are just and right, and that it deserves success, tbe question remains, how is it to achieve success? Certainly not by trusting to the excellence of its principles to make v their way among the people while the advocates of false and dangerous doctrines are working night and day to disseminate them. The advocates of right must be as active and aggressive as their opponents if they expect the right to win. The two most potent and effective agencies for reaching the people and winning votes are the press and the formation of local clubs, and, without reference to tbe merits of political issues, the chances are that the party which makes the best use of these methods during the next ten months will elect a President and Vice-president in 1892. If the Republicans of Indiana are really in earnest and anxious to carry the State next year they cannot begin too soon to organize local clubs and adopt measures to largely extend the the circulation of Republican papers.

There is reason to believe there has been a radical defect in the Republican organization of recent . years. There has been a marked, though, perhaps, not conscious tendency to exclusiveness. The Republican party is not in as close ac ord with the asses and with the plain people that it was a dozen Or fifteen years ago. It has been getting out of touch with the people. This is not so much the fault of its principles as of its leaders and methods. It is as much the people’s party as it ever was, but its leaders do not seem to have the same Knack of reaching the people, and its methods are not as popular as they used to be. There is need of a change in this

regard. We must get nearer to the people. To. this end our club organizations should be more numerous and less exclusive. A polity ical club that charges an admission fee is no good so far as making votes is concerned. The doors of a political club should be wide open, and there should be a standing and cordial invitation to ru.ernt ership. Every member should be a committee of one to solicit new members, and newcomers should be made to feel that they are welcome. Special effort should be made to secure the membership of young mni, workingmen, mechanics and day laborers. There are thousands Vl of Republicans in Indiana who do not take their county paper. These should" be seen and urged to do that much for the good <»f the cause. There are other thousands of doubtful voters who either t<k

no paper at all or donot care much what sort they take. These should be induced to take Republican papers. At the same time, if clubs and committees can raise—the money, they should pay for large blocks of Republican papers and send them to Democrats. This work should be commenced at once: So should the formation of new clubs of the kind above indicated. The Republicansc~n carry Indiana next year if they do enough work of the right kind, but they must begin immediately. If they wait till next spring or summer it will be too late. Tariff PicturesWhen the tariff “reform demagogue tells the farmers that free trade will extend foreign markets for farm produce they should call to his attention the fact that we exported. $32,844,772 in breadstuffs during the single month of September this year whereas we exported in breadstuff only $24,422,310 during the whole of the fiscal year ending 1860, the last of the “pros perous” period of revenue tariff. Fine theories never did stand any show against rough shod facts. —-New York Press.

“You are going to tax the workingman’s dinner pail!” shrieked the free trader when the tin-plate duty went into effect on July 1. The facts show that the freetrader disregarded them, as usual. During the month of September, 1890, we imported 69,883,100 pounds of tin-plate; during September, 1891, we imported only 17,861,837 pounds. Was the price raised 9 Well, the total imported in September, 1890, was valued at $2,180,791, or an average of ZJ.26 cents a pound, while the total imported in 1891 was valued at5545,791, or only 3.06 cents a pound. So: after all the hue and cry about the tin-plate, the result has been to transfer the market for 52,021,261 pounds from the foreign workingman to the American wage worker, and to reduce the price to the consumer. No wonder the Evening Post is obliged to admit that “just what McKinley set out to do has been accomplished to a great evtent.”