Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1906 — Political Comment. [ARTICLE]

Political Comment.

Some of Heant. The effort of Mr. Hearst to become Governor has failed. In casting about for the reasons they are not hard to find. At no time did he manage his canvass as becomes the shrewd office seeker for office. He did not placate; he did not cajole; he did not flatter. He did not study the soft side of human nature and play on Its heartstrings. For the opposition it was the club and he asked unquestioning obedience from those enlisted under his banner. —— Out of this self-confidence a series of mistakes followed. One of these was his coalition with Tammany Hall and Murphy. Nominated first by the Independence League, he used thia organization to compel Tammany to take up his cause. SuCceding here, the league becamb second fiddle to Murphy and his men thereafter, and yet so devoted were its members to the person of Mr. Hearst that they acquiesced without a murmur. If they were not extremists in this allegiance several justifiable opportunities were given them to weaken this attachment if not to turn against the New York editor. He fought with McCarren in Kings County over a triviality and this cost

him 20,000 votes. He angered pretty nearly all the leaders of the Democracy when by so doing he had everything to lose and nothing to gain. What more effective argument could have been used against an ordinary candidate than rank and recent inconsistency? Yet Mr. Hearst furnished this in the greatest degree. A year ago charging that Mr. Murphy and Tammany Hall had stolen votes enough from him to deprive him of the office of Mayor cf New York, he enters into a compact with these agencies ten months later to make him Governor. Characterizing Mr. Murphy as a thief who ought to be in prison, be takes up with him to make common cause against Republicanism. Yet the Independence League, created to fight Tammany Hall primarily and the trusts incidentally, gloried in this compact. Hearst’s attack upon Judge Parker was as ill-timed as it was needless. As the standard bearer of the Democratic party for President two years ago he was still entitled to its leadership, for he had nqt only the confidence and esteem of his party but the respect of Republicans as well. His ability and high character are unquestioned. Yet he was likened unto a Cockroach. Grover Cleveland was once alluded to by Mr. Hearst as a living, breathing crime in breeches. Mr. Hearst ought to have known In applying these coarse characterizations that he was offending a great body of Democrats without as well as within the State and turning voters in regiments to Mr. Hughes. Mr. Hearst’s ambition to reach hlgn stations has closed. He will never be chosen Governor of New York or President of the United States.—Utica Globe. Why Should We Weep! Under our “exclusion policy” the Imports free of duty tread close upon the imports that pay customs duties at the ports of entry, and both reach unprecedented proportions. Land of Goshen! Can it be that nearly half of our importations are free of duty and tbe Democrats didn’t know it? And all this happens under the protectwe tariff system? Under no Democratic administration did real, practical “free trade” reach such colossal proportions. Whether free trade hurts, or whether *

It .benefits the country depends upon the way it is adjusted. The Republicans have adjusted it so that the protected list build up home Industries and the free list co-operates to the same end. The protection is placed upon the home .products; the free list comprises articles we cannot, or do not produce. Under this wise arrangement the country is wonderfully prosperous and our foreign trade is steadily increasing. Then why should we weep?—BurHngton Hawkeye. A Roosevelt Victory. There was unanimity in Republican ranks this year that President Roosevelt must be made the vital issue of the campaign. And lie was. —In every congressional district where the Republicans put up a contest the dominant note was, “Stand by the President.” The achievements of his administration were pictured in glowing colors. Voters were told that the work so well begun had not been completed, and that they must returnßepublican majority to Congress if they were satisfied with that which he had done and wished to indorse it. Hence whatever of victory the Republicans can claim out of the recent election must be credited to the man in the White House. He furnished ther the material with which to make a winning campaign. His popularity with the masses and his well known wishes as expressed in his letter to Watson influenced the vote that has granted the Republican party an extension of con-

trol in the lower house. It is not too much to say that the confidence of the people In the patriotism and earnestness of President Roosevelt decided the result in enough close districts to determine the issue. Bryan’s Career. Mr. Bryan’s career in official public life is limited to two terms in Congress, in which his most notable performance was a long and elaborate speech in favor of free trade. He is now, as then, opposed to any tariff protection for American Industries or wages. His position on political questions tends to lessen American employment and wages. It would also limit American opportunities for the poor man, which was Mr. Bryan’s condition ten years ago, when, with a great leap of promotion, he was placed at the head of one of tbe leading parties and gained, as by one magical stroke, a place in the attention of the world. Such an event could happen nowhere except in this great republic, now in Its most prosperous era under the policies of the party which Mr. Bryan seeks to defeat, though Its control for nearly ten years has been marked by Immense strides forward and by highly Important legislation in behalf of a fair deal for all the people.—St. Louis GlobeDemocrat Mr. Bryan Again Pre-eminent. The defeat of Mr. Hearst makes the way clear for William Jennings Bryan for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Hearst did not wish Bryan’s assistance in bls effort to become New York’s Governor. To have won single-handed would have made him all the greater in the public eye, tbe foremost personality in the Democratic party. Thia was his desire. Napoleonic In his Ideas, he nelthet* asked nor accepted advice. He was tbe field marshal who gave orders and supervised every detail of the struggle. The distracted party which Hearst has left in a bedraggled condition instinctively turns to Bryan.— Utica Globe.